NEW DELHI: Eighty delegates including prominent political personalities, journalists and activists gathered in New Delhi last week to voice their concern over increasing unemployment in the country.
The seminar organised by Indian Centre for Governance Studies (ICGS) on April 16, 2016 at India International Centre called for dignified occupation and constructive channels for what the speakers called frustrated, alienated and idle youth.
“A large army of frustrated, alienated and idle youth, if not given dignified occupation and constructive channels, may wreck our political fabric and social harmony. Demographic dividend, if not given a practical form, will turn into a demographic nightmare” a press statement by ICGS said.
The delegates from 12states participated in the seminar on “Rising Unemployment in India: Implications for Society and Democracy”. The seminar was chaired by Dr. Shambhu Sharan Shrivastava Chairman, ICGS and co-chaired by Shri Radha Binod Koijam, former Chief Minister of Manipur and Shri Parvin Singh Jadeja, former Minister of Gujarat.
Introducing the topic, Dr. Shrivastava outlined the urgency of tackling the menace of unemployment by pointing out that most of the foot soldiers of left wing or rightwing extremism, separatism and mafia, groups, come from the ranks of the unemployed.
The target of providing ten million jobs every year for next 10 years should be contrasted with Labour Bureau report of Govt. of India which has shown that jobs have actually gone down in two quarters of 2015 including the period Oct. – Dec. 2015.‘This is a recipe for disaster”, he said.
Discussing the huge potential of job generation in North East, R.B. Koijam pointed to the immense scope in food processing and agro-based industries with diverse agricultural base in the region, apart from IT and enabled services.
Dr. N.N. Singh, former Director of Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi & former Vice Chancellor B.M. Agricultural University, Ranchi spoke about productivity challenges in agriculture and huge potential of job & livelihood creation in agricultural and allied sectors.
The other distinguished speakers included K. Mani, former Member Legislative Council (MLC), Bihar and eminent literary figure in Hindi language. Dr P. Kamalakar Sharma, Chairman, Dhanvantri Foundation spoke on “Improving the employment potential in the sector of medium, small and micro enterprises”, Bhaskar Singh, Political Researcher & psephologist and co-founder of Janta Ka Mood, Political and Market Research firm on “Digital India & Jobs”, R. P. Ojha, Professor, Organisation Behaviour and Human Resources at IMI New Delhi, on “Make In India: Job Generation Potential & Status Review”.
Smt. Archana Agnihotri, Samadhan Abhiyan, NGO, on “Job Generation and Education”, Shri S. Gunalan, Leading advocate, High Court Chennai & Former Secretary General, International Union of Students (IUS) on topic, “Overview of Skill India”, and Dr. B.V. Vijayalakshmi, Secretary, AITUC on the topic, “Employment, Women & Un-organised sector”. In the concluding session senior journalist Ajay Kumar spoke on future strategies.

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