Essays

Human resources are very important for a country. But it may not be fully tapped resulting in unemployment, India gives importance to this question, as it has a ministry on Human Resource Development at the Centre,

Qualified people are available but there may be no avenues for them to work which results in unemployment, More the unemployment, more the frustration and restlessness in youth. We have acute unemployment or under-employment problem in this country. If there is one vacancy, more than a hundred people may have applied. Or if the qualification asked for is secondary pass, B.A.s and M.A-s apply and are ready to work.

The registers of Employment Exchanges do not give a correct picture of the extent of the problem of unemployment as the employment exchanges cover only the urban areas. As there are no Employment Exchanges in rural areas, a correct estimate of the number of the rural unemployed is not available. Youngsters go in for B.A. and M.A. degrees without planning their careers— they do anything that comes there way,

Education also has to be employment—oriented like business, scientific, industrial, commercial, medical, technological or architectural studies. ITIs also give vocational training. Folk in rural areas migrate to cities in search of employment. This tendency could be curbed.

There also should be education and training for those who wish to be self-employed—at present there is no such facility.

The approach paper to each Five-Year Plan calls for thrust on "services sector" for achieving higher growth rate in employment. Extension of productive services raises the production efficiency of the economy as a whole.

The main reason of unemployment is that instead of starting own work, the young crave for government service which has become highly competitive. Even qualified personnel like doctors, architects, scientists, engineers face this problem as there are more trained hands available than vacancies. Growth of population, lack of vocational education, backwardness of agriculture, inadequate attention to employment-generating industries are factors contributing to the unemployment problem.

The problem of unemployment in the country can be solved to a large extent by following a multi pronged strategy. First, the system of education should be employment oriented. Higher academic education be meant for talented scholars only. Other students could go to ITIs and polytechnics—whose number ought to be substantially increased. Second, the economy of villages should be developed by setting up small-scale and agro- based industries for villagers to work during spare months.

Third, the pace of industrialization should be stepped up to create more jobs. Fourth, more and more labor- intensive industries should be set up to absorb more hands. Industrialists should be given facilities and incentives to set up such industrial units in backward areas,

Last, those wishing to be self-employed should be encouraged so their initiative and enterprise is recognized. Not all young people can enter government service. The private sector too has to come forward to make its service attractive enough.