SILENT REVOLUTION IN MAHARASHTRA

The country and it’s many states may be busy finding out solutions for it’s rickety education system. Truant teachers, poor infrastructure... the problems are many. All of these lead to high drop-out rates which triggers the vicious circle of unemployability and poverty. Family pressures, meagre resources and the tendency to switch the children from learning to earning mode at an early age- all lead to high drop-out rates again leading to poor literacy rates. The anomaly is that literacy and employability have little relevance. A Class 7 pass out is no different from a Class 10 pass out for poor parents.
While some states may still be in the hibernation mode and others in the pondering mode to redress the anomalies, a silent revolution is already brewing in Maharashtra’s labour market. The state’s network of 750 Industrial Training Institutes, the country’s largest, which teach highly specialised vocational trades such as welding and auto mechanics, has tied up over the past two years with more than 100 firms such as Bharat Forge and Indian Hotels. These companies are helping train the youngsters, many of who are school drop-outs, and employ them. A Confederation of Indian Industry survey estimates that at the current economic growth rate, Maharashtra will need 40 lakh industrial skilled employees by 2010. But the state’s ITIs produce less than 5 lakhs every year. And the need for skilled manpower is only going to escalate as the country progresses. Most of the students in these ITIs are school drop-outs at different levels but now foresee jobs awaiting them that will pay them more than anyone in their family has ever earned.
It seems the Maharashtra government has found the elixir for the drop-outs who even after dropping out could still have their dreams twinkling in their eyes!