109 million new job seekers have to upscale their skills by 2020: Parkash Badal

SHILLONG: About 109 million new job seekers have to upscale their skills by 2020, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said here today at the meeting of NITI Aayog sub-group of chief ministers on skill development.Apart from the 109 million new entrants in to the job markets, Mr Badal said about 460 million people have to be “re-skilled and up-skilled by 2020.” The Punjab chief minister further said the right to skill should be made a law in the same line as right to information, right to food and right to education, so that the people are competitive in the global market.The Chairman of the sub-group observed that despite India having the youngest population it has just 12 per cent of skilled workforce. This he said has added to the unemployment problem and has become a major issue for the country as India has the world’s youngest population with 65 per cent of its population 35 years or below.He added that in various developed nations of the world the skilled workforce is about 80 to 90 per cent. He linked the low per capita income of India to the low level of the skilled workforce.On being asked as why the level has remained so low, Badal said such attention to upscale the skill level of the workforce was never given due attention.“There was never attention paid to improve the skill of the workforce and so a large number of the workforce has remained unskilled, Badal said.He said the need of the hour is to mobilize the population about the importance of skilled manpower right from the rural areas to women population of the country.