Hi All,
I have been now travelling to Daman since the last 8 months.On one of the Monday's, when I could not get a confirmed booking, I had no option but to travel in the General Compartment (cramped with people as usual which goes without saying..). Although, the compartment had around 250 - 300 people in a space meant for 100, what caught my eye was that a majority of the passengers in the entire train were working class people who did a lot of up down everyday from Virar/Borivali to Boisar/Vapi & and back. There are 3 reasons why people do this - 1. Money, 2. Job Satisfaction, 3. Lack of talent in places where these industries have been set up. Let me try and focus on the 3rd point and make an attempt towards solving it.
Some background before I begin. Boisar/Vapi/Ankleshwar/Valsad are industrial towns on the Bombay - Ahmadabad belt where steel, chemical, plastic, paint etc companies have been set up. These companies primarily moved out of Bombay/Ahmadabad in the early 90's due to a lot of factors like increased taxes, rising land costs thereby preventing expansion, labor problems, environmental issues etc to name a few. When the exodus began, these never before heard places provided all the resources & the comfort. Companies started massive expansion drives backed by government support of tax holidays, abundant & cheap land, quick environmental clearance and supposedly dirt cheap rate & Union Free labor.
Ok, so the basic objective in place, these industries started breathing easily but a peculiar problem which was left behind started to raise its ugly head - SKILLED LABOR. Although, these places were quickly filled with a large migrant population from the rest of the country, what mattered most to companies was the continuous supply of people with the desired skill set. Right from the basic level of a worker to the highest level of a General Manager, companies have failed to attract talent due a lot of other factors like poor infrastructure, pay etc & hence one can see a lot of attrition in these industries.
To overcome this, I would just like to present a simple model which can probably take care of this issue. My idea is to just develop 'Centers of Excellence' in places where skilled labor is in short supply.
CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE
The idea is to train people from the nearby villages to cater to the needs of the industry. This can be done by setting up all educational institutes under the aegis of the Government of India. This will enable a child to be enrolled from a school level where there would be continuous monitoring & shaping of his/her general skills while making an effort to understand what the child really wants. After that, he can take up a higher ed course in a college set up in the same campus which in turn would make him/her ready for the industry in that area. The child's journey would then probably be School ----> Engineering College ---> Engineer in a reputed company rather than School ---> Farm/Operator in a small unknown company. There could various institutes set up under the same roof as per the requirements of the industry.
Just think of this situation. Daman, a plastic manufacturing hub has multiple requirements for workers, engineers, managers, supervisors, quality people etc. Currently, to fulfill these requirements, a worker arrives from UP, Bihar, an engineer from Akola in Maharashtra and a manager from Bombay. Now if institutes are set up in the very heart of this place, most of the local talent can easily be nurtured to meet these requirements thereby having manifold advantages :-
1. Polished Local Talent in every part of the country
2. Less Migration Rates
3. Industries can freely be set up anywhere in the country probably closer to their customers.
4. Less Economic Disparity
5. Multiple Industrial Hubs throughout the country rather than concentrated ones.
This is just an idea though. The government / private players can probably begin on a small scale and can take this idea ahead by working together towards a brighter and better future for the people.
