AP CM rekindles hopes among distressed youth

Soon after taking over the reins of Andhra Pradesh government, Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu was upfront about addressing a critical issue, thus raising hopes among the distressed youth of the state. He announced that his government would undertake a skill census to assess the capacity and employability of the youth across the State. He even signed an order for setting up a Skill Development and Training Department through a GO 13 on June 13. One surely commends Naidu for realising the gravity of the situation and attempting to reap demographic dividend of the huge numbers of youth before they become a demographic disaster.

Lakhs of youth and unemployed have been pinning hopes on Naidu since he announced unemployment dole and initiatives to boost employment during his poll campaigning. Naidu had also promised to enhance education infrastructure, upgrade curriculum, and provide quality education regardless of socio-economic background.

For the past decade, the country has witnessed high economic growth but inadequate numbers of jobs and self-employment cases. This has been more accurate in the last five years in the truncated state of Andhra Pradesh shorn of a capital. APCC president and the sister of former CM Jagan Mohan Reddy, Y S Sharmila, raised the issue forcefully during the polls that over 21,000 unemployed people committed suicide in the state. Numbers could be exaggerating but the situation certainly deserves all the seriousness that CM Naidu is trying to hammer into policy makers and job enablers in the government.

Particularly of key concern to the government should be empowerment of rural youth. Agriculture which provides subsistence to 55 per cent of population is now barely contributing 16% of GDP and, hence, is not a profitable profession.

Ask any farmer these days. Most would say they do not want their children to take up farming. When Pranab Mukherjee was the President, he had stressed that the Indian economy needed to generate 115 million non-farm jobs over the next decade to gainfully employ its workforce and reap its demographic dividend.

One of the gravest issues that India faces today is employability problem even as job opportunities are drying up in the market. The scenario stresses the urgency of education policy reform to make the youth job-ready when they step out of the hallowed portals of institutions. Skill gap is a serious issue now. Companies that have jobs on offer are literally scouring for right candidates. Even the IT companies are increasingly preferring skilled candidates to avoid training expenses and growing attrition rates soon after training and a little work experience.

In the absence of any mother industry in Andhra Pradesh, the government can begin with a big thrust to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), as vowed by MSME, SERP and NRI Empowerment and Relations Minister Kondapalli Srinivas. At last count, Andhra Pradesh accounted for 6.68 lakh MSMEs on its Udyam portal till November 2023. The officials recognised then a potential for raising new MSME registrations to 12 lakh by 2027. The alliance government needs to build upon this potential. There is a huge scope for promotion and development of MSME schemes, given the availability of resources, capital as well as human.

The Chandrababu Naidu government has to address the socio-economic inequality of youth in urban and rural areas. There is also nil or inadequate emphasis by the present education system on developing soft skills such as communication, critical thinking, leadership etc. The skills upgradation drive should aim to foster and nurture a strong industry-academia interface to bridge the skill gaps. The government shall not only seek to provide jobs within state, but also elsewhere across the country – and beyond the borders, too. Godspeed!