Rejoice You Jobless !

In Aug 2013 , India’s Finance Minister announced a scheme called ,

“ National Skills Certification and Monetary Reward Scheme “

Here are the highlights of the schame :

Ø   To impart skills to 500 million youth by 2022 ( i.e. 50 million / year )

Ø  Of these,

·         Private Sector to train 150 million

·         18 Central Ministries to train 350 million

Ø  Scheme will provide employment as well as post-placement hand-holding for 1-2 years

Ø  A youth trained by an accredited institution will be required to appear for a national skill test before getting a certificate and reward of Rs 10,000 from the Government . Towards this , Govt has set aside Rs 1,000 Crores / year for 1 million trainees

Now , could the Minister be ignorant of the following ?

Ø  For some 62 years , we have a Apprentice Act ( 1951 )

Ø  Under this Act , private / public sector companies are required to train apprentices in different trades / crafts , for periods of 1 /2 / 3 years

Ø  At the end of such training , trainees are required to appear for their NCTVT exams and pass , to get certificates

Ø  Already thousands of Central / State Govt Industrial Training Institutions ( ITI ) are also imparting such skills training to youths who may or may not have passed 10^th standard

Ø  Most companies are using this Act/Scheme to engage such “ Trainees “ in place of permanent workers , to reduce labor costs

But the Minister does admit that , notwithstanding past efforts on such a massive scale , country as a whole , created only 20 million jobs in 5 years ( 2004-2009 ) !  A meager 4 million / year !

May be the Minister hopes that this time around , the Magic Wand of a reward of Rs 10,000 , will create  a miracle  !

Only his arithmetic does not seem to add-up !

Every year , 50 million trainees will add-up to a reward of Rs 50,000 Crores !

Hopefully , the arithmetic will get corrected in time for 2014 National Elections !

   hemen  parekh