The question of unemployment among the educated youth of Jammu and Kashmir was seriously considered by the UPA Government, and one among several measures taken by it was that a committee was constituted at the PMO level to make viable proposals in this regard. In the economic package that came under discussion, it was decided that the corporate houses in the country should be involved in extending their cooperation. Thus came into existence Special Industry Initiative Scheme for Jammu and Kashmir titled “Udaan”. Great media hype was given to the scheme and the educated youth, especially graduates, post graduates and engineering diploma holders nursed the hope of getting employment without hassles and without waiting for years at end. The parameters of the scheme, roughly speaking, were that the corporate houses would screen and select students from Jammu and Kashmir. The duration, place and nature of training would be decided by the corporate houses after considering profile of the candidates and their skill gap. After successful completion of the training the corporate houses would take necessary measures for placement of the trainees. Thus the corporate houses came in the picture. But it was necessary to have a monitoring system to coordinate all the requirements and operative parts of the scheme. For this purpose a Mission Monitoring Unit headed by an officer of the Deputy Secretary rank was set up under the Planning and Development Department. The primary objective behind opening of this Unit is to ensure coordination with corporate houses and students and also to facilitate corporate houses in conducting selection drives.
This was a well -thought scheme and all aspects were taken into account. It was felt that since the days of white collar jobs is over and recruitment in Government Departments had already reached saturation point, the trend was to shift to skills and manage employment through that channel. The corporate houses cooperated with the Government and undertook the performance of their part of the assignment. But the reports that have come from the Mission Monitoring Unit on overall assessment of the success of the scheme are not very encouraging. The encouraging results would have been if thousands of applicants who were eligible could have been provided with an opening. That has not happened. For example, in Jammu region, 13,137 candidates were selected, 9560 joined the training, 5279 completed their training, 4432 have been offered jobs and only 613 applied and their placement is under consideration. This is not at all a satisfactory performance. The case of Srinagar is nothing better. Out of 54,000 candidates selected, less than 17,000 completed their training and those placed in companies are less than 5000.
Two things come under focus. First is what are the reasons that there is not much response to the scheme and at the end of the day out of thousands who receive training in various skills only a handful join. The second part is that what should be done to make the scheme fully productive. The officials monitoring the scheme are of the opinion that involvement of the administration on district level is minimal and that is one of the main reasons of low turn out of applicants. Secondly, absence of proper publicity to the scheme and its various nuances could also be a reason for low turnout. Also the placement meaning the place of work is a factor that determines the preparedness or unpreparedness of a selected candidate to accept the job. May be there are other reasons also like the very mechanism of selection, the nature of skills offered, the duration etc. It is, therefore, in the fitness of things that the entire scheme is re-visited in the light of experience gained from previous selections. At the same time there is much force in the observation that district level administration should be fully involved in the entire scheme. The Deputy Commissioners of the Districts have to be entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring maximum turnout of the candidates. The element of motivation is also needed to be streamlined. Candidates have to be educated that mobility is the pre-requisite of service in any branch in present day.
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