SurferSpeak: That folly of Govt policy

Quotas in industry is nothing short of passing the buck, opines our surfer.

Panel of ministers set up to discuss the issue of reservation for SC/ ST/OBC in private sector has submitted its report to the cabinet.

The Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Ms Meira Kumar passes signal that bill on the issue is ready and will be tabled in parliament soon.

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Though, she seems to have claimed that report has been compiled with the consultation of various political parties, corporate houses, industrialists and other concerned people in depth, a sign of nod on the part of some major business tycoons of the country is yet to be received.

The government's inability to accommodate rapidly growing work force in public sector units for obvious reasons abets government to seek the contribution of private sector.

Though it seems difficult for the government to get the quota Bill passed in parliament, it is supposed to discuss the issue first with major players of the industry and evolve a national consensus on the matter.

Imposing reservation on private sector in its present format would make no benefit either for these SC/ ST/ OBC people or economy of the country.

Logics supporting the contentious issue actually rest on the fact that even after 60 years, a large number of SC/ ST/ OBC people are living below the poverty line and significantly large number of educated people among these are unemployed too.

However, an in depth analysis reveals that this is the outcome of the failure of various governmental policies like food policy, primary education policy, housing policy etc.

Therefore, rather than making politics of vote bank, UPA government urgently requires some remedial steps to fill the cracks either in the design or implementation or administration of the policies aforesaid.

The present format of the Bill looks not more than a political agenda of UPA government as this shows no concerns with the unemployed educated people other than SC/ ST/ OBC community.

Government must invite private sector players to discuss the ways that will create abundant employment opportunities in private sector and then take any decision.

Any unwise step at this juncture may bring our economic growth at halt gearing towards a double-digit growth.

Although, adequate and appropriate initiatives to provide the primary and middle level education to economically and socially backward people and introduction of technical training programmes emerge as the most vital tool to convert them in skilled manpower.

However, developing new models with the contribution of private sector to garner adequate job opportunities for those people also seems to be the crying need of hour.

The absence of such approaches will indicate -- unwillingness of government to resolve this sensitive issue and have an effect of racing the car in neutral.

"Public Private Partnership" (PPP) has certainly appeared as the most innovative instrument having a synergic effect to address the issue.

It aims at building and developing more and new assets, capital infrastructures and other rural development projects, which in turn will generate abundant employment opportunities for skilled and unskilled work force.

This kind of synchronisation between government and private sector will surely help the economy to touch new highs in future as well as ensure better utilisation of manpower available in country.

Hemant Sharma is our regular surfer and can be contacted atsharma_hemant1@rediffmail.com.

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All views and opinions presented in this article are solely those of the surfer and do not necessarily represent those of HindustanTimes.com.