In an encouraging development, especially in times when the nation is grappling with joblessness, Prime Minister Narendra Modi distributed seventy thousand job letters for vacancies across India and launched a scathing attack on the Opposition parties, saying they looted youth with 'rate cards' for jobs. Modi's discourse largely revolved around the shortcomings of the Congress regime, with repeated highlights of corruption and nepotism. Last month, the PM distributed another seventy-one thousand letters to recruits.
Interestingly, the PM announced that Rozgar Melas have now become the new identity of the BJP-NDA governments. Goa, too, had its share of job fairs, having organised some over the years against the backdrop of spiralling unemployment and Goans leaving the State in search of job openings overseas. Unfortunately, job fairs in Goa have failed to get the desired traction because of inherent issues.
While Modi distributed job letters in Delhi on Tuesday, Union Minister of State and Lok Sabha MP from North Goa Shripad Naik distributed 126 appointment letters to candidates from Goa who had applied for various jobs as part of the Centre's Rozgar Mela programme. The vacancies filled were in the State Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Railways, Customs, Revenue CGST, Labour (ESIC) and Defence.
On paper, this looks like an encouraging development for Goa because these are placements in central offices. One gets the impression that the appetite and success of Goans in competitive exams must have grown substantially. In reality, locals are by far few in the list of 126, and most of the jobs have gone to 'non-Goans'. Transparency is the keyword here, and it would do a world of good to the confidence of Goans if Shripad had to list out the locals in the list of 126.
The biggest problem Goa faces is creating government jobs against the State's precarious fiscal situation. Given this situation, the government must work out ways and means to make private jobs lucrative and available to Goans. The job projections made during IPB approvals of projects have been hollow because there is no onus on industries to hire Goans. The sops offered in consideration of jobs for locals have not worked.
Over the weekend, the chief minister said that Goa's tourism industry has vast potential and that two lakh jobs would be created in the hospitality industry in the next five years. The issue is again coming full circle with headline-grabbing announcements which hold no guarantee that Goans could be exclusive beneficiaries. The biggest pitfall of the job fairs in Goa is that the State has failed to cater to the needs of the industry. The focus has to be on skill development; otherwise, there will be a mismatch, and Goans will always be on the losing side, losing out on job opportunities.
Secondly, the State has to prepare a consolidated database of its unemployment and available resource. Belting out hypothetical numbers of job opportunities and assuming that Goa's unemployment problem will resolve on its own is a wishful thought. The mindset towards tackling unemployment has to change first.
