Right to Skill – a fundamental right for youth
Chhattisgarh has led the way in being the first and only state in India to initiate a ‘Right of Youth to Skill Development Act’ in 2013 shifting responsibility to the state machinery to arm any individual between the ages of 14 to 45 with free professional skills training across various sectors to enhance employability. This is indeed a laudable effort towards combating a raft of socio-economic challenges in the state.
Chhattisgarh has set up 27 ‘Livelihood Colleges’ to impart training through Vocational Training Providers. Since 2013, a total of 6,72,738 beneficiaries have registered with this skill-building programme. Youth who were previously engaged as informal agricultural workers are now earning between ₹15,000-20,000 per month, and employed as security guards and firefighters in Tier 1 cities.
The Chhattisgarh State Skill Development Authority (CSSDA), the overseer of the Act has focused on drawing out marginalised tribal populations from remote areas towards professional skill training and dignified employment. 804 courses are on offer across 109 categories with a training period of three to six months. 221 of these currently meet the standards of the National Skills Qualifications Framework. To enable wider reach of the Act the eligibility qualification for these courses is class 8.
Turning Youth into Agripreneurs
The 5th Annual Employment-Unemployment report 2015-16 states 46.1 percent of India’s workforce is employed in the agriculture sector. Agricultural skills, therefore, play a crucial role in supporting India’s youth toward meaningful self-employment. Hence, a 3-day training of Master Trainers under the Skill Development Programme of Agriculture, Skill Council of India at the Swami Keshwanand Rajasthan Agricultural University in October was a much-needed exercise. Master Trainers were trained on various qualification packs and model curriculum to in turn provide a minimum of 200 hours training to rural youth towards becoming agripreneurs.
Courses for Employability
Speaking at a three-day “Skill India – The Way Forward in Higher Education”, conference at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences earlier this October, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javdekar alluded to the government’s plans for Bachelor’s courses giving students a choice to undergo 1,000 extra hours of courseware along with their regular courses. The curriculum will comprise of 250 hours each of soft skills and computer skills, and 500 hours of one or two course-specific skills. The government is also planning on industry apprenticeships which students enrolled in these courses can experience during their summer vacations.
Further highlighting the importance of skills training in current education, Aseem Gupta, Secretary, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship department, Maharashtra, said that all universities in Maharashtra have received a mandate to include skill development in courses so students do not need to invest additional time after graduating to learn a skill.
Skilling the Northeast – The Act East Policy
India’s North Eastern states have historically faced numerous challenges to development owing to geographical and socio-political reasons. It is a region where skill building for its youth becomes imperative in the face of low employment opportunities. The region is already making a significant contribution to employment in key sectors such as Tourism & Hospitality. However, given that currently, only 2.3 percent of youth from the North Eastern states receive any formal skill training the Centre’s Act East Policy has recognised skill development as a priority requirement. Skills training in the region can also have a significant impact on trade and commerce under the Policy, especially in relation to trades supporting cross-border business and maintaining diplomatic relations with countries such as Myanmar and China. Alluding to this, Manipur Governor Dr. Najma Heptulla, speaking at a recent seminar on ‘Skilling the Youth in The Wake of India’s Act East Policy –From North-East Perspective’, stated that boosting skills training in the Northeast has the dual advantage of not only contributing to the Indian economy but also augmenting trade and commerce with the region’s East and South East Asian neighbours. Hence, training centres will do good to have ‘language labs’ which can deliver training on Burmese, Mandarin and other oriental languages.
The Act East Policy was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 at the ASEAN summit in Myanmar. It is an updated successor to the Look East Policy launched in 1992 by the then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. The Act East Policy seeks to promote economic cooperation, cultural ties and develop a strategic relationship with countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The North Eastern states are a priority in the Policy given their geo-strategic location. Various bilateral and regional levels plans include efforts to develop and strengthen connectivity of the North East with the ASEAN region through trade and physical infrastructure (road, airport, telecommunication, power, etc.).
