JK people are gifted, make them feel part of India: Goswami Corporates should put its best foot forward in holding hands of young Kashmiris’ New Delhi:People from Jammu and Kashmir are “gifted and special” and the country needs to exploit their talent, Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami said here while reviewing a special employment project for the state initiated by the government in partnership with corporates. The 1978-batch IAS officer, who belongs to Jammu and Kashmir cadre, said all issues related to the security and well-being of corporates and public enterprises who recruit the youth of the state will be taken care of. The special programme called ‘Udaan’ aims at providing the required skill and enhance job opportunities of youth of J and K who are graduates or are in the final year of graduation. “Jammu and Kashmir is special. People of Jammu and Kashmir are special. Loving KashmiR recieved ,Our difficulty has been, somehow, that private and public entities have not been very forthcoming in coming down (to the state) and recruiting people,” Goswami told the business partners at a meeting here who cited a host of problems they faced while recruiting in J and K. He said he will thrash out certain issues in his capacity of being a Kashmiri himself and then talk as the Home Secretary of the country. He said history was replete with examples which show that Kashmiris are “gifted” people. “We are not timid, not shy. We know our abilities and our people have an innate sense of confidence. We excel in any field we are put in. But we have not felt that the country is embracing us,” Goswami said as he tried to convince the corporates that their efforts will bear fruits after some initial hiccups. The scheme is being implemented by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) with a substantial funding from the government and also using the funds of the corporates. Representatives of the companies, which have started training and recruiting youngsters of the state under the scheme since last year, said aspirations of the candidates were very high as the jobs offered to them fetched only about Rs 2.5 lakh per annum initially. While one corporate house said “the youth of the state wants to join core companies” another said “there is a lot of frustration in young boys and girls” because of low wages. Goswami suggested the companies change their approach slightly to cater to more unemployed youth. “The people (of JK) are not looking for a job at the lowest rung of the system. When you train them and they have degrees, they want a little higher category of work and where the scope is higher,” he said. The HS said low (pay) package disheartens the youngsters, adding why would someone come for a job if his or her living is not improved and the present status in life is not improved. Today’s meeting, which saw the presence of various companies in the field of retail, banking, infrastructure and others, however, was unanimous on one subject that the raw manpower they are hiring and training from the state was “very confident, very capable, merges very well, are extremely pleasant and the overall quality of people is very good.” Drawing a comparison for Kashmiris, the Home Secretary said it was his experience that people from his state wouldn’t rest till the work assigned to them is done. “If you give a task to a person from Jammu and Kashmir, he will not go home…till the work is done. I have not seen this happening here since I have come on deputation to the Centre for the first time in 2010,” he said while reinforcing the idea that the scheme, which aims at providing jobs to over 50,000 youths over five years, will be successful. Goswami also said the media exaggerates security-related incidents that happen in Kashmir and if there is trouble in the Valley the corporates should either choose to go to Jammu or Ladakh rather than staying away. He also said Kashmiri women are a resilient lot and they can stand up with confidence anywhere. He was responding to concerns of a few corporates who said the families of girls were reluctant at times to let them go out of the Valley or the state in the backdrop of reports of rapes in various parts of the country including the infamous December 16 gangrape in Delhi last year. “Girls are more enterprising in our state. Their writ runs in the house and the men folk obey. Girls probably are not coming out as they feel it’s not safe. Our girls are very brave. They don’t get scared easily and if you browbeat them, they will browbeat you back,” he said. The Home Secretary asked the industry to put it’s “best foot forward” in holding the hands of young Kashmiris who have many aspirations and make them feel part of the mainstream of India. A statement from the Home Ministry later provided statistics of the ‘Udaan’ scheme till now. “24,628 youth have registered themselves on the website (of the NSDC). 965 candidates are undergoing training while that of 547 candidates have been completed. Out of them, 221 have been offered job. The placement process is on for the rest of the candidates,” the statement said. . S
Posted on: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 14:44:03 +0000
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