India continues to remain a sought after nation for many of the countries for meeting the human resource needs relating to information technology and communication sector, education and health care, observed E. Ahamed, Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Human Resource Development, here on Thursday.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the GEM Institute of Nursing Education and Research by the GEM Foundation and GEM Hospital. The nursing college is situated at Peedampalli in Sulur taluk.
Mr. Ahamed said that India enjoyed a good amount of name and fame in contributing human resource to the countries world over in various sectors. India had shown the world the way for e-education and e-medicine. The Government was spending more than 10 per cent of the budget outlay towards expansion and modernisation of the education system.
“Countries look towards India for the expertise in our country in terms of human resource in various fields. Nursing is an integral part of medical education.
Qualified nurses from India are sought after by health care industries world over and hence, there is an immense employment potential for those taking to nursing education,” he added.
Chairman of GEM Hospitals Dr. C. Palanivelu said that as in the case of education, basic health care should become a right for every citizen and it would certainly be a golden day for the nation.
Despite the potential, the country was still lagging behind in turning out the required number of qualified nurses and the demand for qualified nurses, especially from India, was growing year-after-year.
The World Health Organisation prescribed one nurse per every 150 patients as a healthy proposition but unfortunately the situation today was that there was only one nurse per 3,000 patients.
“There is potential and employment scope for nearly 25 lakh qualified nurses. Considering the number of educational institutions imparting education in nursing, the country will be still left with a shortage of eight lakh nurses in the next four years,” he said.
While Kerala was doing really well in terms of taking to nursing education, rural areas in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were yet to realise and tap this potential. Employment prospects for nurses from India was bright in Middle-East, South East, Africa and America, he pointed out.
Managing Director of GEM Hospitals Jaya Palanivelu also took part.
The demand for quality manpower is on the rise all over the world. Nursing professionals is
one of them. The essential emphasis is on t he quality of the workforce the countries of the
world want. Education standards which were high in the past has taken a nosedive due to
commercialisation and dilution of standards to meet the demand. The young students that
pass out are struck because they have a degree or diploma that does not earn them a job
abroad because the standards are not upto the mark. Some make it because of their natural
flair but the standards have to be maintained such that most qualified personnel should find a
job easily abroad. Therein lies the success of the institutes that churn out skilled and
qualified people. Opportunities are to be exploited not diluted.
Kerala was wellknown for providing nurses with skill and passion to countries abroad.Teaching was another profession Keralites excelled in Africa and Middle East.With oil boom in Arab Countries, there was flow of skilled and unskilled labour from India.They were also pioneers in infrastructure building.Indians especially from Gujarat,Punjab,Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan established business and trade in Africa,South America,Australia and Canada.They established their expertise in cashew and sugar cane.With influx from Sri Lanka,Philippines,Pakistan and SouthEast Asia ,employability of unskilled Indians is under scrutiny.Wages are going down and working conditions deteriorating.Pre-embarkment training on communication assumes importance.There is need to identify with the culture and ethics of the country of migration.The Ministry of Pravasi may facilitate short term awareness/certificate courses in collaboration with IGNOU.The certification would empower the employment seekers further.
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