The Hindu Business Line : Scarcity of skilled manpower

Never before has humankind witnessed an era in which human obsolescence is an ever present danger. In this situation, true education requires not only being abreast of ongoing knowledge, communications and technology revolutions, but acquiring the skills necessary to match new demands, meet new challenges and benefit from new opportunities.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment has identified 20 high-growth sectors — automobile and auto components; banking, insurance and financial services; building and construction industry; chemicals and pharmaceuticals; electronics hardware; and food processing/cold chain/refrigeration, to which can be added retail, telecom and aviation. In fact, even this is only the tip of the iceberg and there is going to be no limit to diversified growth along hitherto unimagined directions.

How prepared are the human resources of the country to match the requirements in terms of creative faculties and innovative capabilities? Considering that the working age (15 to 64) population is estimated to increase (as per the Economic Survey of 2007-08) from 62.9 per cent in 2006 to 68.4 per cent in 2026, “for actual tapping of the demographic dividend,” (to quote the Survey) “it is necessary not only to ensure proper healthcare, but also [to put] a major emphasis on skill development…If skills are not adequately created, India could well be facing a demographic nightmare.” The alarm call could not be more strident.

Adding to the alarm are some deeply disturbing features of the educational scene.

In the opinion of knowledgeable observers, the poor quality of teaching and evaluation in universities is leading to a heavy discounting of the degrees as a genuine measure of academic attainments. There was not a single voice of protest when the renowned educationist, Dr M. Anandakrishnan, publicly revealed the tariff of bribes for appointment of Vice-Chancellors of various universities.

Welcome steps

According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), while more than three million students graduate from Indian colleges and the nation produces 500,000 engineers annually, only around 25 per cent of technical graduates and 10-15 per cent of general graduates are estimated to be suitable for employment in industry.

Unless effective measures are taken well in advance, it may become well-nigh impossible to find suitable persons to fill a large proportion of the 80 million or so new jobs likely to be created in the next 10 years in about 36 sectors on assumption of optimum industrial growth.

Fortunately, the Government has initiated timely and welcome steps to avert the looming crisis. The core objective is to develop a comprehensive skill development framework within the ambit of a national policy aimed at continuous upgrading of skills and knowledge with accent on lifelong learning, taking account of technological changes in the national and international arena, employment requirements and improvements in productivity and competitiveness of industry and service, and covering various critical issues such as demand and supply, inclusive and equitable access vaulting over gender and social divide, urban-rural disparities, and special dispensation for border areas and hill regions. The most commendable part of the policy is the importance given to private-public partnership.

All the laudable intentions of the Government are liable to be thwarted by the built-in scope for confusion and lack of coordination among the mechanisms envisaged under different Ministries — the National Council on Skill Development, with the Prime Minister as the chairman, under the Labour and Employment Ministry, the National Skill Development Coordination Board under the Planning Commission and the National Skill Development Corporation under the Finance Ministry with 20 Sector Skill Councils.

There is a strong case for scratching the Coordination Board under the Planning Commission and bringing the other mechanisms under a single umbrella, say, the Prime Minister’s Secretariat itself.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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