Employment Scenario in India Essays

Employment Scenario in India Essays Employment Scenario in India Essay Employment Scenario in India Essay Employment has emerged as an important subject in the development agenda of most national governments and several international organisations over the past two decades. In recent years, the processes of globalisation have also resulted in certain trends in labour markets in both the developed and developing countries. in the developing countries, fears have been expressed of displacement of workers in the hither to protected sectors as a result of international competition. Current scenario of India: As a belong to India, I would like to emphasize on the current education and employment scenario in India. In India, The educational system follows 12 years of schooling and then a 3-4 years of graduation course, and 2 years of post graduation course. India  has a total  of 253 universities and 12,732 colleges right now. Growth rate of employment is 3. 29% in 2009. Highest rate of Employment is observed in agriculture , fishing and forestry- 296. 62 million. The Lowest rate of employment is in Electricity, Gas and water supply – 1. 5 million. The country is having a population of 1. 2 billion while the total employment is 529. 87 million. It indicates that major portion of the youth remain unemployed. Major employment challenges in India: 1. Population: India  is the  second most populous  country in the world, with over 1. 18 billion people (estimate for April, 2010), more than a sixth of the worlds population. More than this every year about 5 million people become eligible for securing jobs. But the employment opportunities are much lower than the job seekers. 2. Poverty: In India, Poverty often forces households to withdraw children from schools for reasons of both direct and opportunity costs. In addition, schools and the style of instruction are not always attractive for the children. In the case of girls, the familial attitude towards educating them continues to be discriminatory. As a result, Drop-out rates are high: at 40 per cent in the primary, 50 per cent in the middle and 66 per cent in the secondary stages of schooling for boys and 42 per cent, 58 per cent and 72 per cent at the three levels, for girls In rural families. 42 per  cent of children said they wanted to be graduates and just 24 per  cent wished to go in for a post-graduate  degree. Even the choice of subject changed according to the occupation of parentschildren of the salaried class were more likely to study engineering or medicine. 3. Employability: A part of the problem of employment has always been the result of a mismatch between qualitative aspects of the supply and demand of labour: demand has remained unfulfilled due to non-availability of workers with requisite skills and workers have remained unemployed or underemployed as they have no skills or their skills have no demand. This mismatch seems to have grown in recent years due to fast changes in production technologies and structures to which the skill supply mechanisms and institutions have not been quick enough to respond. 4. Rate of Literacy: 39 per cent of the Indian workforce in the 15 years and above age group is illiterate; another 23 per cent have studied only up to the primary level. Only 22 per cent have secondary and higher level of education. 5. No of colleges: India  has a total  of 253 universities and 12,732 colleges right now. If we take the total  population in the relevant age group and divide this by the number of colleges/universities, then it shows that, at the all-India level, each university will have to cater for around 250,000-300,000 studentswhile thats about the size of Delhi University, there arent too many universities of this size in the country, nor are many being planned. 6. Educational Infrastructure: The infrastructure and curriculum of the school and colleges suffer from lack of adequate technologies, Shortage of funds. The curriculum of professional colleges are not updated to met the requirements of the industry. India is having Total engineering colleges more than 3000, when Total number of  Private MBA  colleges  in India is more than 1700. Almost 90% of these  colleges  are unable to provide quality education. Only top 10% college of Engineering and managements are able to provide job to students through Campus selection. 7. Economic depression : sick industries are often close down compelling their employees to become unemployed. 8. Technological advancement : Technological advancement contributes to economic development . But unplanned and uncontrolled growth of technology is causing havoc on job opportunities. The computerization and automation has led to technological unemployment. 9. Industry lockouts: Strikes and lockouts have become inseparable aspect of the industrial world today. Since workers do not get any salary or wages during the strike period they suffer from economic hardships. They become permanently or temporarily unemployed. How to improve the education system: Education system plays a crucial role in the employment scenario. Because it delivers the students who possess the skills and knowledge to participate in the global economy. Following measures should be taken to make the students employable in Public and Private sectors: 1. Increasing No of Schools: As discussed earlier, the existing No of schools are not adequate to provide quality education to the eligible students. So the No. of universities and colleges must be increased. 2. Providing Free education: In primary level, Education in the Govt. Schools should be made free for rural families. Also No of scholarships should be increased for higher education. . Developing Infrastructure: Increase spending substantially on primary and high school education (Both qualitative and quantitative). Increase the salaries of teachers at least at per with university lecturers and put stringent quality control while recruiting the teachers and introduce accountability among them. We must increase substantially the number of primary schools and quality of those a nd improve on physical infrastructures like school buildings, a minimum standard of school laboratory and library, a decent play ground, some internet connected computers in libraries etc. In technical institutions, technical equipments should be used in instructing. 4. Pattern of evaluation: Subsequently the exam patterns should change and put more emphasis on original thinking and problem solving rather than emphasizing database-quiz type format. 5. Improving curriculum: Basic education should be in mother tongue but English also should be compulsory from class 1. Technical education should be made available to students who have completed 8 years of schooling. To cover the lack of skills, a mechanism needs to be set up at different levels - national, regional and local - to continuously assess the emerging skill requirements of the rapidly changing economic and technological scene and reorient the training infrastructure to meet them. Second, it is necessary to develop training systems to meet the skill requirements of the unorganised sector, which is likely to be the main source of new employment opportunities, in highly diverse activities with many common as well as specific skills. 6. Training for competitive exams: In higher educational institutions, students should be prepared to clear the competitive exams. It will make a large No. Of students eligible for various public sector jobs. Conclusion: The first lead in improving the educational system should be taken by the Government. Because though Education in Private Colleges are expensive, they are having a good infrastructure and placement record compared to the Govt. Colleges. Govt. Should take initiative to increase no of schools and colleges with proper facilities, and also improve the curriculum and infrastructure of present education system.