Among a slew of measures proposed by policy planners from time to time, aiming at doing away with unemployment among the educated youth of Jammu and Kashmir, perhaps the most attractive one is Udaan. It is a J&K specific initiative of Government of India to skill and employ 60 thousand youth of the State in key high growth private sectors over five years. National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is the implementing agency of Udaan, which targets Graduates, Post-Graduates and 3-year Diploma Engineers of J&K to provide them exposure to the best of corporate India. NSDC is expecting to make three-fold increase in the number of the youth from J&K raising it to 12500 to go through skill training course with different Corporate Houses and also find employment with them after the completion of their training. In all, 60 Corporate Houses have committed to participate in the scheme and 25 more groups are likely to join them The Corporate House have already begun visiting the Valley and making selection of candidates.
Notably, the special emphasis on skills as the ultimate solution of unemployment in the country could have been the motivating force behind the decision of increasing the number of J&K candidates three-fold during the current financial/academic year. It is a welcome step and perhaps the most important one with indisputable result of creating generations of skilled youth and providing those with opportunities of employment and entrepreneurship. No other way of eradicating unemployment among the youth is imaginable. This is the age of skills and technology. India has very strong sector of corporate houses with advanced technologies. Many of these can compete with world class corporate houses. It will be a matter of privilege for the youth of our state to find training as well as employment with them. We would also like to commend the corporate houses that have agreed to carry forward the policy and programmes of the Government specially designed for the youth in Jammu and Kashmir. We are confident that our youth are talented and will prove an asset to any industry once they are equipped with training and experience. We also expect them to develop initiative for establishing industries in the State and helping its economy grow faster.
However, there is a rather disappointing aspect to this development that has been brought out by the CEO of NSDC while he was talking to our correspondent on the subject. It has been learnt that out of 4300 candidates selected by different corporate houses last year, no fewer than 700 declined not to join. This created technical difficulty for the corporate houses. Infact, the issue of drop outs has to be re-visited and a solution found how the drop outs can be either motivated to continue or the vacancies thus occurring should be filled up. The NSDC is reported to be studying the issue of drop outs, causes and consequences and what remedial measures can be taken. It has been reported that the major cause of drop outs is that the candidates feel homesick. There could be other reasons also. NSDC is carefully analyzing the issue and would like to find a solution.
In final analysis, the Special Industry Initiative Udaan is exceptionally useful scheme to alleviate the problems of unemployment in the State and the country as well. It is promises a thaw in the frozen issue of eliminating unemployment among the youth. Our State is far behind many other states in the country in the context of industrialization. Skilled and trained manpower is a pre-requisite of successful industrialization programme. Through Udaan we shall be able to raise a large and strong force of skilled personnel who will infuse new life into our economy. A time will come when entrepreneurs from the State will be prompted into utilizing the services of this skilled manpower and may be they embark on a large programme of setting up new and viable industries in the State. After all, that has to happen and aware of the fact that employment in the Government organizations has reached saturation point, we have to make a bold shift to industrialization programme if we want to maintain the pace of our economic development.
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