New Delhi: Meghalaya Minister for labour, Ampareen Lyngdoh, on Thursday said that the State has taken a number of labour reforms and was going ahead with skill development in a massive scale to meaningfully absorb thousands of educated, semi-educated and drop outs.
“We have a vast number of youth with little or no education and skills that are needed to support their livelihoods or to enable them to participate meaningfully in any economic activity,” Lyngdoh said at the Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay Shramev Jayate Karyakram function here.
The problem is further exacerbated by the alarming high number of students who drop out of school without the minimal skills for productive employment, she said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the day-long conference of Labour and related ministers from all over the country which was also attended by Minister for Information and Public Relations and Health, A.L. Hek.
“Hardly 15-20 per cent of our youth get absorbed into formal employment while the rest have to find their way into the informal sector or they have to run their own enterprises for survival,” Ampareen said.
“Though educational attainment has risen quickly in recent years, gaining a foothold in the labour market remains elusive for many of our youth,” she added.
She said that employment & employability delivery systems in Meghalaya are being improved through setting up of new government ITIs, upgradation of existing government ITIs, implementation of innovative Skill Development Programmes and modernization of employment exchanges.
The State Labour Department has the target to skill 56,856 persons against which 12,245 youth have been already covered by the Department so far under various skill development programmes for their gainful employment.
Lyngdoh also demanded sanction of two new ITIs at Khliehriat and Mawkyrwat for which proposals have already been submitted to the Union Ministry under the Enhancing Skill Development Infrastructure (ESDI) in North East and Sikkim Scheme. She also advocated for setting up of a Centre for the New Series of Consumer Price Index (Industrial Workers) in Shillong soon.
