Selling Pakodas, tending cows, joining Barat musical party are dignified jobs too
Apart from what politicians say on the eve of an election, it is necessary to examine why a large number of literates, school or college educated people remain unemployed (and unproductive).
Rajiv Gandhi, when he was the Prime Minister of India once talked about delinking jobs with educational qualification. Soon he was engulfed within the existing system he forgot to pursue his concept any further.
Colleges, which impart post school education, mostly in the discipline of arts, have sprung up in large numbers around the country. Most of them are sub-standard and have turned into resting places for students who have high aspirations, but do not know how to achieve them. They produce a largest number of educated unemployed. Higher education in general discipline enhances personal ego but not employability.
(While repairing my house, I found a Brahmin working to cut a concrete slab for reshaping it. Two of his sons, young boys, had discontinued their studies and were also working in the construction site. I asked him, why he did not allow his sons to continue their studies. He told me that his eldest son has a BA degree, but is unemployed and a burden on the family. His younger sons are at least earning something. In course of time they may become masons and may turn into petty contractors, similar to the person, who had taken the contract of repairing my house.)
Ministers who head the administration of the State or Central Government are mostly less qualified than the officers, who work under them. They use their common sense to take decisions either accepting or rejecting the advice given by their officers. Often their decisions are correct.
While Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister, he lamented that out of every rupee sent by the Central Government, only 15 paisa reached the beneficiaries of the State Governments. It remained as such until Prime Minister Modi used his strong common sense and introduced Jana Dhana Yojana, asking all the beneficiaries to open bank accounts.
Every rupee paid by the Central Government is now directly deposited in the account of the beneficiary. Nobody can defalcate 85 paisa from one rupee. This simple solution eluded highly qualified former PMs and FMs of previous Governments.
With increasing on- line communication and use of computers, large numbers of office staff employed by the State and Central Governments have become redundant. Governments are scared to touch them since it would bring large scale unemployment and put the stability of the Government at risk. Do we need so many people to man Government offices in this age of on-line communication and digitisation? Can they be engaged in some productive work?
A junior clerk working in a Government office, a teacher of a primary school, a constable in a police station command more social respect than a carpenter, an electrician, a plumber, a mason or a tractor driver. A young man with a BA degree will prefer to pick up one of the former jobs rather than the later ones. Acquiring higher education makes a person unfit to pick up labour-intensive jobs since these are looked down upon by the society.
The Government has opened many institutions to train young man in various skills to improve their employability. A sense of dignity also needs to be inculcated in them by giving them certificates as Graduate Electrician, Graduate Plumber, Graduate carpenter or whatever other trades they are learning. The society should respect them for their work.
(A German boy working with some NGO met me some years ago in my laboratory and evinced interest in one of my research projects. He asked me if he could come sometime later and work with me. I agreed. A couple of years later he came back. He had registered for a PhD programme in a university of his country but would carry out part of his research in my laboratory. I asked him what was he doing during the last two years. He told me, he was working as a tractor driver. He had married and his wife was working for MD degree in gynaecology in his country. A few years ago, I hired an auto rickshaw in the evening at Bhubaneswar. The driver was a smart young man. I asked him how much he earned per month. He told me about Rs 6,000 but he worked only during the night and at his convenience. I asked him, what he did during the day. He told me that he was a law graduate. He attended courts during the day.) Earning one’s livelihood with any type of work readily available should earn respect from the society. This is so in western societies.
Skill development to increase employment will be a failure until we pay social respect to our workman. In Indian society everybody with minimum qualification wants to be supervisor and not a worker. Every child in the country needs to complete his school education and then decide what he would do in the future to earn his living. In western society, boys and girls, after graduation generally leave the house of their parents and try to live independently earning their own living expenses. They take up any job or avocation available. Some of them study further with part time jobs and build up their own life independent of their parents. In the Indian patriarchal system joint family still exists. Children live with parents and live on them so long as they do not get a job of their choice. There is no moral compulsion to accept any available job to earn their living.
(The society in Philippines is more westernised than India. Some of my friends who worked there told me that the maid they employed to help their family in domestic chores were often college students. From washing dishes to cleaning the commode, they did everything for a price without any social disrespect. In western society nobody can command any one to do something without using the word ‘please’. Everybody does his work assigned to him. If he does not, he can be fired but not insulted.)
(Dr Mitra is a former Dean and Professor, OUAT. Email: gnmitra@gmail.com )