Sansad TV Perspective: Mega Employment Drive

In the series Sansad TV Perspective, we bring you an analysis of the discussion featured on the insightful programme ‘Perspective’ on Sansad TV, on various important topics affecting India and also the world. This analysis will help you immensely for the IAS exam, especially the mains exam, where a well-rounded understanding of topics is a prerequisite for writing answers that fetch good marks.

In this article, we feature the discussion on the topic: Mega Employment Drive (Rozgar Mela)

Anchor: Teena Jha

Participants:

1. A.K. Bhattacharya, Editorial Director, Business Standard
2. Dr. Darlie Koshy, Author
3. Dr. Yamini Agarwal, Professor of Finance at the Indian Institute of Finance

Context

The Prime Minister of India launched the “Rozgar Mela” on 22nd October 2022, which is a mega recruitment drive that aims to recruit 10 lakh people.

Rozgar Mela

• Under the first phase of Rozgar Mela, recruitment for over 10 lakh central government jobs has been undertaken at about 50 centres across the country in a mission mode.
• Appointment letters were given to over 75,000 newly appointed individuals.
• The initiative was undertaken by the National Skill Development Corporation under the guidance of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship.
• The recruitment is done by various Union Ministries and Departments themselves and through recruitment agencies such as UPSC, SSC, Railway Recruitment Board, etc.
• The new recruits will join 38 Ministries/Departments of the Union and the appointees will join the government at various levels namely Group – A, Group – B (Gazetted), Group – B (Non-Gazetted) and Group – C. 
• The posts on which appointments are being made also include Central Armed Force Personnel, Sub Inspector, Constable, LDC, Steno, PA, Income Tax Inspectors, and MTS.

Significance of the initiative

• The selection process under the initiative is designed in a way that is simplified and technically efficient for faster recruitment.
• The initiative reiterates the fact that the government in India is working on multiple fronts to create maximum job opportunities for youngsters at a time when the global economy is going through a turbulent phase with large economies struggling and India too facing headwinds.
• Also, this mega recruitment drive will help fill the existing vacancies in various Ministries and Departments of the central government.
  • As per studies, the total number of regular central government civilian employees in position was 31.43 lakh as on March 1, 2019, against the sanctioned strength of 40.66 lakh with about 22.69% of the posts being vacant.
• Further, at a time when there is increasing tension in the country regarding the high inflation and unemployment rates, this initiative will play a key role in ensuring trust and instilling confidence among the general public.
• The move will also help the poor and vulnerable sections of society to get more secure jobs.
• Rozgar Mela is also a significant milestone in the efforts to create employment and self-employment.
• The initiative also plays a crucial role in achieving the government’s vision of Atma Nirbhar Bharat and Sabka vishwas, sabka prayas that ultimately can lead to “Amrit Kaal”.

Key challenges

• The poor level of skills among the people of the country is a key cause of concern and challenge to the implementation of the initiative.
• As per the Human Development Report (HDR) 2020, barely one in five Indians in the labour force is “skilled”.
• Therefore, a large set of the Indian population is not skilled appropriately to meet the job requirements.
• The disparities between rural and urban employment, geographical mismatch, sectoral mismatch and technological mismatch also act as impediments to the implementation of the programme.
• Further, the central government is a very small segment of the Indian workforce and hence experts feel that the initiative will not address the issue of unemployment in the country as a whole as the unemployment rate among the youth (aged 15-29 years) only in urban areas has been hovering at over 20% in the last several quarters.
• The present state of the economy which has been impacted severely by the COVID pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and the prevailing energy and cost of living crisis will also have severe implications on job prospects.

Recommendations

• Unemployment is a problem that the government alone cannot solve, hence even the private sector must be incentivised and prompted to undertake similar recruitment initiatives.
• The focus must be on increasing the efforts to rejuvenate the clusters of handicrafts, handlooms, traditional industries and agriculture-allied sectors to provide alternative employment to agricultural labourers.
• There is a need to understand and study the root causes of the prevailing and increasing unemployment rates in the country.
• Special efforts are required by the government as well as the private sector to establish skilling, training and retraining facilities and institutions as the productivity of an individual directly depends on his/her skills.
• Investments must continue to be made in the infrastructure sector as it creates a virtuous cycle in meeting the demand for jobs in the country.
• Government must also ensure that adequate skilling in the agricultural and fisheries sector is undertaken as these two sectors have remained the primary job creator of the country and play a crucial role in shaping the rural economy.
• Vocational educational skill training must be scaled up in the country to unlock the full potential of India’s demographic dividend advantage.

Read more about – Various Initiatives taken to improve the employment situation in India

Conclusion

India has a huge demographic advantage and a plethora of opportunities, whose potential has to be realised in the right way. In this context, the announcement of the Rozgar Yojana is a step in the right direction but efforts are still required to undertake structural reforms to shift from supply-chain-driven skilling to demand and innovation-driven skilling to unlock the total potential of India’s demographic dividend.

Read all the previous Sansad TV Perspective articles in the link.

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