During the last two quarters of the financial year, the unemployment statistics of Goa has been making headlines again and again even as the government has tried its best to fend off criticism by promising recruitments in thousands in the coming months. One of the maiden attempts to ensure that was to organise a ‘Mega Job Fair’ earlier this month in which more than 20,000 youth across the State registered to get a placement amongst the 5,000 job offers which were to be made available at the event.
However, the shocker came when the Chief Minister refuted the Central government’s policy think tank statistics that around 1.10 lakh are unemployed in the State, claiming that only 20,000 are actually unemployed in Goa.
The Chief Minister may well be within the factual spectrum of analysis of Goa’s employment scenario, however, between being employed and unemployed a third category of the population, under-employed exists. A person being adequately employed in a family is akin to sustainable development in ecology.
While it can be disputed and argued that one’s desire to grow vertically in employment prospects can never have a ceiling and therefore being adequately employed will differ from person-to-person, there is no doubt that an educated and qualified individual’s performance within the realm of the activities entrusted will see exponential change when the labour and efforts are rightly rewarded.
In the post Covid-19 pandemic world, when job security is at its highest risk with even the major corporations which rule over the social media giants laying off a large section of their employees, those who have been vulnerable from the word go about their employment prospects, will certainly fear being replaced without even a blink from the employer.
Therefore, Goa government will have to become the torch bearer and formulate an employment policy for the 22nd century, leaving behind the legacy of the 20th century policies and laws that were derived from colonial powers and formulated when India was a nascent nation.
Today, when the country aims to be a five trillion economy, the growth and progress cannot be brought about only by the big corporates and the honchos with the biggest net worth. The economy of the country runs due to the overwhelming contribution of the large section of the population in the form of indirect taxes and the only way to ensure that their spending capacity doubles up is by providing adequate employment. Else another large section of the population will emerge which will always be dependant on the government support.
Amongst the expected norms for employment, one of the foremost policy changes would be to bring in parity of job security and financial security between the public and private sector. The government will have to put its foot down to ensure that once employed, an individual unless is incapable of providing the expected services, shall have the safety net of being at the job until reaching the point of next level in the vertical.
Similarly, to ensure that Goan youth who are being offered white collar jobs are willing to serve in the State, need to be provided adequate remuneration, attractive enough to stop their feet from crossing over to the neighbouring States, especially in the tech-domain.
Another issue that the government needs to address is that in the garb of employee contracts, one should not be deceived into being a service provider, so that the employer takes the advantage of not having to provide benefits except for the remuneration and the employee is at a loss of having no security, neither job nor financial.
While, it is true that companies need to be provided incentives in order to attract their investments, it is equally true that the responsibility of a welfare State is to bring a balance and not bow down to exploitation, ensuring that the gap between the haves and have nots is not ever expanding.