Job hopes in Dawn-lit mountains

Kajoi Waii, 23, is a first generation literate from Waii village in remote Seppa, district headquarters of East Kameng district. Kajoi could only study till his tenth standard; after failing twice, he gave up studies. Even as the nation winks at the Chinese incursions in Arunachal Pradesh, youth like Kajoi, from the dawn-lit mountains treks down the Job Fair which has been instant hit amongst unemployed Arunachalees.

“My parents are poor farmers. I wanted to study but did not have enough money. Now I want a job to improve my family’s economy. In Arunachal, the development is slow paced, roads are pathetic and to come to the state capital takes three days. I just want to land up in a small time job and leave this place,” says Kajoi.

For Kajoi, the Arunachal Chief Minister’s new initiative – Job Fair, was like a God sent gift. “Being a border state, Arunachal is always sensitive, but the biggest challenge for the state government is to create jobs, while our endeavour is to create more jobs inside the state. Through a unique job fair we have tried to create a scope for our youth to avail jobs, may be small time jobs as well outside the state. We agree that Arunachal has a huge communication bottleneck due to the treacherous geography of the hills, thus, the state government got the vocational training provider who also guarantee placement to come here and take interviews of the unemployed youth. The selected would undergo training which will be sponsored by the state government. Later they will get placement outside the state,” Hari Krishna Paliwal, the Chief Secretary of Arunchal Pradesh explained on the sidelines of the Job Fair held between 30th August to 1st September in Itanagar.

The fair, a brain child of Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki, has been an instant hit. No less than 14,000 job seeking youth across Arunachal Pradesh came to the state capital Itanagar. Forty vocational service providers took their interviews and nearly 12,000 have been selected in various vocational courses.

With 8.7 percent GDP growth rate and a population of 13.8 lakhs, the only investment Arunachal Pradesh has seen is in hydro power. Over a decade as many as 150 MoUs with hydro power developers have been signed by the state government to tap the estimated 46,000 Mega watt ‘power house’ of the nation that Arunachal is perceived as.

A 2011 survey found that the state will have an incremental manpower supply of 7.5 lakhs by 2021, while the state government will at best be able to employ 1.47 lakhs employable youth inside the state.“This is perhaps an even bigger threat than a Chinese incursion. Within ten years unemployment would be a huge issue here. Thus, we decided to make employment as out thrust area along with infrastructure development. Being a backward state, our students at times drop out of schools and colleges. They do not have information about vocational skill development programmes which can earn them a living. Their aim is to look for a government job, but we can employ everyone. We get the trainers, employers and candidates under one roof (for this Job Fair). We have financial constraint, but In case the trainees are required to be taken outside the state for training the government will bear all the costs,” says Chief Minister Nabam Tuki.

Arunachal has about 40 percent dropout rate. Tuki has set his target of providing at least 1 lakh jobs in the 12th Five Year Plan. He had been able to generate 17,000 new jobs within the state last year. This year, Tuki’s target is 20,000 new employments, and it seems he has made job employment as his development mantra for Arunachal – Tuki has already set a Skill Development Council and an Employment Development Council in the state.