Of jobs and job-seekers

A recent tendency among the educated youth of Assam to look forward primarily towards state government jobs is not a healthy trend at all. While the government has been recruiting one lakh educated youths to different government organizations, what Assam requires is a change in the mindset of youth so that they can look for employment opportunities outside the purview of the state government. Self-employment for instance is one area that the present government has been emphasizing upon. In the recent state budget, finance minister Ajanta Neog has very clearly described the objective and goal of a special mission aptly named Mukhya Mantrir Sva-Niyojan Mission. As the finance minister said, the intent behind this Mission is to create self-employment in the private sector, which would have a catalytic effect on creation of many more indirect jobs. What the finance minister specifically stated is that the government proposes to implement a scheme to promote micro-entrepreneurs for creating self-employment opportunities among the unemployed youth belonging to BPL families and low-income households. The scheme, to be launched in a Mission mode, intends to support income-generating activities in trading, manufacturing, service, food processing, handloom handicraft, agriculture, animal husbandry, fishery and dairy, to name a few. It is important to note that through this scheme the government has set a target of covering one lakh beneficiaries, who will be provided a one-time seed capital of Rs 2 lakh in tranches for setting up micro-enterprise units in the next three years. In addition, the government has also proposed to cover one lakh more entrepreneur-youths who will be provided project-based subsidy in defined projects targeting the MSME and other segments. The finance minister in her budget speech has also stated that altogether Rs 5000 crore will be invested under this initiative over the next few years, which in turn is expected to transform over two lakh unemployed youths into job creators. Looking from the lowest level of imagination, if one such youth creates one additional job, then four lakh youths would get employment or self-employment in the next three years. This is not a joke. But, unfortunately, very few people in the state have been able to appreciate this wonderful Mission scheme and heartily welcome it. The first set to clap and hail the announcement of this scheme should have been those organizations which claim to represent the student and youth of Assam. Allegedly busy in collection donations by various means, these organizations probably have not understood the implications of successful implementation of this Mission, or have not bothered to read and analyze the state budget altogether. There is every likelihood that the second has happened. That is one of Assam’s several misfortunes.