The results for recruitment of personnel for 10th and 11th IRB which was held in his first stint as Chief Minister is still pending and for that Chief Minister N Biren Singh was hounded in the social media by candidates who had appeared in the recruitment.
This time, he promised that the results would be announced in June, which is last month. Perhaps it could have been delayed due to the tragedy of a massive landslide in Tupul. But, the candidates are getting restive again. It is not only the case of IRB results, but results of the recruitment drive for the two power companies are still pending besides several others. In normal cases, the recruitment process should lapse if the results are not announced within a year.
But in our state, there is nothing like that where the powers that be decided according to political expediency. The pending results of the recruitment of police constables held during the Congress regime was announced during N Biren’s time. In this background, we would like to discuss the employment scenario in the state.
It is understood that, the government cannot be the sole provider of jobs for our youth. However, it is the job of the government to create and facilitate job opportunities towards self-employment or in the private sector. Here, we would like to reiterate the suggestion of setting up a Job Commission or Employment Opportunities Commission in the state to rethink a new strategy for increasing employment opportunities in view of the massive job loss and layoffs right here in the state caused by the COVID-19 outbreak and consequent lockdowns in various forms.
It is not the returnees alone who are facing job loss but thousands of employees in the private sector here are either experiencing lay-offs or pay-cuts. Many of the returnees had gone back to look for fresh job opportunities outside the state while thousands are still wandering around with no job prospects here or outside.
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According to a survey by the Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), job loss is the most severe immediate impact of COVID-19 crisis while lower economic growth and rise in inequality would be the long-term effects.
The online survey was conducted on 520 ISLE members in the last week of May, last year. The preliminary results showed that loss of employment was considered as the most severe immediate impact of the crisis while lower economic growth and rise in inequality were probable long-term impacts. As per the survey, the immediate policy priorities suggested were protection of workers and families, short-term employment creation and income transfers to affected workers.
Short-term policy requirements were support to MSMEs, expansion of MGNREGA, job creation, cash transfers and social security while the long-term measures included the need for building a stronger public health system, universalisation of social security and policies for welfare and rights of migrants. These are sensible recommendations, indeed. But, there is an urgent need to properly analyse these recommendations in state specific situations, so as to chart our own strategy.
We have come to know that, our richest resource is human, educated and skilled. Only a few states in the country have such a resource base. Our skilled youths had gone beyond the state as the state was very much lacking in job opportunities.
Now, it has become the state’s responsibility to create opportunities here. Bureaucrats alone would not be enough to rethink such a strategy. We need to involve experts and adopt a multi-disciplinary approach. So it is high time, the state institutes a Job Commission or Employment Opportunities Commission, whatever you call it.
We all have seen what problems entail job crisis and massive unemployment scenarios in the society in general. So, let us not wait for the situation to explode. The government must start learning to pre-empt possible scenarios to chart strategies.
Besides, we should also explore the possibilities of introducing unemployment allowances or social security benefits, as an immediate measure to ward off discontent among the jobless population.
