Enhancing Skills and Faster Generation of Employment

[chanana.ak@nic.in]

How best the surplus labour in agriculture be given gainful employment with appropriate skilling in non-form sectors and what skill set is required for this purpose and how can this be provided?

[aditya.s.d@gmail.com]

Hello,
I seriously doubt there is surplus labour in agriculture. I agree with statistic majority population are in agri for labour. But we should also remember that agri activities in India are manual and very less mechanized. Hence it involves lots of labour to conduct agri operations.

Esp after Employment guarantee scheme, there is acute shortage in agri labour it self. Farmers do not get minimum labour required to carry out operations. Due to which th labour ask for very high pay or just leave certain operation resulting in decrease in productivity.

Hence I do not feel their surplus labour in agri as of now. We can have surplus labour only if we can mechanize the agri operations.

This is what I have observed in my area. May this observation differ area to area.

Thanks and Regards,
Aditya Deshpande

[ca_maneesh@yahoo.co.in]

I strongly feel that there is need to there needs to be an amendment in the normal MNREGA program. In case of lean periods efforts should be made to mobilize the farmers and other land less laborers towards enhancement of infrastructural project routed through Mnerga.

There can be PP P's through which we can provide the one time training which can be useful for 2-3 years where these type of laborers can carry out the task involved.
But the bigger problem is of coordination and will need definitely bigger amount to be spent.
Training can be provided in the field of poultry management( not in the scope of mnerga) , cottage industry , SHG's , etc

[abhinav5884@yahoo.co.in]

Disguised unemployment of our agri labour force retards the GDP growth rate of the country. Opportunity cost for this surplus labour force is not high & therefore they may be easily lured to other non-farm activities provided by SMEs in manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors.

Other potential sectors of engagement are handicrafts where skill set is purely creative and the output such as terracota/clay products which are handmade have huge demand in western countries and therefore export potential. Packaging units catering to these handicraft products should also be set-up which would use indigenous ways of labour-intensive packaging rather than mechanised ways.

Projects under PPP model need to be encouraged whereby apparel firms like koutons, pantaloon etc. would source hand spun cloth (labour intensive) from village SHG's or a village business entity where shareholders would be local people. For this model to take-off, financial knowledge such as concept of stock market would be taught to beneficiaries apart from cloth spinning & weaving activities. This would evince more interest on part of the local populace and also encourage them to educate their children.

Similar projects under PPP model may be set-up in food processing industry. It is estimated that approximately 40% of our horticulture output is wasted because of lack of storage facilities which if translated into tinned food could be a source of extra revenue for the farmer as well as for the country. This would require benevolent tax subsidies to technocrats/firms who extend their expertise to farmers and also invest in their training.

If & when multi-brand retailing is allowed, the MNCs should mandatorily source regional Indian labour force for their shop floor activities, warehouse management and other logistical services. This would require simple people skills and basic numeracy skills and therefore not a burdensome investment.

It has been estimated that there is a dearth of truck/tempo drivers in far flung rural areas due to inaccessibility of driving institutes.

[ashis.pro@gmail.com]

A few things have to be considered in mind like the excess labour must be those farmers or people who have no land of their own or comparatively less land. The concept of outsourcing must be engaged in farming like a set of people must be trained for soil analysis who will provide their specialized services to the farmers of the area and make their living. Similar domains in the rural area has to be selected that can provide a long-term livelihood to these people but one thing has to be kept in mind that this excess labour must be restricted to go to urban places because it will increase the employment in urban sector.

A few tentative domains in the rural area where these excess labour could be used are mentioned below:
1. Soil Analysis and soil specialists.
2. Horticulture.
3. Animal Husbandry.
4. Rural handicraft.
5. Leaf-plate industry.
6. Catering houses that will cater to MDM programmes in the primary schools of the area.
7. Pickle making SHGs.

It should always be kept in mind that the SHGs formed and groups formed must be done through a need-based assessment research because the skills and need of the area differ from area to area.

And lastly one more thing, schemes like NREGS, etc are only short term and doesn't fulfill the long term needs of the people in the rural area.

The english translation of a chinese goes as "rather than giving a person fish to eat, it's better to teach them how to fish so that they will be self-reliant and self-sufficient to feed themselves".

Thanks and regards

Ashis Kumar Acharya

[chetankempegowda@gmail.com]

In India, the agriculture sector provides employment to the maximum number of people. But this has to be read with caution. It has contributed to disguise unemployment. As a result, the per capita productivity is very low. We need to divert this surplus labour to other sectors. Before doing this, we have to encourage mechanisation and co operative farming. The MGNREGS has played some role in diverting this surplus labor.
This labour should be provided with skill and other vocational training and can be distributed to other sectors like manufacturing or service sector.
Since majority of them are uneducated and with very less skill set, we have to provide them proper training. Innovative methods like ppp model, using SHG, NGO can be used in providing assistance. MSME's should be encouraged and credit and marketing facilities shold be provided. We can invest this surplus labour in export sector. This has the advantage of gaining foreign reserves. Cooperative marketing should be encouraged. The MSME's should be decentralised so that this does not result in overcrowding of cities. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam's PURA(Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) is note worthy. We have a wide choices to chose for the MSME ranging from Agarbathi making, making eco friendly plates, arts and crafts, bio fertilizers, value addition to the agri products, toy industry etc.