Nov
23
Entrepreneurial Skill Needs an Inclusive Pathway -- Prof. S Vaidhyasubramaniam. Live by dharma, not kisses, to make Bharatam perfect.
Entrepreneurial Skill Needs an Inclusive Pathway
By S Vaidhyasubramaniam
Published: 22nd November 2014 10:00 PM
Last Updated: 22nd November 2014 01:56 PM
Married couples across
the country almost started believing that kissing and hugging in the
streets is the only way to express affection and confining it within
their homes is being unfair to the spouse. The alarming rate at which
media attention shifted to the hissing ‘Kiss of Love,’ it took a fizzing
‘Cabinet 2.0’ to divert media attention temporarily and also ensure
that Swachh Bharat was not misunderstood as Smooch Bharat. The avoidable
but continuing media discourse on the travails of marginal deviants has
fortunately not blinded us from the birth of the new baby in the
Cabinet expansion—Ministry of Skill and Entrepreneurship. Detached from
Youth Affairs and Sports, this independent creation is essential for
strengthening India’s economic backbone—its entrepreneurial skilled
workforce.
Education has been
identified as a major priority area in the post-2015 development agenda
discussions involving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), Education
for All (EFA) and other multi-lateral global initiatives. According to
the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, the primary school enrolment in
South Asia has increased from the levels of 75 per cent in 2000 to 90
per cent in 2011. India’s response has been reasonable good in primary
education with dropout rates not being very high as a percentage when
compared to the numbers (because of the population size) of its South
Asian neighbours Pakistan or Bangladesh. However, considering the size
of the biggest South Asian nation, India, the number of non-schoolgoing
children is still alarmingly high. Various socio-cultural barriers along
with other policy bottlenecks are reasons for this massive exclusion
which are clearly visible in the huge number of non-participant children
or those at the risk of dropping out from school. The concerning trend
is in the increasing dropout in the post-lower secondary school
education and the risk of this number growing in the future. On one
hand, retention is a good strategy to arrest this trend and on the other
hand, developing sustainable models of engagement for the
dropouts/potential dropouts is necessary to avoid a huge social crisis.
The focus of education
must shift from enrolment to empowerment. An increased gross enrolment
ratio is critical for progress, but equally critical is an alternate
livelihood mechanism for school dropouts. They need to be part of the
formal national skill development framework through an institutionalised
mechanism designed for them. The vision of the Union Government in
certain national tasks like Make in India, Swachh Bharat, Jan Dhan,
Smart Cities, etc. has a common skilled workforce requirement that
necessitates massive skill development programmes for school dropouts
leading to job creation or self-employment opportunities. School
dropouts cannot be left behind as academic outcastes.
Prof. R Vaidyanathan, in
his book titled India UnInc. explores the Indian economic architecture
through the lens of its proprietors and partners (P&P)—according to
him, the real national economic players and not highly educated. The
P&P constitute the entrepreneurial non-corporate sector which
provides 90 per cent of the country’s employment and is 45 per cent of
India’s economy, which is three times the corporate share of economy. It
is unfortunate that this economic spine of our country is also the most
neglected one. The formal banking system has failed to serve the small
and medium enterprises with adequate financial support covering less
than 10 per cent of the people involved in the non-corporate sector,
forcing many to borrow at non-competitive costs of capital.
Non-corporates cannot be left behind as financial outcastes.
vaidhya@sastra.edu
http://www.newindianexpress.com/magazine/voices/2014/11/22/Entrepreneurial-Skill-Needs-an-Inclusive-Pathway/article2534589.ece
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