Skill Up Northeast

The COVID-19 pandemic situation brought home thousands of migrant youths from North-eastern states from different states in India.They have either left or lost jobs and employment in those states and are seeking employment in their respective home states. The reverse migration is a reminder for all the states in the region to take stock of implementation of various flagship schemes under the National Skill Development Missionover the past five years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the mission on this day in 2015 on the occasion of World Youth Skills Day.It was on December 18, 2014 when the General Assembly of the United Nations decided to designate July 15 as the World Youth Skills Day while recognising that "fostering the acquisition of skills by youth would enhance their ability to make informed choices with regard to life and work and empower them to gain access to changing labour markets."An interim report on the impact assessment of thePradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMVKY) 2016 –2020, a flagship scheme under the mission, by the Centre for Economic and Policy Research in 2019 states that less than four per cent of the workforce in India is skilled as compared to 47 % in China, 74 % in Germany and 96 % in Korea.The pandemic situation has only reinforced the significance of this day for the region which witness outmigration of a huge number of unemployed youths as unskilled workers every year. Lack of employment avenues in the region is the push factor while the demand for skilled, semi-skilled, or unskilled workers in the destination states is the pull factor that trigger migration of lakhs of employment seeking youth from the North-eastern states. Creation of employment opportunities not just in the region but in other states as well will be a challenging task because of contraction in the economy and industrial production due to outbreak of the pandemic. Low capacity to utilize funds allocated to the North-eastern states only adds to this challenge. The Ministry of Skill Development apprised the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour in March that "of the Rs 320 crore unspent in 2019-20, Rs 160 crore was on account of low-capacity utilization of fund intended for North Eastern Region." The failure to utilise the central funds allocated under the mission is a wake-up call to all the states in the regionto pull out all the stops to ensure that funds are effectively utilized in the given timeframe. The parliamentary panelrecommendedto the ministry to make concerted efforts for gainfullyutilising the budgeted funds and to pay special attention to the north-eastern region by focusing and laying emphasis on promoting skill developmentprogrammes. The youth population in the North East is about four per cent of the total working population, as per the estimates of the Ministry of Skill Development. The National Skill Development Corporation has extended the last date for enrolment under Centrally Sponsored Centrally Managed (CSCM) and CentrallySponsored and State Managed (CSSM) components of the flagship scheme of PMKVY 2016 –2020, till 31 July only for the Northeast region providedthe new or fresh enrolments are done only for the reverse migrant workers. The states in the region will get an opportunity to ensure that unskilled migrant youths who have returned due can avail training under these schemes, the assessment and certification for which are to be completed by November 15. Official statistics show that about 2.5 lakh youths in the region have been trained since 2016 under PMKVY of which 1.8 lakhs have been certified to improve their employability.While theministry calculates PMKVY placement performance on the basis of successful certification of a candidate, the states in the region have to keep in mind that the parliamentary panel insisted that "the actual placement of the candidates in the job market should be the ideal criteria for evaluating the success of the programme." The committed cited the instance that in the Special Projects Component, of the 68,42,195 candidates trained, only 48,956 could find placement, which amounts to only 0.71% of the candidates trained.The region has 73 Industrial Training Institute with seat capacity of 17,000, of which around 13,000 cater to the engineering or technical trades like electrician, auto-mechanics. There is a shortage of facility for training of trainers at these facilities is a critical gap. Strengthening the existing ITIs and the polytechnics and establishment new ITIs with new trades in the region will enable the states to achieve the objective under skill development programmes. Mere imparting the skill training is not going to bring any perceptible change in the overall unemployment situation if employment avenues to absorb the trained youths are not created either in the region or outside. The onus lies on the Centre and the north-eastern States.