The skills-development initiative launched by the Gujarat Government should be emulated by the Centre to tap into the potential of young India
It is a known fact that India's population is huge at 1.21 billion and expanding at a fast rate of 17 per cent. India is among the ‘young' countries in the world, with a steadily increasing proportion of the workforce in the age group of 15-59 year. However, presently only two per cent of the total workforce in India has undergone skills-training. India has a great opportunity to meet the future demands of the world, and can become the worldwide sourcing hub for a skilled workforce. But unfortunately, the Government of India is not serious on imparting skill-training to our youth. Skill-training can convert a labour into an expert. Also it can solve the huge unemployment crisis in the nation. If India produced skilled manpower in large scale, it can become a ‘global manpower hub'.
The world (both developed and developing economies) is experiencing an ever-widening gap between the demand and supply of skilled labour. The world's population is growing old. By 2050, the world population of people above 60 years will hit the 1.3 billion mark. This trend will lead to the widening of the demand-supply gap, especially in developed nations like America, Germany and France. On the other hand, India is emerging with one of the youngest populations in the world comprising a highly mobile, English-speaking population. India will have a two-billion-sized English-speaking workforce by the end of 2020. Training such a workforce will imply that India can become the major exporter in the services sector as well as an exporter of manpower itself. It is estimated that by 2022, India will face a demand of 500 million skilled workers. Over 65 per cent of India's large population is below 35 years of age; a robust skills training and certification system for these large numbers is a mammoth task.
Very few are aware of the National Council on Skill Development, constituted five years back, in 2008, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Sadly, till date no tangible outcome has come out of that initiative. Ideally the council should organise a meeting with State Chief Ministers and an exchange of ideas should take place, followed by immediate implementation. For instance, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has spoken on various occasions on his theory of “skill, speed and scale”, in order to compete with China on skill development. Such initiatives with effective implementation can prove to be quite commendable.
With only six per cent population of country, Gujarat has made a budgetary provision of Rs 800 crore, while the Government of India's provision is of only Rs 1000 crore for the entire nation. This shows a lack of vision in the Government and absence of trust in India's youth as one of its biggest strengths and most valuable resources. Keeping this in mind, Gujarat has invested substantial time and resource in facilitating their all-round development with a holistic approach in skilling by promoting innovations and nurturing human resource. Gujarat presents the best picture in the development of skills — hard as well as soft. The State has envisioned empowering the youth by imparting professional skills, not just through words but action as well.
Gujarat's flagship programme, Kaushalya Vardhan Kendra, was recently conferred the Prime Minister's award for Excellence in Public Administration. The breakthrough scheme was conceived to rehabilitate school drop outs, skill and empower the rural youth, adolescent girls and housewives.
Sonal Mishra, Director, Employment and Training, Gujarat Government, says the idea of Kaushalya Vardhan Kendras was visualised in 2009. The courses are designed on the basis of participatory approach of the Kaushalya Sabha in the village cluster having a population of 7,000 in general and 4,900 in tribal areas, for a cluster of around seven to 10 villages.
Only an aggressive effort towards enhancing our human resource and adopting models such as the ones in Gujarat and China can help us make it our biggest strength in the near future. But for that, the Manmohan Singh-led UPA Government needs to re-orient its mindset and work in a targeted manner, much like the Gujarat Government has been doing.