4TH EU – INDIA JOINT SEMINAR ON EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL POLICY - SUDHIR KUMAR

The 4th India – EU Seminar on the “Skills & Jobs” was held in Brussels from 5th to 6th July, 2010. A high level delegation led by Mallikarjun Kharge Minister of Labour and Employment participated in the seminar at the invitation of the Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and equal Opportunities of the European Commission. The seminar was part of EU - India dialogue and co – operation on employment and social policy based on the Memorandum of Understanding signed in year 2006.

India and EU have many commonalities. European Union is a combination of twenty states, whereas India is a Union of 28 states and 7 Union territories. The geographical area of European Union and India are comparable. Population wise India is more than double of population of European Union.

Six representatives each from employers group & workers group apart from the Government group were invited to participate in the seminar. The workers group consisted of Sudhir Kumar, CITU, H. Mahadevan, AITUC, R P Singh, HMS, N M Sukumaran, BMS & Shankar Saha, AIUTUC.

The overall topic of the seminar was “Skills and Jobs” which was divided into four topical sessions and one final panel. The first session related to “Labour Market policy responses to the job crisis in the EU and India”, set the context for the conference by providing background information on Labour Market policy responses to the crisis in EU and India. The second session was on “equipping the workforce with the right skills, anticipating and matching Labour Market needs” covered various topics including the subject of Anticipation and matching skills and job potential stemming from transfer to low carbon economy. The third session addressed the issue of “Social dialogue and partnership in skill development” how to promote commitment by stakeholders and the role of Public Private Partnership for skill development, were some of the topics covered. The fourth session was on the issue of “Skills, Innovation and Mobility.” The question of linking skills policy to Research and Development and “Overcoming Regional imbalances in opportunities through investments in skills” were some of the topics covered in this session. The final round was on “learning from each other. What lesions can be drawn to face common challenges?” This session examined EU – India bilateral co – operation and in the Global fora, policy issues to be addressed in the years to come etc, among other topics.

The Government officials spoke about the additional entry of 12.8 million people every year into the 470 million Indian Labour market. The present capacity of skill development of 3.1 million every year leaves a quantitative gap of 9.7 million per annum. At present there are 8085 Industrial Training Institutes / Centers (ITIs / ITCs) with a seating capacity of 1.2 million covering 114 trades.

The Government proposes to set up1500 new ITIs and 50,000 Skill Development Centers in Public Private Partnership (PPP), which will enhance the capacity to 40 million every year. All 1896 ITIs are being modernized at a cost of US $ 1.18 billion, Multiskilliong courses introduced in 21 high growth sectors, Institute management committees formed with an Industry partner heading it and funds for modernization @ Rs 25 to 35 Million provided by the Government. All this with an objective to train one million persons in five years and thereafter one million every year.

The Government is also developing Labour Market Information system and National Vocational Qualification Framework with the co – operation of EU Commission. An Inter – Ministerial task force on green jobs and climate change, the first anywhere in the world, was set up last year.

The Union representatives, during their presentations and in the discussions, apart from other issues also pointed out that skill development, alone, cannot be the solution to solve the problem of unemployment. That the growth trajectory pursued by successive Governments in India has severely undermined the job potential of the economy and restricted job avenues.

Taking advantage of the tripartite nature of the discussions, as emphasized by L Andor, European Union Commissioner for Employment, social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, in his Welcome Address, the Union leaders said that the ground realities with regard to Governments approach towards discussions with Trade Unions and on the issue of implementation of Labour laws were not such that would be favorable to the workers.

In Special Economic Zones (SEZ) across the country, the labour department was stripped of its responsibility to handle Labour related issues and handed over to Development Commissioner as administrative head of SEZ. The Government of India introduced bill in the Parliament, to exempt the employers of all establishments employing up to 40 workers from obligation to submit regular returns to the Labour department and maintain employees’ registers with all details. Labour Bureau Statistics for 2005 reveal that of 1,36,352 registered factories only 36,002 submitted annual returns with Labour department. Of course, this prompted a reaction from representative of Government of India, who tried to down play the issue. However Joel Decaillon, from European Trade Union Confederation, intervened to point out that workers and Trade Unions in Belgium faces similar situation.

Source: www.citucentre.org