The recession and job cuts are happening today. But lakhs of those enrolled with the government’s employment exchanges have been feeling the heat for almost a decade now.
The recession and job cuts are happening today. But lakhs of those enrolled with the government’s employment exchanges (EEs) have been feeling the heat for almost a decade now. Despite the UPA government’s tall claims of providing the highest number of jobs, statistics show otherwise. The nearly 1,000 employment exchanges have not employed 100 people each annually.
The latest ministry report says that of the 4 crore job seekers registered in 965 exchanges during 2007, just 2.64 lakh got jobs even though 5.26 lakh vacancies were notified by the government.
Another study by Assocham questioned the effectiveness of the exchanges, as the 37 EEs in Bihar boast of just 4 placements per exchange per year. For Assam the figures are 7 per exchange at its 52 exchanges, for UP 37 per exchange at its 90 exchanges, Andhra managed 42 per exchange at its 31 and Karnataka 45 per exchange at its 37 exchanges in a year.
The Delhi department of manpower and employment’s estimated plan and non-plan expenditure in 2006 totalled Rs 57 lakh but translated to only 70 placements in 2005. That means it cost the government over Rs80,000 per placement.
The study also found that even if, post 2001-02, the number of vacancies notified on the EEs grew substantially, it was not met by even a parallel rise in the number of placements.
“Shutting down the non-functional units and an active conditioning of the inefficient EEs with private participation would lead to greater job creation,” said Assocham secretary general DS Rawat. Other measures suggested by Assocham include amending the Employment Exchanges Act to allow private EEs to provide placement to private and public sectors. Acknowledging their ineffectiveness, a senior labour ministry official said the ministry has started revamping EEs but refused to elaborate due to the EC’s code of conduct. It is learnt the new EEs will be an online database of job-seekers and -providers like naukri.com and monster.com.
The maximum number of EEs are in UP (90), followed by Kerala (89), and West Bengal (75). Maharashtra has 47, Gujarat 44, Rajasthan 42 and Karnataka 37. But the highest number of job seekers were in West Bengal (64 lakh), Tamil Nadu (48.4 lakh), Kerala (40.5 lakh), Maharashtra (33.7 lakh) and UP (33.4 lakh). Also, there were 9.59 lakh job seekers in Karnataka and 8.73 lakh in Rajashtan. These job seekers ranged from freshers and inexperienced youth looking for menial jobs to graduates and post-graduates seeking administrative posts.
Gujarat (2.45 lakh) and Maharashtra (82,000) notified maximum number of vacancies in 2007. Accordingly, placement was also highest in Gujarat with 1.78 lakh people getting employment even though about 8 lakh people were registered with its EEs. Maharashtra could place only 8,200. Karnataka notified 13,900 vacancies but could place only 1,600.
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