As we revel in India’s demographic dividend, we often overlook a critical issue: the declining rates of employability among our workforce. While we boast about our young population being a potential economic powerhouse, we fail to address the pressing concern of ensuring that this demographic is equipped with the necessary skills to contribute meaningfully to the workforce. The stark reality is that merely having a large working-age population is not sufficient if a significant portion lacks employable skills. This oversight can have detrimental effects on the economy, hindering growth and perpetuating unemployment or underemployment. The solution lies in prioritizing education and vocational training that align with the demands of a rapidly evolving job market. Additionally, fostering an environment conducive to entrepreneurship and innovation can create new avenues for job creation, particularly in sectors such as technology, renewable energy, and healthcare, which hold immense potential for growth in India. Therefore, we must shift our focus from simply celebrating demographic numbers to investing in human capital development and fostering an ecosystem conducive to sustainable job creation.
Tag: Indian economy and issues related to planning, mobilization of resources, growth development and employment.
Decoding the Question:
- In the intro try to write about India’s demographic dividend.
- In Body,
- Explain in brief employability.
- In the second part of the answer, you need to discuss sectors that will boost employment generation and employability.
- Try to conclude by writing demographic dividend and significant employment generation
Answer:
India is a young country with 50 percent of population below the age of 25 but productiveness of this available workforce is questionable.As per a study, only 10% of MBA graduates in India and 17% of engineering graduates are employable. Thus, by 2020, we could have a skill gap of 75-80% across industrial sectors.
Employability refers to the ability to be hired for employment. It very much depends on physical abilities as well as intellectual abilities as acquired by skills and education.
- In India, it has been observed that we talk about demographic dividend but fail to discuss the issue of employability.
- In the absence of employability, income remains low leading stagnating economic development.
Another issue for decreasing employability is the direct shift of the Indian economy from agriculture to service sector. But, the services sector employs only highly educated people, whereas most of the Indian labour force is comparatively illiterate. Apart from this, the agriculture sector is also lagging behind because of limited land and poor technological base.
To increase employment generation in-country following steps can help in it:
- Focus on Labour-Intensive Sectors: The government needs to focus on labour-intensive sectors like leather, apparels, footwear industry, MSME etc. These sectors can absorb a large working force which is experiencing distressing employment in the agricultural sector.
- Focus on The Manufacturing Sector: India’s service sector can hardly absorb the surplus workforce migrating from rural/agricultural livelihoods. Government must support the manufacturing sector to spur employment and incomes, rather than focus only on deploying capital in large units. In fact, the same strategy has been successfully tapped by China building up extensive manufacturing capabilities for power equipment, electronic hardware, etc.
- Increase investment in Agriculture: Stagnant agricultural and allied sector need investment to generate employment and productivity in rural areas. As more than 50% of the population are dependent on the agriculture sector. Therefore, investment in this sector is much needed.
- Infrastructure Development: To increase economic activities via attracting investment, world-class infrastructure is essential. Infrastructure development attracts investors the world over to invest in various sectors of the economy.
Thus, to use India’s biggest advantage, the demographic dividend the need of the hour is to create millions of jobs as well as enhance employability of the youth. If this demographic dividend is not used properly, it will be the biggest demographic burden on India.
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