Editorial: Unemployment, Opportunities, Attitudes...

An association claiming to represent the issues and frustrations of the unemployed youth of the State is planning a protest rally in Gangtok later this week. Last week, there was news of officials engaged in the skill development initiative visiting establishments where youth trained at the various livelihood schools of the State have been placed to check not only whether the placements were worthwhile, but also to explore wider options. It would have been healthy for the association and the capacity building effort to have collaborated, but this is obviously not to be, but what the recent, almost parallel developments establish is that unemployment is back in the news. A collaboration is also perhaps difficult because while the sponsors of the protest rally are more focused on questioning the management of government job openings and options, the capacity building effort is aimed primarily at grooming employable youth for the private sector openings across the country. The divergent priorities notwithstanding, what is clear is that unemployment and employment opportunities will stay in the news this week and the wider the discussions, the better for Sikkim.
In fact, consultative discussions between the unemployed, the trainees at livelihood schools, officials operating the capacity building initiative and the policy-makers would not be a bad idea at this time. The expression, by all involved, of a willingness to hold up the mirror – on delivery, on the earnestness to acquire skills to become employable and on the commitment to undertake policy course corrections – will be a good starting point to fine tune the related initiatives. Unemployment is a challenge facing the entire world and it is hardly surprising that it is creeping high in priority in Sikkim as well. Discussion it in more forums will chip away the bombast and the impractical and bring public attention to the real kernel of the issue, and then wider collaborations can be struck to balance the aspirations against what is possible. Capacity building and skill development are undoubtedly effective measures to contain unemployment because they equip the youth with new skills and thereby widen the scope of employment for them. This effort has been underway for a while now, and even though still a young initiative, has come enough of age to be discussed and evaluated, not necessarily to decide whether it is a success or a failure, but to figure out how it can be made more effective. It is important to involve those already in training and the unemployed on the outside, because apart from assessing potential of individual locations and existence of job opportunities, it is necessary to also get a grip in the aspirations and expectations of the State’s unemployed. Skill development efforts should be customized to match their sensibilities and aspirations and if their aspirations are found too out of sync of ground realities, then before they are burdened with skills, they should be helped to off-load impractical expectations. The unemployed of the State should first be groomed and inspired to struggle and sweat and then new skills and capacities added to their resumes. For that, they will have to be taken into confidence first.
And that would also bring in discussions on emotive issues like local protection. In Sikkim, there are laws and rules in place which guarantee stronger local protection in employment opportunities than most other States in the country. The policy has obvious benefits, but also hides severe handicaps which do not always get discussed. When the pursuit of protectionism becomes obsessive, it ends up celebrating mediocrity which becomes a major liability when jobs within Sikkim dry up, like is already happening with government jobs in the State. Obviously also, the protection accorded to local candidates for jobs within Sikkim should not be removed, but what should be insisted instead is that the selection processes are made fairer and transparent. This will ensure that every candidate knows that only the best among the applicants will make the cut, and once that is established, they will keep sharp, focus more on becoming better candidates themselves instead of trying to find out who favoured whom at their cost. The competitive spirit that a fair process ensures is infectious will free the unemployed of parochial fears and concerns and release their potential to aim even higher in the long run...