Skilling India:
The country's ambitious plan to skill 500 million youth by 2022 is skidding on inter-ministerial fights, government lethargy, tardy implementation and a far from robust public-private model for skill development. In a three-part series, Business Standard looks at how the skills mission is not just running behind schedule, but is in real danger of getting derailed. Today, read how internal fights are coming in way of skilling targets.
The ambitious target of providing marketable job skills to 500 million youth by 2022 is being strangled at Stage One due to an inability among government agencies on whose action plan should get going.
The idea was for 17 ministries to work with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) on the target. The policy envisaged clear targets for each ministry, based on the personnel needs each sector would have to address in 10 years.
Apart from sheer government lethargy (see related story: Skill development centres remain a distant dream), what has happened is a refusal to let go of jurisdiction and parallel decisions on the same issues. An instance is the national framework for vocational education, with a draft ready from both the labour ministry and its human resource development (HRD) counterpart..
The latter, despite being exhorted by various committees from 1964 to get going on vocationalisation, woke up only in the last two years. It has now come up with a framework, though the labour ministry was already working on one in a European Union-aided project.
This has brought to the fore the absence of an anchoring body on the task of skilling, despite the presence of the Prime Minister’s committee on skill development. When the PM's panel discovered this crisis of plenty, it put off a recent meeting and passed on the problem of reconciling the two frameworks to the Planning Commission, which also happens to oversee the NSDC.
However, the Commission has offered a third set of recommendations which are not acceptable to either ministry. Besides staking claim for a piece of the skilling pie.
The divide is on three things. First, the qualification for skilling. The labour ministry wanted skilling to link artisans, the unorganised sector, dropouts and the like. The HRD scheme of things would start in Class 9, excluding 40 per cent of the targeted 500 million youth.
The figure of 500 mn comes from an understanding that 700 mn youth would be around in 10 years and 200 mn would be graduates or more, the rest needing to be skilled.
Planning Commission member Narendra Jadhav, who has prepared a report seeking to reconcile the two stands, backs the labour ministry on this.
The second problem area is the setting of occupational standards. The labour ministry wants the skill council to do this and the government to notify it. HRD feels NSDC should vet and notify standards. The Planning Commission says it should be the notifying authority. The labour ministry says neither NSDC nor the Commission can issue a gazette notification and should not take over a task that ministries are authorised to do.
The third area of difference is the assessment, accreditation and certification authority. The Planning Commission and the HRD ministry want joint certification by the industry and the regulatory body. The labour ministry says this would lead to delays and students would suffer -- With 35 to 50 sectoral skill councils envisaged, it would create a large number of people who would be authorised. A single body, with perhaps representation from various industries, should do the job.
Says R L Singh, deputy director general (training) in the labour ministry: “We will stick to our position since that is the only legal way to go about it. If our approach is rejected, we also reject a view opposed to it. The only way reconciliation is possible is for the HRD ministry to confine its skilling to school students, leaving the rest of the youth to the other ministries.”
Says Narendra Jadhav, member, Planning Commission: “I have examined the matter inside out. But I can talk about it only after my report is presented to the Prime Minister's committee on skill development.” However given the huge differences between ministries it has been now decided that S Ramadorai advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the NSDC would reconcile all the versions and come with a single version. While this internal battle plays out, the 500 million target remains on paper.
Tomorrow: NSDC: A flawed structure?
