imely intervention by the Opposition political parties and the hue and cry that followed online and offline, forced the pharmaceutical companies in the State and foiled the attempts to organise recruitment drives outside Goa for their units in the State.
A Verna-based pharma company on Wednesday cancelled the walk-in interview scheduled on May 24, at Boisar, Mumbai, for several openings in the Verna facility. On Thursday, another pharmaceutical company situated at Madkai industrial estate cancelled its walk-in recruitment drive scheduled at Pune, on Sunday, May 26. Meanwhile, there were reports of yet another company that had scheduled interviews in Vapi, Gujarat, for its unit located at Verna.
After the abrupt closure of the mining industry in the State in 2012, the Goan youth have been facing unprecedented employment challenges. In 2023, Goa topped the list of unemployment rate in the country.
The unemployment data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) earlier this year showed that Goa has the highest unemployment rate. It was 11.6 per cent in January 2023, 15.5 per cent in April 2023 and 13.7 per cent in August 2023. Goa’s unemployment rate is more than four times the national average of 3.17 per cent, according to the CMIE.
Another report by the Handbook of Statistics on Indian States, published by the Reserve Bank of India, placed Goa’s average unemployment rate in rural areas at 113% and the urban areas at 87%, for the financial year ended March 2023.
Last year, in June, the government announced the launch of the Goa Chief Minister’s Apprenticeship Scheme 2023 (GCMAS) and aimed to place 10,000 Goan youth across the public sector, autonomous organisations as well as the private sector. In November 2022, the Office of the Labour and Employment organised a mega job fair, where the Employment Commissioner’s office received over 14,000 entries of job seekers with almost 150 employers, including overseas companies from Australia, present for the job fair.
The statistics of CMIE, the Reserve Bank and the mega job fair, point to the urgency of the matter and the serious intervention of the government needed in resolving the unemployment in the State. Demand for 80 per cent reservations in industries for locals has been a constant demand for decades, however, the problem has escalated ever since the closure of the mining industry and the drop in the State’s tourism sector.
Every year hundreds of youth pass out of Goa University and from technical institutes, qualifying all of them to be recruited in the pharmaceutical sector alone with BSc, BPharm, MPharm, diploma, etc. Yet these companies opted to take the outstation recruitment route.
Some of the reasons cited often are lack of industrial experience and the other being a tag of ‘susegad’. Both undermine the capability of the Goan youth. Every fresher gains experience only after being given an opportunity to work. If the fresh pass-outs can be recruited under the Apprenticeship Scheme, then, why not on regular employment?
The only entity to be blamed for the lackadaisical attitude is the government and its department. Despite the constant uproar in the Goa Legislative Assembly for more than a decade when the present ruling dispensation is in power with absolute majority, no amendments or new laws have been legislated to reserve gainful employment for Goan youth in industries in the State. Even the penalties under the labour laws for not informing the Employment Exchange about the recruitment drive have not been enhanced and still stand at a meagre of Rs 500 for the first offence and Rs 1,000 subsequently.
Time and again the government has made tall claims of providing thousands of jobs during its tenure and asking youth to return to the State for gainful employment. However, with policy paralysis and soaring unemployment, the Goan youth are forced to migrate. The brain drain will prove disastrous and the government ought to take a corrective course of action to streamline the recruitment policies of the industries in the State.
