Moa Jamir
The mantra Nagaland State should immediately undertake to tackle the dual crisis of unemployment and quality education
Cometh the hour, cometh the man goes a popular saying. In case of Nagaland State, it could be written as ‘Cometh the crisis, cometh the blame.’
Consequently, top echelons of the State Government were firing salvos attacking inter-related ‘crises’ of unemployment and education in Nagaland, by exactly blaming the system they lord over.
One referred to the “wrong or inadequate in our education system” and suggested that high literacy can “become a burden” while the other chose to bust the “myth” of unemployment by statistically implying that the people are “lazy.”
The former, Chief Minister TR Zeliang, noted that “true education should equip the students with the right skill, relevant for the present situation, and with the right attitude or mindset towards work.”
Over “50,000 non Nagas” in Nagaland – almost 3% of Nagaland’s population, had a total income of approximately Rs. 475 crore, informed the latter, Parliamentary Secretary PWD (H), Er. Levi Rengma, citing a 2013 survey report.
“For the lazy, dishonest and in-disciplined, this world is going to be cruel and you will find your life very frustrating,” he sermonised.
As a corollary, inadvertently or otherwise, the Parliamentary Secretary PWD (H) hinted at the issue of ‘migration,’ a subject that has elicited much bigotry and chauvinism in Nagaland State.
Migration, in essence, can be considered as an opportunity and a challenge. An opportunity as it offers to make labour cheaper thereby enabling robust economic growth but also a challenge for societal governance.
In their grand homilies, both conveniently forgot to introspect whether the policies and implementation of the incumbent government may be contributing to such crises.
No doubt, provision of appropriate education and rising unemployment are big challenges for any government. But the bigger question is whether the government is undertaking any corrective measures to confront these challenges?
Statistically, if we go according to The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) 68th round of the Employment Unemployment Surveys (July 2011-June 2012), with reference to a period of 365 days, Nagaland had 700 out of every 1000 persons in the working age group, much higher than the All-India average of 613.
This is a human resource that can be tapped into for future growth, Vyasan R IAS argued in a policy paper recently. “However, for such a high proportion of people in the working age to be meaningful, they should be engaged in economic activities,” he added.
In absolute terms, Nagaland had a total labour force (which includes both employed and the unemployed) of over 8.83 lakhs, out of which 7.28 lakhs are in the workforce. It roughly translates to 1.55 lakhs unemployed employable persons.
If the Chief Minister is able to see why this statistic remains so (lack of skill training in education), what is stopping his government from searching for a solution?
A “silver bullet” policy or speech highlighting maladies without any groundwork once out of public gaze or stage would only aggravate the crises.
Tackling the issues, particularly contentious ones like migration, requires comprehensive structural actions that go beyond vigilantism - a policy and legal framework that organizes economic migration flows in a controlled manner.
Once mistakes are identified, the foremast task is to correct them. In this regard, the government needs to develop an integrated set of responses and pursue them with rigor instead of mere lip service. If the government does not have the tenacity to see this through, it will prove detrimental to the healthy progress of society.
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