Skilling the Migrant Workers for Enhanced Employability

Abstract

Today the world is moving towards skill and technology. All sectors are newlineincreasingly embracing skilled manpower. Employment protection and opportunity newlinefor better earnings are all possible with skilling. Labour productivity can also be newlineachieved with skilling. Our nation is sitting on a goldmine called Human resources. However, the drawback is improper utilization of these resources. The majority of newlinethese workers are employed in the unorganized sector. Working in this unorganized newlinesector provides not much scope for improvement. The hallmark of the unorganized newlinesector is exploitation. Workers are not properly paid nor there is job guarantee. There newlineis also no scope for in house training facility. With these inherent problems the future newlineis bleak for this vast pool of talent. Many youths forego their talent and compromise newlinefor short gains. Migrants constitute a large segment working in the unorganized sector.It is also newlinea well-known fact that because of their inherent drawbacks they are forced to work in newlinethe unorganized sector and are exploited. The system of finding work through agents newlineand other means has its own misgivings. This trap is a well-oiled machine of newlineexploitation and all types of workers, the young and the middle aged are victims. It is newlinealso impossible for them to extricate themselves from this vicious cycle of newlineexploitation as they are caught in between the devil and the deep sea. They cannot go newlineback as they will have taken loans to migrate and working for meagre jobs are the newlineonly option. It is here that the government should step in, if at all they want to make newlineuse of the so called demographic dividend. The government has no doubt taken a newlinegreat step in this direction by setting up a ministry for skilling and training. Crores of newlinemoney has been spent on training and placements but the vast majority are still newlineunaware of this herculean effort. This research throws light on this aspect of reach. How and where the last mile newlineloopholes have to be plugged in to ensure the efforts do not go in vain. Majority of newlinethe sampled migrant workers agreed that skill development is the most important newline newlinexv newline newlineaspect for enhanced employability. The major issue with unskilled migrants is that newlinethey are unable to work in the organised sector, which necessitates upskilling. They newlinehave also expressed their willingness to get trained if some of the bottlenecks are newlineremoved. The migrant workers have stated that the most significant constraints they newlineface are a lack of time after working hours and the possibility of losing daily wages. They are in favour of on the job training. However the unorganized sector does not newlineencourage such training facilities. It is critical from both the socio-economic and newlinedemographic points of view. It is an important tool for reducing poverty, enhancing newlinecompetitiveness and employability and to promote the self-entrepreneurship among newlineyouths. With this new approach, our economy can surely achieve its targeted results. Migration is a means to supply labour for the various developmental initiatives. However the migrant workers face lot of challenges in getting good education, skill newlinetraining and employment. Providing the migrant worker with the necessary skills can newlinego a long way in harnessing their potential and bring them to the mainstream of newlineorganized sector thereby end their suffering to a greater extent. Also what is equally newlineimportant is skilling can happen at the local and regional level also. A newlinesynchronization of development of technology and trade should happen in all the newlinerural levels thereby quickening the skill initiatives of the government. newline