Skilling India will become superfluous once we know where to look

Jul 25 2015 : The Times of India                                    

Just The Job For Everyone     

                              

During his stint as prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is reported to have said, in his less than perfect Hindi, “humko yeh bhi banana hai, aur woh bhi banana hai“ (We want to make this, and we want to make that). Wags wondered if he was proposing to convert the country into a banana republic, as South American dictatorships are idiomatically referred to.   Current PM Narendra Modi also seems to have gone `banana' with his Make in India campaign, which seeks to turn India into a global manufacturing hub. To ensure that his initiative bears fruit, the prime minister has launched a National Skill Development Mission and unveiled a National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.   Noting that some 13 million new jobs and sources of earning a livelihood have to be created every year, the PM warned that the country's chronic unemployment and underemployment problem could turn India's much-vaunted `demographic dividend' of a burgeoning young population into a `demongraphic dividend' if jobless and frustrated youth turn to crime, in keeping with the saying that the devil finds work for idle hands to do.   If the country wants to achieve full employment in the next decade it certainly needs to fit the skill bill. This, however, raises the question as to what those skills should be, and how and by whom they are to be imparted to those desirous of acquiring them? Like all questions this could have a political answer. In this case, literally so. For if there is one profession which seems to need no training school or institute, no exams to pass, no degrees or diplomas or other qualifications to gain before people can enter it, it is the profession of politics.   Indeed if there is one sphere of activity which can truly be called a growth industry in India, it is the business of politics. Currently , there are about 1,761 registered political parties in the country , and by all indications there are more in the pipeline with newly formed splinter groups being announced on an almost daily basis.   In this context, the politics of job creation takes on a new shade of meaning and becomes job creation via politics. Indeed political know-how is a skill innate in Indians, we hold a competitive advantage here and no IITs, ITIs or skill development missions are needed to impart training in this. The dada on the street (a human resource India, fortunately, is superbly endowed with) will provide better training than the expensive Ivy League educated professor (who rarely comes back anyway).   The dhanda of politics holds forth the promise of jobs for the boys, and girls, who will constitute Gen Next. Who themselves will be products of that other vocation that needs no preparatory training or passing of tests, which is the vocation of parenthood.   Both politics and parenting are do-it-yourself occupations. A commonality which might be the origin of `mai-baap sarkar'.