Honing skills of ever-growing youth force
New Delhi: Meghalaya Minister for Labour, Ampareen Lyngdoh, on Friday said that the Northeastern states in general and Meghalaya in particular have a huge growing young work force and the State is trying to hone their unique skills in sectors like hospitality, healthcare, retail and traditional handlooms and handicrafts.
Speaking at the 46th session of the Standing Committee of the Labour Ministry here on Friday, Lyngdoh said that the State has taken up a huge task of nearly two lakh youths during the 12th Plan. “The pro-rata target set for Meghalaya is for providing skills to 1,95,000 persons of which the target for the Labour department alone is 56,856,” she said.
But at the same time her Government is trying to train these efficient youths and employ them in other sectors both within the state and outside, Ampareen said, adding, suitable arrangements are being made to provide the skilled youths with jobs along with social security.
The Hill State has a huge working age population of 53 per cent out of which young workers will be 42 per cent, she said, adding unlike the rest of the country the State has more women workers, being a matrilineal society. The industry also likes the youth workforce for services where they can excel like healthcare, hospitality and retail, she said.
The Minister also pointed out that the State Government alone cannot provide jobs to this emerging youth force since Government jobs is almost at saturation level. As a result unemployment has become a serious problem giving rise to resultant adverse social consequences hinting at spread of militancy in the region.
Agreeing with the Minister, Union Minister for Labour Oscar Fernandes said that employment generation is one of the top most priorities of the Government. “During the period between 2009-10 and 2011-12, we created 10 million additional job opportunities and employment in the organized sector also increased by more than 9 per cent from 26.5 million in 2005 to 29 million in the 12th Plan.
Skill development is critical to our efforts for increasing the employability of our workforce and for providing decent employment opportunities to our large and growing young population, Fernandes said.”
“Our aim is to skill 5 crore people by the end of the 12th Plan period,” he added.
Lyngdoh urged the Union Labour Ministry to set up an ESI and a Regional Labour Institute in Meghalaya to cater to the whole Northeastern region.These two institutes will help the labour force of all the eight NE states, she said, while offering land for the institutes on behalf of the State Government.