The state claims to have trained thousands of people. But without fixed measureable standards, that means little
We live in the era of mantras. People claim to have developed mantras even for ‘leadership’! Initially, mantras were supposed to be the distillation of years of meditation and experimentation, and to use a modern parlance, established ‘thought leaderships’. Now, references to mantras have become a part of sloganeering. This also serves a purpose. It keeps the issue alive. This can be said for the phrase, ‘Skilling India’. Everyone is on to it. Nothing wrong with that but there is, however, a problem of over-exposure. Then there are other problems that follow. Too much of noise with little output becomes counter-productive. Couple this up with an almost endemic of sorts prone ness to hyper-sensitivity. The confusion is confounded. In a special address to the annual general meeting of a constituent unit of a national body, this writer made a passing remark on the skill deficiency of many branch managers of banks. He highlighted the need to raise their level of diligence in handling codes, processing procedures, changing rules, regulations in interfaces with banking products and, above all, making legible entries where computers were not applicable.
The intensity of reaction from two members was instructive. One even claimed to have written a book on the issue, running into several hundred pages. This writer was not surprised at the hyper-sensitivity on display.Getting back to skill formation in a different domain, one can look at some figures. Since 2011-2012, the Armed Forces have lost 35 aircraft, 15 helicopters in crashes, killing around 50 people. Since January this year alone, two MiG-27s, two Jaguars, one Sukhoi-30 MKI and one MiG-21 have crashed. These figures could not have been reached because of technical snags alone. It is obvious that human element and skill element (or the lack thereof) have also been at play. While many in the media will go chasing repetitive reports on well-understood problems, the thundering silence on such cases of skill deficiency is bewildering. Illustratively one can take up national skill Development Corporation. In 2011-2012, the target for skilling people was 1,60,000; the claim is that 1,81,691 were skilled, of which 1,44,238 were placed in jobs. The respective figures for 2012-2013 was 4,00,000 (target), 4,02,506 (skilled) and 2,16,741 (placed in jobs). Jai ho!
The golden age has arrived, however, there is a snag in this dated methodology of target-oriented planning. One does not know what is the standard of skills, to which those who were skilled, have been measured. One does not even know how robust the selection processes of placement was. This issue has not been raised even by the reincarnation of the Planning Commission, that is the National Institution for Transforming India-Aayog. Similarly, did one need a panel on railway reform to know that Indian Railways is over-staffedIJ And the solution to it is even more original. Reportedly four multinational consultancy companies have been shortlisted to rationalise railway manpower. Years ago, panel after panel had made similar recommendations on many public sector units. Many consultants were raked in the fallouts of such prescriptive remedies. When the consultancy reports came in, Government after Government reportedly were of the view that people’s livelihoods cannot be jeopardised for ‘streamlining’. One is again tempted to say Jai ho!
Weather it is ‘jai’ or otherwise, a simple question begs an answer. How about focusing energies for defining identifiable standards for specific clusters of jobsIJ Why not support voluntary training programmes, encourage people to achieve those standards of skills, through their own initiativeIJ Why not have well identified and tested methods of recruitment to make sure only the deserving get inIJ If standards are tweaked to provide employment, aircraft will crash, and railways will have disasters and many organisations will run into losses. Even the solvency of many banks will stand seriously threatened. Then, what will happen to the people savings and their means of livingIJ Getting provoked is easy, writing prescriptions is even simpler, finding actionable remedies that will alleviate the problem another matter altogether. There is no danger of India becoming ‘great’ unless the issue of skill development is handled fair and square, and head on. This needs wisdom. The basic lessons are still in the Noah’s Ark — we all are in the same boat. We must learn to pull the oars and pull it together.