Human Resource Policies

1.What is meant by Human Resources?

Human resources from the point of view of a country refers to people who contribute to the growth and economic development. Some examples are

• People who are employed in an organized sector contributes to the direct taxes
• People who are employed in unorganized sector also indirectly contributes to the economy
• People who are involved in public service are needed for the smooth functioning of Government
• Students who are getting educated form the future of Human Resources that the country would require

In general socio economic upliftment of people through poverty alleviation, urban slum development, rural development etc., also contributes to improvement in human resources.

1.1What is the difference between Organized and Unorganized Sector?

1.2 Human Resources in India: 

• India has a population of 1.25 billion. Its huge population is a great advantage for India. Another notable feature of Indian population is its Demographic Dividend. It refers to people in the age group of 15-59 years.
• More than 63% of Indian population lies within this age group and hence India has a tremendous potential for providing education and creating additional employment and thus improve its economic growth.

2. What do we need to do?

India needs to utilize its potential of demographic dividend. The following are some ways in which we can do it

1. Creating Entrepreneurs
2. Creation of more jobs
3. Skilling our population
4. Focus on creating rural employment opportunities

2.1 Creating Entrepreneurs

Creating more entrepreneurs is important for the following reasons

• It the short run it reduces unemployment to an extent
• In the long run it creates more jobs and reduces unemployment significantly

Government has launched its ambitious Startup India and Standup India programmes to achieve this

Startup India and Standup India programmes: 

• Startup India scheme was launched for promoting entrepreneurship. They aim at creating more number of startups by providing easier access to funding and lesser government regulations to encourage them.
• Standup India scheme was launched to encourage entrepreneurship among women, Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) 
• Rural India is also aimed to be covered through Deen Dayal Upadhyay Swaniyojan Yojana 

What is a Startup?

• An entity which is less than 5 years old and
• whose turnover is less than 25 crores in the last 5 years and
• is concerned with research, innovation and technology

Core Features of this Scheme:

2.2 Creation of more jobs

India has achieved a tremendous economic growth in the past decade. However this growth has not created more jobs for its population. This is called Jobless Growth.

The manufacturing sector has huge potential to create additional employment. But the government needs more investments to improve this sector. Thus the Government announced its flagship Make in India Program.

Make in India

Make in India program was launched to encourage both foreign and domestic companies to manufacture their products in India. It aims at making India a global manufacturing hub. The following flowchart explains the major focus areas of Make in India.

Followup to this Scheme:

1. India emerged as the top global destination for Foreign investment after the launch of this scheme
2. Make in India focuses on 25 major sectors of the economy
3. As a policy measure 100% FDI is allowed in most of these major sectors
4. Ease of doing business was also improved to facilitate the companies to set up their businesses easily

Potential For Jobs:

Make in India initiative covers all important sectors of the economy and hence it has the potential to create more jobs. Some examples are as follows

• Sectors like textiles, garments and leather are labour intensive
• Food Processing sector can become a boon to farmers and rural employment
• Sectors like electrical and electronics are in a nascent stage and thus there is a huge scope

2.3 Improving Skill Development

Skill development refers to imparting employable skills to the people. The requirements of the industries for employment are not met by the conventional education system. It is estimated that only 2.3% of the workforce in India has undergone formal skill training as compared to 75% in Germany and 68% in the UK.

Skill India: 

Skill India initiative aims to provide skill training to 40 crore people in India. The broad components of the scheme are given in the chart below

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana is an important part of Skill India mission. PMKVY has the following objectives

• Improving the work efficiency of probable and existing daily wage earners
• Provision of monetary rewards during skill training
• National Skill Development Council has been made the coordinating agency to implement this scheme
• It has a target of skilling one crore youth from 2016 to 2020

2.4  Focus on Creating Rural Employment Opportunities

Rural employment opportunities can be created by improving the skills of rural population and creating manufacturing bases in the villages. For Example, low skilled food processing, manufacturing and hand loom weaving are some labour intensive sectors in rural areas.

Wage employment programs

Wage employment programs are primarily aimed at alleviation of poverty by providing a job for a fixed minimum wage. The wage earners in turn work on building community assets or other works that arise as per needs. For Example: relief works during and after calamities.

Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) 

MGNREGS serves the following twin purposes

1. creating employment
2. building community assets

The works generally taken up under MGNREGS are constructing rural roads, toilets in schools, providing water for agriculture through digging of open wells, renovating traditional water bodies

Advantages:

• It provided a wage for the employees to meet their basic necessities and thus improving their nutritional standards
• It resulted in better bargaining power for individuals to demand more salaries from other employers
• It reduced rural-urban migration in search of jobs

Disadvantages: 

• It was not a fixed income as the employment is seasonal in nature
• It resulted in the casualisation of labour, i.e., the nature of work is inferior to a skill based or a self employment
• It did not impart skills and thus the experience of workers in these programs did not count when they seek new jobs
• It has not encourage the poor, weaker sections to take up entrepreneurship

Rural Skill Development Programs

Skill development programs in rural India are more important than in urban areas because the rural youth are comparatively less exposed to the availability of job opportunities and hence they do not have the motivation to undergo job specific education or training. The following program is an important program launched for rural skill development.

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY)

• DDU-GKY aims at improving the employability of rural youth in the age group of 15 to 35 years.
• Skill training would be provided based on industry standards
• Monetary rewards of around 8000 will be provided to every trainee based on third party assessment

Rural Self Employment Programs

Self employment programs aims at mobilising people to come together and create jobs and other opportunities through their combined efforts. They help in rural economic development and help build a prosperous community. The following is one such example.

Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY)

SGSY aims at providing self employment to people living Below Poverty Line in villages. It is also known as National Rural Livelihood Mission.

What they do?

• Organize the BPL poor into Self Help Groups
• Seek funds through Government subsidies and bank credit
• They form clusters based on their skills
• They work on a specific activity based on those skills and develop these skills further
• The District Development Agencies and state Governments also provide training
• They establish micro enterprises in villages

Reference 

1. Wikipedia
2.  Firstpost
3.  Vikaspedia