Ram Rattan Sharma
India is the youngest country of the world. It has maximum number of working population. The current Govt. is trying to reap in the benefit of this demographic dividend . The challenge is to make this population a human resource which is not possible without education and skill development. The task is gigantic according to the report, “state of the urban youths, India 2012, Empowerment, Livelihoods skills by 2020.” India is set to become the world’s youngest country with 64 percent of its population in the working age group. With the west, Japan and even china is aging. This demographic potential offers India and its growing economy an unprecedented edge that economists believe could add a significant 2 percent to the GDP growth rate by 2020, developed countries are predicted to face a short fall of over 57 million semiskilled man power while India is expected to have a surplus of 47 million. It will not only address domestic industry problems but also fulfill global manpower demand.
The unequal access to opportunity and the lack of emphasis on education remains a persistent problem. A person in an urban area has 23 percent greater chance of acquiring training than someone in a rural area. The wide gap between those who have access to education and skill development opportunities and those who do not, is a challenge that has to be overcome, The difference in youth development pattern is determined by the economic condition of the household in India, youth from the middle and rich households in India. Female youth are more disadvantaged as compared to male youth and it is the same with the rural urban distribution of youth. About 69 percent of the country lives in villages. Agriculture is the largest employer but resulting in only 13 percent share of the GDP of the country. There are several challenges preventing India’s rural poor youths from competing in the modern market, such as the lack of formal education and marketable skills. The government is making all efforts to engage, educate, employ and make rural youth entrepreneurs. The Government started Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana to provide access to institutional finance to such micro/small business units. Govt. has started stand up India, a programme aimed to promote entrepreneurship among scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and women. The scheme is aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and banks provide loans to Dalits, women and tribals. India’s top industrialists have pledged to invest a sum of Rs.4.5 Lakhs crore with an aim to up grade the overall digital infrastructure of the country. The big promise gives hopes to many that India too can become a high speed internet territory, citizens will be empowered through wireless mobile net works at public spaces. It is also believed that connectivity can bring the desired change, such as bridging the gap between rural and urban India, boosting e-commerce and skilled youth. Developing infrastructure will not help in technological digital advancement here but bring a large so untapped population on the same page as the rest of the world. The telecommunication connectivity with rural India will not only boost e-commerce or literacy, it will certainly enhance the dialogue between the citizens and Government. Activities like banking providing subsidies, selling crops and other agro products would become easy and efficient for the rural people. It is argued that economic growth of India has remained restricted to few sectors and sections only. After the liberalislation norms, services sector easily recruited urban English educated youth, whereas the industries could not absorb peasants who were willing or compelled to leave agriculture. Major cause of this was that transition required skill training, flexible labour laws and incentives for enterprises to grow, but which were painfully absent. The end result of all these processes has been rising unemployment compounded further by the agricultural distress in the country. In back drop of all these developments, it was therefore, inevitable that policy makers paid more attention to the unemployment crises.
India has been a country that celebrates knowledge and intellect; skills, however are not celebrated, vocational and skill development courses are looked down upon and such students are automatically relegated to a lower level in comparison to those who pursue professional degree courses. It is here therefore skill india mission is trying to make a significant dent with the explicit objective , for the first time, to raise the social awareness about the values of skills and vocational education, so that their dignity could be restored. One really hopes that all these schemes and programmes are able to deliver their intended outcomes. These are largely based upon the idea of empowering people to over come their deprivations and disabilities. The schemes based on the idea of empowerment are more likely to be successful and sustainable than those based upon entitlements. Most potent strategy we can deploy is to make our youth a better learner. For this the democratic changes would have to be brought into curriculum, Pedagogical methods and teacher training. However for decades the budgetary allocations in education have remained for below the required levels, which need to be rectified on an urgent basis. The government is going all out to ensure a better life for all sections of the society but there are still many groups and spaces outside the development. Rural uneducated youth from marginalized community is one such group and more horrible picture emerges, when we take the case of rural, uneducated, Dalit girls. More focused programmes should be started for these sections of the society which are not small in numbers. Govt. should create an environment in villages where rural farmers and craftsmen and others can directly sell their end- products in the open markets.W we also need to empower adolescent dropouts and local communities in disadvantaged areas and to incentivize all schools and colleges in the country to ensure the young in their catchment area complete their education. When the most marginalized, uneducated rural youths will become part of development net, then only the idea of youth empowerment will become a reality
(The author is former Dy Librarian University of Jammu)
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