Staring at a demographic nightmare
which harbour untapped potential. To add to this, we should invest resources in building industries that offer a high indirect to direct job creation ratio. A prime example of this is tourism and hospitality.
For every job generated in tourism, job creation is spurred in affiliated sectors such as accommodation, food and beverage, transport, entertainment, and the upkeep of attraction sites. However, unfortunately, we have failed to take advantage of this sector’s unparalleled potential. In 2016, India received 8.9 million tourists, as against Singapore’s 16.4mn.
Second, we must recognise the importance of employment-focused skill development. Here, I am not talking about the government’s Skill India programme that started out in 2015 with a target to train 50 crore people by 2022 , but managed to train less than two crore between 2014 and 2017. Rather, what I have in a mind is a focused mission to harness our potential with time-bound implementation.
For this, we must build robust links between our academic institutions and India Inc., leveraging the National Skill Development Mission to converge the job-seekers with the job-creators. We should emulate and adapt Germany’s apprenticeship model. Germany has an unemployment rate of 3.7% — one of the lowest among OECD nations. Even during the Great Recession, while the German economy was debilitated, their employment was hardly impacted. It is widely accepted that they owe this, in large part, to their Dual Vocational Training Programme, which has been established as a part of the German education system and is regulated by law. It links vocational training institutes with Small and Medium companies, affording students the opportunity to divide their time between the vocational school and work experience.
Lastly, with 58% of our rural households involved in agricultural activities, we must make farming profitable so as to attract our youth to the industry. To achieve this, we need to step beyond the traditional separation of farmer and businessman, instead converging them in the arena of food processing.
Today, India is at the cusp of a demographic nightmare, and it will take a series of dedicated efforts to lift our youth and our nation out of this despondent state. We must act immediately to tackle the terror of unemployment with sound economic policies and meticulously planned strategies to generate jobs.
Jyotiraditya Scindia is the Congress’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha The views expressed are personal