Shrutidhar Paliwal, the vice president of Aptech, a training firm based in Mumbai, talks about India’s labour market.
What are the unemployment and job creation issues that India is facing?
The primary reason for unemployment in India is stagnant economic growth, which leads to the creation of fewer job opportunities. Another important reason is the dearth of industry-ready professionals. India has graduates available in abundance, but very few of them are actually employable by firms. Due to a lack of proper education and vocational training, there is a large number of unorganised labour present in the country, who only work seasonally or when the opportunity arises, but not on a permanent basis.
Why do so many Indians feel the need to go abroad for jobs? Do you think that India loses out because of this outflow of workers?
About four million Indian labourers are migrant workers in the Middle East alone. These blue-collar migrant workers are lured by higher wages, scope of earning overtime pay, and the possibility to remit resources to support their families in India. The present economy is unable to generate enough job opportunities for them to survive here. Furthermore, the remittance obtained through them adds significantly to India’s economic growth. On the other hand, qualified professionals are attracted by access to more resources for research and entrepreneurship, the availability of better infrastructure, and the higher standards of living that more developed western countries offer. India does lose out on the draining of qualified professionals, but our country is ill-equipped at the moment, in terms of infrastructure and government policies, for them to make a prolific contribution here.
What does the next government need to do to improve the employment situation in India?
The next government should focus on two things. Firstly, to create more job opportunities in the country by aiming at stronger economic growth. Secondly, the government should focus on providing skill-based training to unemployed youth.
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