Addressing (Un) Employment via Skill Development Programme: A Paradigm Shift in Neo-Liberal India

This paper critically analyses the skill-development policy in Indian Vocational Education and Training (VET) system in the context of the two sustainable development goals, viz., SDG 4: Quality inclusive education to all and SDG 8: Descent work agenda of International Labour Organization (ILO). To examine the Indian VET system and its relevance to Indian labour market, the author has used secondary sources like Indian Census, NSSO, MHRD and IHDS. On examining the size of VET in the light of the Indian State's thrust on skill development programme, the paper observed a paradigm shift in the education and employment policy framework by arguing that, the neo-liberal market mechanism behind the skill development agenda has diluted the issues of equity in education and unemployment in the job sector. In the neo-liberal phase, the thrust of education policies to encourage privatization has further intensified the exclusion process and the employment policies to blame youth for being unemployable. The empirical results project that firstly, there is a smaller size of VET in India, secondly resulting in limited possibilities of addressing the socio-religious and gender inequalities and gaps. Thirdly, there is a significant increase in the cost of VET, and lastly resulting in lower placement for the beneficiaries of skill development programme. These four results put forth the challenges of deskilling youth through higher cost of education in higher exclusive Indian education sector and also enslaving workers through lower and adverse employment opportunities in Indian labour market. For sustainable development, two policy implications are suggested for achieving the inclusive skill-development: (i) increase in public funding in Indian VET system and (ii) ascertain descent job opportunities to the vocationally educated and trained persons.