Can the skill India policy help provide meaningful jobs to youth? A study by the National Institute of Advanced Studies and the Institute for Social and Economic Change found that skill centres often do not follow up with their graduates as promised after they have completed the course and are placed.
According to researchers, owing to poor mentoring, many from the skill India programmes returned to their hometowns or villages after course without even obtaining certificates. The researchers described the centres as ‘ill designed and dysfunctional’.
These findings were based on field research and surveys in Bengaluru and Raichur. Researchers focused particularly on beauty and wellness, retail and transportation sectors. They noted that while youth may aspire to move to cities and seek ‘urban’ jobs, they often are compelled to return owing to the paucity of decent and well-paid work. Many were also unable to meet the high cost of sustaining themselves in the city with the salaries offered.
The youth said they were disappointed with available opportunities and were unable to save money for their families and ended up going back to their villages, where, due to the agrarian crisis, they took up odd jobs or worked as labourers. Some resumed their education, while others remained idle.
“Low wages and uncertain tenure create a context where workers are encouraged to move from one job to another, and one place to another, in search of a pay hike of even a few hundred rupees or less onerous working conditions,” read the study. Supriya RoyChowdhury from ISEC who did the study along with Carol Upadhya from NIAS, said they found a disconnect between the aims of skill training programmes, youth aspirations and the urban job market.
In Raichur, for example, many centres were imparting skills like tailoring and sales management, but there are no garment factories or malls offering sales jobs in the area. “This shows that a local employment market analysis, which should be a prerequisite, was not sone ,” she said.
The study also pointed to the shifting of focus in employment opportunities from manufacturing to the service sector and has recommended the need to introduce a regime of regulations suitable to the sector and to protect employee interests.
