Crores of people were given training under various skill-development packages of the government, and billions of rupees were spent. Even majority of these trained people are unemployed, because there is little scope for them to get gainful employment or self-employment. Now, with a renewed focus on development of rural industries, the country will hopefully need large number of skilled persons in new areas of interests.

Hitherto, urban economy has flourished at the cost of rural economy. Plastic industry almost killed earthenware rural industry. Rural leather industry run is almost ruined by urban tanning and allied industries. Making iron tools for agriculture is snatched by urban iron industry. Cakes of various pulses (soya, mung, urad etc) (badiyan) were being made by villagers but these are now being made and supplied by urban industries. Carpentry is under threat on account of increasing unavailability of wood, which is being replaced by non-wood products. These examples are only a few to mention. In fact, all the traditional works of our rural people are under threat which has already pushed them under poverty line. Almost all the activities in the rural areas are heavily dependent on urban centres nearby. In the present scenario the only hope seems to be introduction of urbanisation of the rural areas.

Government of India is in the process of making and implementing a new policy in which agricultural land is to be acquired by business houses for modern agricultural activities including establishment of ‘business hubs’ in all the development blocks in the country. It will take time on account of controversy enveloping the issue. The major objection is being raised is that the new policy will sharply increase already high number of landless people.

In the meantime, what is to be done?

It is a well known fact that agriculture and allied activities still support livelihoods of nearly 70 percent of our rural population. Therefore, we need to give priority to skill development in agriculture and allied activities.

We should also keep in view that the land based livelihoods of small and marginal farmers, which form majority of the rural population, are increasingly becoming unsustainable. On account of small area of their land, very low productivity level, and lack of water for irrigation or irrigation facilities, their land does not support even the food requirement of their families and fodder for their cattle. That is why they always look for alternative means of livelihood.

Moreover, there are landless rural folks who are entirely dependent on others for any type of employment. They either work as agricultural labour or go to the nearby towns in search of any kind of gainful work.

The other 30 per cent rural population depend entirely on non-agricultural activities and most of them are unskilled for any kind of job.

We should have therefore a concrete plan for skill development for both agricultural and non-agricultural activities in the rural areas, since almost 70 per cent of the country’s population still reside in villages.

It is worth mentioning here that our successive governments have always been puzzled with the enormity of the task. Policies have always been conceived and implemented without much attention to the real need of the rural India, and they have always been suffered by ad-hocism. There have never been a clue as to how can we solve the problem. It was in this context, government of India had requested the World Bank to study and recommend something to be implemented in India. World Bank had prepared a working paper in 2006, which emphasized on reform to cater to the labour market. Our government is working on those lines and trying to create skilled labour force for labour market in India and abroad.

Our approach to the problem should have been different. Employment generation and skill development should have gone simultaneously both for rural and urban areas in the country. Creation of surplus skilled labour force only for the global labour market is not of equal importance as compared to employment generation in urban and rural areas of the country.

Our problem is different. Over 50 per cent of the labour force are still engaged in rural activities. Although there has been a significant movement away from agriculture this has still left most of the labor force, over 90 percent, working in the informal sector, much of it at low levels of productivity.

There is an alarming situation. Rural unemployment rate has increased from 1.2 per cent in 1993-94 to 10.1 per cent in November 2010 as compared to the urban unemployment rate of 0.8 per cent to 7.3 per cent. Even migration of rural folk to the urban areas is not a guarantee of job because of ever increasing unemployment rate in the urban areas too. The period under consideration corresponds to the period of the regime of the new economic policy and reforms focussing on globalization.

Trends suggest that the accumulation of human capital in rural areas has been low and growth will be centered on urban areas. Only 40 percent of the jobs created in the six years (between 1993-94 and 1999-2000) were in rural areas. Some researchers have argued that the slow shift away from the primary sector may signal low levels of human capital among rural workers and their inability to gain better jobs in other sectors. Occupations in demand over the 90s included administrative, executive and managerial workers, sales workers, low-skill construction workers, skilled workers like toolmakers, and machine and transport equipment operators. Declines occurred in occupations that had been among the largest employers of workers with low educational attainments, including housekeepers, cooks and maids, and occupations based on agriculture and allied activities. Even in rural areas, employment prospects are better for the more qualified and the situation is likely to become tougher for the untrained or uneducated workers.

The Roadmap

In the present scenario skill development in the rural areas needs a fresh areawise mapping of capacity of the rural economy to absorb skilled workforce.

As per capacity of the rural economy we would need to implement skill development programmes so that our skilled workforce gets gainful employment. There is no point in giving training of bee-keeping to thousands of people where there is no scope of left for such activities.

Agriculture, food processing and allied activities should be encouraged in large scale.

Production and productivities in the rural areas must be supported in terms of finance and business.

Urbanisation of the rural areas is needed to create more employment opportunities.

Horticulture, cultivation of medicinal plants, animal husbandry and related activities need certain level of investment and skills, which should be provided to the rural people at any cost.

The changing scenario in non-agricultural activities needs a fresh look. Skill development in repairing works is needed for new modern gadgets and housing patterns.

Many works can be enumerated for which skill development in needed but they must be done as per need and capacity of the area to absorb them.

Rural industry must be encouraged for employment generation.