National Web Portal to serve as a virtual job market says Mallikarjun Kharge

The Union Minister of Labour & Employment Shri Mallikarjun Kharge has said that there is a need for balancing the concerns of competitiveness of enterprises with employment generation, maintaining the rights of labour for decent working and living standards. He said this while inaugurating the “National Seminar on Report to the People on Employment” here today. The one-day seminar has been organized by the Ministry of Labour & Employment in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Shri Kharge said that major trends relating to employment in the country indicate that casualistion of the labour has increased and proportion of organized sector in total employment has declined steadily. Further, elaborating on trends, he said that while the major growth area of employment is in the service sector, it has slackened in the primary sector. He also said that the trends indicate that employment growth has slackened coinciding with high rates of growth of the national economy.

Stating that around 94% of the work force in the Indian economy is engaged in the unorganized sector, he said that challenging task is to improve the conditions of work in the informal economy and of the contract labour. “What is actually required is to transform the informal sector from a storehouse of average quality jobs to a reservoir of productive jobs”, the Minister emphasized.

The Minister said that the generation of employment requires a multi-sectoral and multi-pronged approach which might include creation of better wage and wider avenues of assured self-employment. He said that focus on agricultural productivity and employment growth is very important for the Indian economy.

Shri Kharge also informed that modernization and upgrading of Employment Exchanges throughout the country has been taken up under Mission Mode Projects in National e-Governance Plan. This would help in providing speedy access to employment service related information to job seekers and employers. The Minister said that a National Web Portal would be developed which would serve as a virtual job market. The Portal would contain all the relevant information on the availability of skilled persons and requirements the industries.

Member Planning Commission Shri Narendra Jadhav, Secretary Planning Commission, Smt. Sudha Pillay, Secretary Labour & Employment Shri P.C. Chaturvedi and Director, ILO Sub regional Office in India Ms. Leyla Tegmo-Reddy also spoke on the occasion.

Shri. Harish Rawat, Minister of State for Labour & Employment will address the Valedictory Session of the National Seminar today evening.

It may be recalled that the President of India, in her address to the Joint Session of the Parliament earlier this year, had announced that the Government would initiate action for bringing out five reports to the people on education, health, employment, environment and infrastructure within the first 100 days. The Ministry of Labour & Employment has been entrusted with the responsibility of preparing the report on the employment.

The day-long National Seminar is the first major step towards the preparation of the report. The seminar has been organized to elicit the views and suggestions of experts as well as various stakeholders in the area of employment.

The proposed Report to the People provides an excellent opportunity to place before citizens the main challenges of employment – both in terms of quantity and quality facing the country. This National Seminar is intended to discuss issues that need to be highlighted and placed before the people. (EOM)