Growth as jobs

The writers of the article, “Still seriously hungry and poor” (Oct.31), claim that “newer skills will hold the key for translating growth into jobs”. Are we not turning out millions of trained youth from our countless polytechnics, vocational training centres, engineering colleges, teacher training institutes, paramedical training centres, agricultural and engineering institutes? These are the people on whom educational and training investments have been made by the poor and middle-class families in the hope of getting them out of poverty and hunger. These youth are rotting due to jobless growth in India gifted to us by the multinationals and corporate giants. They suffer due to unemployment, underemployment and disguised employment. The solution lies in the resurrection of labour-intensive, small and medium industries which showed huge job generation potential in the 1970s and 1980s.

Rameeza A. Rasheed,

Chennai