India ‘stares at huge skilled manpower shortage’: Union Minister of Labour and Employment

The Minister said this was why Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasised on upskilling the youth in the Union Budget this year. He claimed that the announcement to “spend Rs 2 lakh crore to facilitate employment and skilling for over 4 crore youths” and the “internship scheme for 1 crore youths in premier companies” will “help” prepare youths for jobs in their preferred sectors.

“We do not need to worry about losing our jobs to automation. The World Bank had reports in 2016 claiming that many jobs would be lost in many countries. We used to hear that with mobile phones and computers, so many jobs will be gone and there will be a decline in logistics. Tell me, with social media and mobile phones, has traffic at airports and railway stations declined or increased? With automation, one job goes and three are created,” he said.

Mandaviya added that the youth should set a goal of “making India a developed nation (Viksit Bharat) by 2047”, saying that “government efforts alone are not sufficient”.

The Impact With Youth Conclave 2024 was jointly organised by United Nations India, UNICEF, UNICEF YuWaah, and Elixir Foundation in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports on the occasion of International Youth Day. The theme of the event was “‘From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development”.

Cynthia McCaffrey, UNICEF India Representative and Co-Chair of the UNICEF YuWaah Board, also spoke at the event. “We are committed to improving young people’s access to skilling, volunteering, innovation, entrepreneurship, and other economic opportunities through our deep and longstanding partnership with the Government of India and by harnessing youth potential through digital platforms such as YouthHub,” she said.

“UNICEF has a digital communication platform called U-Report in 68 countries around the world including in India. Over 35 million young people are U-Reporters, of whom 3 million are in India. Recently we asked U-Reporters from around the world what the top few things they want are and number one was the right skills to have a sustained meaningful livelihood,” added McCaffrey.