The message which has gone out to companies, especially the dominant pharma ones from the Goa Forward President and TCP minister Vijai Sardesai is ‘Leave Goa if you don’t employ Goans”.
This message was needed and warranted. Companies which set up their bases in Goa, with deserving benefits, need to give back to the state in terms of certain jobs for locals. While this is always expected, governments seldom demand this with the vigour that it’s needed.
However, the management of job creation is extremely complex and though job assurances by companies which come to Goa are important, it is just as critical to empower Goans to be wealth creators, outside of the need to demand jobs from multinationals and other companies.
There has been a shift in the thinking of the government too but that needs to dominate the discourse. In the last term of the government, the 50,000 job promise was expected to bring a surge of support and goodwill, for a state where a government job is a prized ambition. The responsibility now lies with the state to actually change mindsets. There has to be a process of sensitisation of the youth as well as adults.
This has to happen across towns and villages, municipalities and panchayats, across colleges and professional institutions. The message that needs to be articulated is that the government will try and ensure a climate where there is a minimum of jobs that are earmarked for Goans but that dependence needs to be reduced over time. It will take years, but the felt need that it needs to be done is extremely crucial.
Which is why, the IT policy, the start up policy and the industry policy, has and should continue to be focussed on giving the best foundation to the young to create wealth through start up and other entrepreneurship opportunities.
If by following this path, the people of Goa, especially the youn,g can become job creators from job seekers, Goa will see a revolution greater than all movements and revolutions our land has ever witnessed.
The future lies in this. Firstly the start ups should extend their scope to non-IT sectors and move from Business to Business (B2B) to Business to Consumers (B2C). Health, social welfare, services, transport and so on are sectors where the scope is limitless.
Moreover, this journey cannot be undertaken without conventional stake holders like schools and colleges brought on board. The spirit of creating companies, organisations should be inculcated in classrooms and laboratories. Our education system must adapt and change to be a part of this new journey.
No aspect of our society can live and work in isolation. Sectors like Health and Education have to work with industry and IT to develop a policy for self sustaining wealth creation which should be the mother of all policies. In fact that should be a mantra, a way of life and not just a policy.
When that happens, we will not have to make any demands from any company to give Goans jobs. Goans will walk not just as equals, but with their heads held high as wealth and opportunity creators. That is the future that we must seek and achieve.
