By: Dr. Satyawan Saurabh
To make the youth self-reliant, the country’s vocational education and training system has to be strengthened. Corona has brought the countrymen to such a place where many people need skills. At this time every class of person needs a decent livelihood. Skill and vocational education are needed not only by people from underprivileged communities but also by those who have not been able to receive formal education. India is the youth country with the largest population in the world and this youth power is the pillar of New India. Therefore, in the policies of the central government, in the budget, in the schemes. The vision of future development is visible regarding the youth. As the budget of Amrit Kaal has given utmost importance to the youth and their future. How technology and startups are changing the fortunes of the youth. How the picture of the education sector is changing with the reforms. How India is standing firmly in front of the world on the strength of youth.
Youth is the future of any country, today, India is emerging as the biggest power in the world. Here every third person is young, so we have to think of means to use this young energy in the right direction. Policies and programs that create opportunities for education, skill development, employment, and self-employment for the youth are the biggest need of the hour. The key to empowering youth lies with skill development, when a youth has the required skills, he can use them to earn his livelihood and help others. He also supports the nation financially. It is necessary to link youth with education, skill development, and entrepreneurship. Along with school education, vocational education is also necessary for them. Many people had to lose their employment, business, and jobs during the Corona epidemic, so all the children of our country must be provided with skill development education so that they develop the quality of entrepreneurship.
Skill development is not only a means of livelihood but also a special means of making oneself feel alive and energetic in a normal routine. Therefore, developing youth power as a better human resource through education, skill development, and training can not only solve poverty, unemployment, and social evils, etc., but they can also contribute significantly to the overall development of the nation. Today, it has become necessary to channel the energy of the youth, make education job-oriented, and develop skills and technical capabilities among the youth, so that India can be successful in dealing with the main challenges of the emerging economy. Through vocational training, the youth will have to be imparted training that builds today’s skills, only then skill development can be successful. Skill development is a work of great ethics and accountability through which youth can be made enterprising. Skilled youth can build a skilled India. Unemployment emerged as a major problem in India during the time of Corona. This problem can be reduced to a great extent by developing skill development, the root of the problem of skill development and unemployment in India is the absence of vocational education at the school level, so it is very important to include vocational education at the school level.
The key to empowering youth lies with skill development, when a youth has the required skills, he can use them to earn his livelihood and help others. He also supports the nation financially. Skill development is not only a means of livelihood but also a special means of making oneself feel alive and energetic in a normal routine. Therefore, developing youth power as a better human resource through education, skill development, and training can not only solve poverty, unemployment, social evils, etc., but they can also contribute significantly to the overall development of the nation. According to a government report of the year 2014, India has also faced an acute shortage of a well-trained skilled workforce. It can be understood through Table 1.0 that though India is a country of youth only 2.3 percent of the total workforce Only formally trained. While in other developed countries the percentage is much higher.
The biggest problem facing skill development in India is that about 93 percent of the people here are unskilled. Here every year about 26.14 million unskilled people are joining in the age group of 15-45 for employment. Therefore, it is a big challenge to skill about 104.62 million unskilled people in 7 years and 298 million people already engaged in agriculture and non-agriculture by 2022. Apart from this, educating unemployed people who have not completed their schooling or have left it in the middle is also a big problem. The declining participation of women is also a serious problem. According to the 2011 census data, the participation of women in employment has decreased from 33.3 percent to 26.5 percent in rural areas and from 17.8 percent to 15.5 percent in urban areas. Apart from this, the unskilled workforce in micro, small, and industrial sectors is also becoming a hindrance to economic development, as a result of which productivity is getting affected and the unemployment rate is increasing in large numbers. Therefore, employing the youth is also a big challenge. From this point of view, we also need to focus on entrepreneurship development. India ranks 76 out of 143 countries in entrepreneurship. India has 0.09 companies registered per 1000 working people, which is the lowest among G-20 countries.
Author is a TV panelist. He can be mailed at satywansaurabh3333@gmail.com
