Uttarakhand govt to set up cell for better coordination for facilitating employment for returnees
The announcement was made after a report, prepared by the Uttarakhand migration commission, was released in Dehradun earlier in the day, regarding the people who returned to the Himalayan state during the Covid crisis. Rawat is the chairman of the commission.
Fifty-eight per cent of over 2.15 lakh people who returned to their homes in Uttarakhand during the Covid-19 epidemic are skilled and will be encouraged to seek employment under the state government’s Mukhyamantri Swarojgar Yojana (MSY), said chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.
The announcement was made after a report, prepared by the Uttarakhand migration commission, was released in Dehradun earlier in the day, regarding the people who returned to the Himalayan state during the Covid crisis. Rawat is the chairman of the commission.
In May this year, as a strategy to retain the migrants who returned to the state during the lockdown, CM Rawat had inaugurated MSY, aimed at providing self-employment opportunities to youth and ensuring reverse migration, especially in the case of those who have returned to Uttarakhand in recent months.
The fresh report listed the details about people who returned to the 13 districts of the Uttarakhand till June 21. The report also has details regarding the employment status and skill-sets of these people.
According to SS Negi, vice chairman Uttarakhand rural development and migration commission, of 2.15 lakh people, the maximum number of people have returned to Pauri and Almora districts.
“Those who have returned comprise 80.66 % from other states, 0.29 % from other countries and 18.11 % from different districts within the state to their home districts”, he said.
“We also conducted skill mapping of these people and found that over 58 per cent of them are employed in private jobs, hospitality and allied sectors”, he said.
Speaking after releasing the report, CM Rawat said more and more people should be encouraged to seek employment within the state under Mukhyamantri Swarojgar Yojana. He said many ongoing schemes and projects have been linked with MSY.
“For better coordination between various departments and projects, a state-level cell will be established by the state government in this regard”, he said.
Over 15000 people who have returned from other states have already registered themselves with the Uttarakhand government’s online portal hope.uk.gov.in (Helping Out People Everywhere) for seeking employment within the state.
Over the last few weeks, the state government has been linking all various schemes under different departments under the umbrella of Mukhymantri Swarojgar Yojna to retain people, returned to the state, by facilitating their employment in the state and thus check hill migration.
For effective implementation of MSY, the state government in May launched an online portal hope.uk.gov.in (Helping Out People Everywhere) through which skilled people of Uttarakhand can upload details regarding their expertise based on which authorities and employers here can take a decision on where and how they can be employed in the state.
Migration of people from Uttarakhand to other areas of the country is one of the major issues faced by the Himalayan state, with roots in economic disparities, declining agriculture, low rural incomes and a stressed rural economy.
Over 700 villages in the state have been deserted and over 3.83 lakh people have left their villages in the 10 years prior to 2018 with half of them going out in search of livelihood, revealed the report of the migration commission released in May last year. Of nearly 16,500 villages in the state, 734 villages, mostly in the hilly areas, have been depopulated.
Migration, especially from rural areas in Uttarakhand, is a serious problem with a comparison between 2001 and 2011 census data showing a very slow decadal growth of population in most of the mountain districts of the state, according to the Commission.
The data analyzed by the Commission points towards a positive rate of decadal increase in the population of districts like Dehradun, US Nagar, Nainital and Haridwar while negative in Pauri, Almora, Tehri, Bageshwar, Chamoli, Rudraprayag and Pithoragarh districts.