Illiteracy and It's Fallout

Image courtesy: Rediff Business

Lack of skilled work force or an excess of unskilled labour can result in mass unemployment. This brings down the national growth rate that is measured by GDP, GNP, per capita income and national growth index. It leads to disguised umemployment which cannot be measured in tangible terms. Thus the overall productivity of our immense human resource is lowered considerably. People are unable to procure one square meal to feed themselves and their families. The rural population migrates to the urban centers for temporary odd jobs at construction sites etc and add to the urban population of unemployed people.

Lack of awareness and illiteracy impedes people form registering themselves and their dependents for government endorsed welfare schemes like the NREGA, Indira Awas Yojana for adults and mid-day meals for children of school going age. Lack of support and financial stability forces some people to turn to money lenders instead of going to banks or other recognized financial institutions for loans. Some people in the rural areas still feel that having more children will ensure more income as there will be more number of working hands. But this fallacy adds to their misery and adds to the underdeveloped and malnutritioned population of our country.

Government schemes fail and are rendered useless due to faulty and inadequate implementation and the benefit of these welfare schemes rarely reach the target group. People resort to begging, stealing, thugging and corrupt practices to make both ends meet. Those who are conscientious and are willing to work hard often have to settle for underpaid jobs that do not match their skills or talents. It becomes increasingly difficult for such people to cope with the expense of taking care of elderly relatives, marrying off daughters, providing proper medical treatment to the sick and ailing. Illiteracy and ignorance of their rights often deprives people of amenities like free medicines form government hospitals, medical insurance and claims, equal wages for equal work, etc.

Another social problem, perhaps more debilitating is that of under employment. Over-qualified people have to look for menial jobs at a fraction of the salary they deserve just to keep themselves alive. This not only demoralizes them, it also deprives the country of their expertise, their talents, knowledge and their skills remain under utilized. This indicates a failure on the part of the government in not being able to harness the potential of an educated and skilled work force which may otherwise have been very productive and contributed to the development of the nation.

Providing employment to people in keeping with their capabilities is largely the responsibility of the government. Many private enterprises, industrialists and multi national conglomerates have been able to somewhat fill the void in providing jobs to the unemployed millions in our country. However, these are few and very localized. The government should be able to employ all the educated unemployed individuals in jobs suited to their areas of interest; for e.g. an engineer should not have to work as a banker or a graduate take up a peon's job. It is the responsibility of the government to create jobs and generate employment. There are numerous schemes for employability training. However, there are not enough corresponding jobs for these trained people.

A major problem with a poor economy like India that private entrepreneurship is also at a very limited scale in comparison to the population. People tend to float NGOs and garner charity and donations from foreigners which again is like a drop in the ocean. As there are no supervisory bodies many of the NGOs discredit themselves by misappropriating funds and not channelizing their resources in the proper direction. So the effort of the NGOs often does not impact the target group significantly.
A vigilant and proactive government can research and develop areas where employment can be generated on a large scale that will help to resolve the unemployment crisis and also render basic services to the public. Even though a large portion of our population still lives in villages our urban centres are exploding with people migrating from rural areas everyday in search of employment. This creates tremendous pressure on the resources of the urban centres. Most of our metropolitan cities have extensive slum areas with minimal civic amenities. A large work force can be created out of this migrant population to enhance services in the towns and urban areas. For e.g. people can be employed to keep the cities, roads and public places clean and hygienic.

Most of the important national monuments and historical buildings are in a state of extreme disrepair and neglect. Part of this huge reservoir of unemployed people can be utilized to address these issues. So if the government is serious about generating more employment there are many such avenues that can be explored and opportunities for employment can be provided. Schemes and acts like the MGNREGA present great possibilities but they need to be implemented effectively to yield optimum results and affect the lives of those who are in genuine need of these welfare projects.