Skilling lndia

Our country has recently experienced rapid economic growth, largely led by the service sector. Yet, employment has grown slowly, particularly in the private sector, making the 1990s and 2000s a period of ‘jobless growth.’

Young people entering the job market constitute the largest segment of the demographic structure. Sadly, majority of these young people have limited access to education and training and most end up working in the informal sector. In recent years, India has rapidly expanded the capacity of educational institutions and enrollments, but dropout rates remain high and educational attainment remains low. To speed its economic growth and take advantage of its ‘demographic dividend,’ India has recently embarked on drastic policy reforms to accelerate skill development. However, we have not sufficiently prepared the youth with the skills that industries require.

Today, the youth of the country face serious challenges with respect to skills and jobs. In the current globalised economy, competition has become intensified among firms and industries requiring their workers to have high level of skills to enable them to engage in innovation, improve the quality of products/ services / entire value chain and increase efficiency in their production processes. Rapid technological changes demand a greater level of knowledge and skills in producing, applying and diffusing technologies. In turn, all these have changed the nature, content and types of skills that industry demands.

We, in the development sector, need to seize this opportunity to make a difference. It is imperative to deliver quality training through our initiatives so that the youth are enabled to stand on their feet and in turn benefit their families and communities. Many such small initiatives put together can make a huge impact in improving our society and helping the nation in alleviating poverty.

A few days back, while interacting with some students in a skilling class in Manesar, one of the young women mentioned that she had to stop going to school because of financial reasons. But after being skilled in the Development Alternative’s Skill Development Centre, she started earning a modest sum of money, which helped her to restart her education and contribute to her family’s income. The joy and happiness on her face was humbling to see. In another interaction with parents during a meeting in Jaipur, a mother thanked the Development Alternatives team for empowering her daughter with the required skills. Being from a traditional Rajasthani family, she was initially apprehensive about sending her daughter out of the house. But eventually she overcame the inhibition and is now happy to see the confidence her daughter has gained. She is ready to enroll her second daughter for the skill development programme and also volunteers to spread the word in her community about the benefits of empowering daughters. What a moral victory!

Let us all work to make more economically disadvantaged people skilled and capable of earning decent livelihoods.■