Click to play videoJobs are shrinking in government and organised industry. The only new jobs are expected to come from the service sector and knowledge of the English language is becoming a must; yet graduates pouring out of colleges are described as unemployable.
On Labour Day, the question that CNN-IBN’s show Face the Nation raised was: are Indians employable in the new economy?
On the panel to discuss the issue were Labour and Employment Minister Oscar Fernandes; Director, Liberty Institute, Barun Mitra; Director, Rural & Economic Development Division, SEWA, Reema Nanavaty; and COO and Director, Info Edge Hitesh Oberoi.
The debate was initiated by asking if by refusing to bite the bullet on labour reforms, is the Government obstructing development in the employment sector.
Fernandes said that whatever the government does, it should follow a tripartite system.
“We are in touch with the labour and the management. Government is taking initiatives. Constantly we have these interactions and whatever decisions we take, we take them in a tripartite forum,” he explained.
Crisis of Skill
Without labour reform, it is impossible for industrialists to feel confident about setting up enterprises. Are Indians becoming more employable or less employable given the demands of the new economy?
Barun said the issue needed to be looked at in two parts. “The new economy,” he said, “that’s reflected in your survey, includes those who are highly employable. They can probably compete with the best in the world.”
He highlighted that the problem, however, was that these highly employable workers form only two per cent of the country’s labour force.
“At least 90 per cent of the work force is in the unorganised or the informal economy that would never be able to compete with the new economy because they are struggling to survive even in the old economy,” Barun reasoned.
Self-employment: the new alternative?
There’s a school of thought that self-employment is the future for those working in the unorganised sector. This will make getting a livelihood easy.
Agreeing with the viewpoint Reema Nanawaty said that in the new economy, alternative forms of organisations of workers is of prime importance.
“We have some demonstrative, working viable models such as SEWA’s Trade Facilitation Centre (TFC) or the agro-business companies which are owned and managed by the rural working women themselves. I think unless and until we recognize these kinds of economic organisations of the informal workers themselves they will not be able to integrate into the mainstream of the new economy,” Nanawaty suggested.
Quantity Vs Quality
Isn’t there increasingly a talent deficit despite having people who have lots of degrees and qualifications on paper?
Hitesh replied in the affirmative, attributing the reason for the deficit to the changing GDP of the nation.
“There was no problem till 5 or 6 years ago when India was growing at five per cent a year. But ever since the economy has touched the 8-9 per cent mark, there has been huge shortage of people in the new economy,” he reasoned.
“The problem is,” he added, “not the number of people but the quality of people passing out of educational institutes. For example, we work for a lot of companies in the IT sector. There are about five lakh engineers who graduate every year but only 1.5 lakh are actually employable. These other 3.65 lakh are paying for their education, spending 4 years but they are not getting jobs.”
Alternative Career Prospects
An argument often made by economists is that increasing respect and remuneration should be given to vocational professions like carpentry, plumbing, etc rather than the conventional BA, MA degrees. Is that, then, the way forward?
Barun rejected the suggestion arguing that most kinds of vocational trainings, around the world, are imparted through apprenticeship.
He noted that it only 10 per cent of our work force that actually receives a formal university education.
“The question is,” he argued, “because we have choked off the primary and lower education, the number of students coming up into the higher level is smaller, and those who do, probably two-third or half of them, are unemployable.”
Fixated with Degrees
Is it finally time for the government to recognise and legitimise the informal economy because that’s where the jobs are?
“We do believe that self employment is an opportunity available to our workforce. We are doing everything possible to upgrade the skills of our technical people by raising their level of education,” Fernanded replied.
But does this sound like the government is taking steps, but there is no dramatic overhaul in the kind of skill the industry is craving for?
Oberoi pointed out that there were essentially two underlying problems with the educational system, namely infrastructural and policy issues.
“People are being made to do courses that nobody wants them to do. You force them to do an MBA and spend Rs 8 lakh. They learn nothing because of infrastructural issues, so they end up becoming an expensive resource for the industry because their expectations suddenly go through the roof. Therefore, industry over a period of time becomes inefficient. In short, a lot of people, perhaps, don’t really need that MBA degree in the first place,” Oberoi reasoned.
Need for Psychological Revolution
Is there a need for a psychological overhaul in the new economy wherein you don’t need a BA or an MA and become a government clerk?
Barun replied that in India there has been inflation in education.
“Reason is that opportunities in the formal sector are tremendously restricted so you have the situation of 15 years of reform and 15 years of jobless growth. Today on Labour Day, if we really want to help India’s work force, we must recognise that our current policies of last 60 years have actually marginalised overwhelming majority of our workforce,” he said.
Nanwaty seconded the opinion and said that in a country like India, more enabling policies, laws, worker-facilitation centres, and grassroots level manager are needed.
Highlighting the importance of small businesses and trades, she said, “We need to design policies and programmes that would help to strengthen the small and micro enterprises in small villages and slum areas, as India thrives on small businesses and trades.”
SMS/Web Poll final results: are Indians employable in the new economy?
Yes: 83%
No: 17 %
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