Every student in school is privy to the stories of India’s imminent demographic dividend. That the country has one of the youngest populations in the world, would some day purge it of the stresses caused by the population explosion, is a phenomenon keenly awaited. The Union Budget’s emphasis on skill development could well be a giant step towards turning this demographic dividend into a reality.
Even though skill development schemes and programmes have existed for decades, the current Government’s emphasis on creating a demand-driven, industry-oriented ecosystem promises to be a game-changer. Last year’s budget pushed for Centres of Excellence and integrated skill development portals, setting the stage for bigger commitments this year. The integration of e-Shram and National Career Service (NCS) portals led to a surge of more than 10 lakh registrations of which 1.2 lakh candidates have been shortlisted by employers for jobs, as per the Economic Survey .
The Government has now allocated Rs 2,278.37 crores to the Skill India Programme, aside from introducing Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) 4.0 to skill lakhs of youth within the next three years. According to the Economic Survey, more than one crore citizens have been enrolled and trained since the scheme’s inception in financial year 2017 and 7.4 lakh people getting skilled under the third edition. Hence, the allocation reflects the government’s added thrust on PMKVY.
These interventions come at a crucial time, when India is touted to take over China as the most populous country in the world. Moreover, with the sub-continent’s G20 presidency, skilling has garnered further attention in policy circles.
Be it creating a future-ready workforce to facilitate a just transition to Electric Vehicles (EVs), or generating large-scale livelihood opportunities for the youth, skill development is the key that can open many locks. In fact, the Government has also time and again expressed its vision to make India the Skill Capital of the world. Such ambitious plans indeed need a befitting budget. But how this allocation is utilised will be crucial to realising the goals of Amrit Kaal.
Despite decades of efforts, less than 10 percent of India’s workforce has received any kind of skills training. On the other hand, the figures for China stand at 26 percent. There have been two recurring problems with the skills training in the country — first, there is a mismatch in the demand of the industry and the supply in the labour markets; second, the learning period often delays the income-earning period, which dissuades the labour force, especially in the unorganised sector, from taking up skilling/reskilling/upskilling initiatives. However, both these concerns have been acknowledged and addressed in this Budget.
Building on its efforts from the last budget that focussed on setting up of Centres of Excellence and Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), integration of Aatmanirbhar Skilled Employee Employer Mapping (ASEEM) portal with e-Shram, the Government has now announced the launch of a unified Skill India platform, which aims to enable demand-based formal skilling, linked with employers, including MSMEs, while also facilitating access to entrepreneurship schemes.
Such efforts will not only help workers access skill development, but also re-orient existing curricula to the demands of the industries. The integration of Skill India Portal with the NCS portal last year facilitated the registration of over 46 lakh candidates on the latter. An additional step for the new Skill India platform could be closely involving industry bodies and associations in the process, which may facilitate in reviewing and re-calibrating the various programmes linked to the platform.
To address the second concern, the Government has proposed a stipend to support more than 74 lakh youth under the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS). This is expected to encourage youth with freshly-acquired skills from ITIs and other skilling programmes to ply their trade and ready themselves to meet the industry standards through on-ground experience.
Since its launch in 2016, the scheme has already engaged more than 21.4 lakh apprentices across industries and the new changes would likely reap positive results. Skilling models hinging on stipends have been tested at state levels as well, with Karnataka and Tamil Nadu providing allowance for re-skilling for EVs.
As seen in European nations like Sweden, France and Portugal, the Government encourages entrepreneurship by providing certain limited-period benefits to workers who may want to venture into it. In India’s context, a similar cost-effective solution is presented in the form of micro-entrepreneurship through platform-led skilling.
Even with its conservative estimates, NITI Aayog projects the gig and platform workforce to expand to 2.35 crore workers by 2029-30, highlighting the potential of this new-age economy. Platform work (gig work through digital applications) offers the opportunity to skill, upskill and reskill on the job for vertical and horizontal mobility across sectors.
Scores of formal as well as informal workers could be encouraged in the form of a limited-period stipend enabling them to join the platform economy to skill, reskill and upskill themselves. For instance, fashion sellers at e-commerce platforms are trained through their in-house entrepreneurship programme to turn their skills into a successful business. Similarly platform businesses also offer skill enhancement courses like driving, cooking classes creating an opportunity to enhance proficiency. With rapid platformization of all sectors, including agriculture, promoting such efforts will accelerate the skilling initiatives.
Overall, Budget 2023 makes India’s intentions clear — to be the Skill Capital of the world. This is the first time since its inception in 2015 that the Skill India initiative has received such an impetus, with the Government also proposing to set up 30 Skill India International Centres. The Union Government could encourage such models to promote micro-entrepreneurship, which can address the problem of low placement rates. During FY 2021-23, PMKVY’s placement rate hovered around 5.59 percent, for the lack of opportunities, despite 66 percent of the trainees being certified.
With the G20 presidency, the country is already the cynosure of all eyes, and such an ambitious allocation for skill development heralds India not only ready to finally reap its much-celebrated demographic dividend but also export it to the world.
—The author, Chhavi Banswal,
is a Senior Manager and leads the Future of Work and Platform Economy research at Centre of Inclusive Mobility, OMI Foundation.
(Edited by : C H Unnikrishnan)
First Published: Feb 15, 2023 8:27 AM IST
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