Recently, NITI Aayog released its third edition of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index for the year 2020–21. Since its inception in 2018, the index has been ranking the States and Union Territories (UTs) while achieving the SDGs such as economic growth, education, health, and so on. Out of all these goals, ‘SDG8: Decent work and economic growth’ has broader implications since it cuts across several targets in the context of building a sustainable and resilient society, wherein no one is left behind.
Skilling the German way: According to a recent study report from the World Economic Forum, India would create 3.2 million jobs and increase the Gross Domestic Product by $570 billion by 2030 through investment in skilling of its people. This would be a reality if the policy makers take a cue from the German way of skilling: Dual system of vocational education and training programme — in which nearly half a million companies provide apprenticeship to the youth and four-fifth of those companies hire them later by offering full-time jobs based on acquisition of their skillsets.
Focus on placement-based education: Every student in government run Industrial Training Institute in Balasore, Odisha has at least two job offers on hand before completion of the course. This is possible just because of strong academic leadership, political will, dignity of labour, and on-the job training provided in collaboration with various employers like Blue Star, Hero Motors, Samsung, etc.
Three dimensions of literacy: While Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic (3Rs) fall under general literacy, proficiency in computers provides digital literacy and awareness on savings, investments, assets, and liabilities bestows financial literacy. Cognizant of this, Reserve Bank of India impressed upon various State governments to include basic modules of banking and finance and a course on digital channels in the school curriculum.
Convergence of skilling projects: The Human Development Report (2020) mentioned that only 21.2 per cent of Indian labourers are skilled and more than 42 per cent of the employees are “working poor” as they earn just ₹70 a day. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushal Yojna (DDU-GKY), and Prime Minister Kaushal Vikas Yojna (PMKVY) are some of the skilling projects under the Public Private Partnership model. Since their inception, though more than a crore of youth have been trained through PMKVY, over one million rural youth have been imparted skills through DDU-GKY, there is a lot of scope for improvement in terms of employability of these trainees. Therefore, with a view to reaping the demographic dividend, the government needs to converge various skilling programmes.
Promotion of social enterprises: Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel laureate from Bangladesh, has been promoting social business model, an alternative to capitalism, across the world. For instance, Naandi Community Water Services supplies affordable and safe drinking water in Telangana, and Gramen Village Ventures provides rural electrification in Uttar Pradesh through solar power.
Building infrastructure through RURBAN clusters: As advocated by late Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, India needs to provide urban amenities in rural areas in terms of education, healthcare infrastructure and employment opportunities to decongest cities and check migration. Accordingly, the Government aimed at developing 300 RURBAN clusters in rural India during the next five years. SKDRDP (Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project) in Karnataka empowers the Self-help Groups (SHGs) and provides infrastructure and finance through micro credit to engage in sustainable rural livelihoods — bee keeping and honey processing, construction of ponds as part of watershed management, and custom hire service centres to supply modern agri-machineries.
Creation of Jobs: In the digital era, while some jobs disappear from the market, several new employment opportunities emerge due to leverage of technology, know-how, and internet. The youngsters should enable themselves to ride Alvin Toffler’s Third Wave (information age) through proper training and capacity building in an innovative manner. Besides, the teachers/mentors should empathize with the students so as to harness their potential to the maximum extent as portrayed by Aamir Khan in his blockbuster movie ‘Taare Zameen Par’.
In sum, the ‘skill shortage reduces productivity’ is a well proven hypothesis in the academic circles. Adequate investment in education and training is the most suitable solution to achieve the decent work and economic growth. Accordingly, SDG 8 may be achieved — through skilling, sustainable livelihoods and economic growth — sooner than later.
Srikanth is Associate Professor and Director (Finance), DDU-GKY, National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Hyderabad, and Lagesh is Assistant Professor, ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad. Views expressed are personal.