The Hindu : A ray of hope for unemployed youth

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 14, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

A ray of hope for unemployed youth

By S. Rajendran

Bangalore July 13. The Government has introduced an employment scheme expected to go a long way in helping unemployed youth get reasonably good jobs and saving them from the mercy of private placement agencies that make money from them as well as those seeking manpower.

The computerised scheme, Campu (computer-aided manpower placement), introduced over a month ago for the first time in the country, has attracted the attention of several State governments and the Centre. The governments of Rajasthan and Gujarat have sent an official team each to study the scheme for implementing similar ones in their respective States.

As a measure of caution, Campu has been introduced in six employment exchanges as part of a pilot scheme and offered as an option for those queuing up before the employment exchanges, seeking placements. For Rs. 100, each of them is given a smart card; their testimonials are compiled and fed into the computer after verification by the officials concerned. The website under the scheme can be accessed by any employer, whether in the public or the private sector, and those registered can get jobs anywhere in the country or even abroad.

Incidentally, the Directorate of Employment and Training has been struggling over the past few years with hardly 0.5 per cent of the registered unemployed people getting placements. Of the nearly 18 lakh unemployed youth registered in the 34 employment exchanges in the State, only around 1,000 obtained placements. However, most of them were taken for jobs not befitting their qualifications. The performance of the State Employment Directorate was only marginally lower than that of the Centre which was successful in finding placements for around one per cent of the registered youth. The situation was much better about three decades ago when the employment exchanges were a big success and obtained placement for nearly half the registered candidates every year. Earlier, all government departments, and major public and private sector undertakings had to obtain manpower only through the employment exchanges, while in recent years, even the government departments have not cared for such practices, leaving the employment exchanges in the lurch.

The Minister for Labour, Qamar-ul-Islam, and S.M. Raju, Director of Employment and Training, who were the architects of the "e-employment scheme", told The Hindu that the pilot scheme had proved to be a success with over 5,000 unemployed youth opting for computerised registration. The credentials of the candidates would be classified based on their job requirements and qualification, and thereafter, presented to various government departments and private sector companies. "For every job on offer, we will recommend at least 25 eligible candidates, and we are confident that the candidates recommended by us will find placements. The service of providing the right candidates for the right job will be offered free of cost, unlike the private manpower placement or marketing agencies," they said.

The Government has signed a memorandum of understanding with Neomarg Technologies of Bangalore which has provided the software and the hardware required for the implementation of the scheme. Under the joint venture agreement, the private company will provide the inputs for a small price that is being realised from each applicant.

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