Holistic
approach for employment generation
Sir,
This is
with reference to the article by Mr.
Manoj Kumar Dwivedi Director Employment
Govt. of J&K on Employment scenario
in Jammu & Kashmir, published on
19-10-2004 in Daily Excelsior. Raising
the issue of employment, quoting some
statistics and discussing about potential
and giving some suggestions and finally
concluding in his own words..."that
with political will and missionary zeal,
achieving job for each household in the
near future can certainly become a dream
come true." The author, a Govt.
functionary, approaching the print media
for his views appears to be inviting
public opinion especially of those who
have to say something on the subject,
lest his proposal could go straight to
the Government and appropriate action or
processing of the issue can take place.
Reacting to the views, I may state that
unemployment as viewed while conducting
socio-economic surveys is categorised
as-employed, unemployed, disguised
employed and not available for work. The
three sectors contributing to state
domestic product are i) Primary ii)
Secondary & iii) Tertiary, the
details of these sectors is indicated in
the computation of state income estimates
and the working force engaged could be
seen from the census data. The relevant
organisation or institution can indicate
the employment status and that is
manpower planning apparatus, which, of
course, does not function despite its
creation decades back. We cannot assume a
few known areas of industrial activity to
form part of our exercise for
determination of the employment.
Suggesting investments and developing of
linkages is not clear. Similarly,
positive political will and good
governance are other suggestions offered
as solution to the problem. Many issues
have been clubbed like political
behaviour, financial mis-management,
skills not matching employment, defective
educational system and so on. In fact the
analysis lays stress on isolated thoughts
that may get connected or not and it is
difficult to form a holistic approach for
the problem to arrive at specific
strategy in a scientific way. However,
the need for undertaking potential
surveys for assessment of potential is
quite good suggestion.
The
holistic approach for dealing with the
menace of employment is to identify all
the relevant inputs that go to make this
problem serious. These can be broadly
classified as i) population analysis ii)
education both academic and professional
as it exists iii) working force status as
per latest census iv) existing potential
both natural resources and infrastructure
v) import and export relationship of
goods and services vi) tastes and habits
of the people vii) psyche and beliefs and
viii) lastly socio-economic structure of
the households in general. These are the
trust areas that can be further
elaborated to devise strategy for both
financial intervention and support
efforts in areas of concern. Not only
this, some other factors can surface
during the course of attempting this
exercise. It is not an easy task that can
give ready-made solution involving
politicians backup or through varying
investment pattern. Infact on politician
would say no to the sincere efforts made
in the right direction, as it will
ultimately benefit them. In the end, I
would suggest the author to move a
proposal to the Government to constitute
a group to evolve a strategy for
overcoming this gigantic problem. It will
be of the first of its kind in the
country. I have already pointed out this
is my article Frozen Employment published
on 31.07.2003 and need for Manpower
Planning in my article published in Daily
Excelsior on 23.05.2004.
Yours etc...
H C Katoch (Ex-Director Planning)
Director Operational Research Bureau
41-A Karan Nagar Extn Jammu (Tawi)
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