Punjab’s ‘Ghar Ghar Rozgar’ changes the dismal job scene; 4.41 lakh jobs provided

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, giving further impetus to the state government’s flagship ‘Ghar Ghar Rozgar’ scheme, launched the 10-day long third State Level Job Fair for the year 2018-19 on November 12. Earlier this year, in the month of February and March, the second State Level Job Fair was conducted which garnered a lot of attention and helped the youth of Punjab grab jobs with the most appreciated companies.

The third State level job fair, placed a total of 18,672 candidates who were given appointment letters during the fair, taking the total number of jobs generated during the years Captain Amarinder Singh came to power as CM in Punjab to an impressive 4,41,346.

Unemployment being one of the most alarming issues that Punjab reels with, has created a great impact on the economy and investment in the State. Punjab has seen an increasing unemployment rate of 16.8% in 2015-16 which was higher than national average of 11.6%, at that time.

The unemployment rate among Punjabi youth – between the ages of 18 and 29 – was 16.6% while the Indian average was 10.2%, as reported by IndiaSpend in January last year. Punjab’s rural youth unemployment rate in 2015- 16 was 16.5%; more than seven percentage points higher than rural India’s 9.2%. The average annual dropout rate at the primary level of school increased, from 1.3% in 2014-15 to 3.1% in 2015-16, according to District Information for System Education data, explaining why the rising literacy rate may not be enough to prepare young Punjabis for industrial and service-sector jobs.

About 39,000 youth have been assisted in various self-employment schemes of the government and under MNREGA, generation of 2.23 crore man-days in 2017-18 which is over 40% more than the previous year.

The third State Level Job Fair was conducted by the Punjab Government for 10 consecutive days starting from November 12 to November 22 this year, with 109 drives offering more than 88,000 jobs. The job fair was held at 39 venues all over the State mainly including cities like Patiala, Bathinda, Pathankot and Amritsar etc. Some of the top Indian companies visiting the fair were Philips, ICICI Prudential, NIIT, PepsiCo, Reliance, Fortis and many more who hired the young talented youth of Punjab. The total number of job seekers currently registered on the Ghar Ghar Rozgar portal are 3,03,988 along with the 9,391 registered employers, which clearly reflects the interest of the youth in fortifying their future.

"In the last 20 months, Punjab has witnessed a surge in employment opportunities for the youth. We have successfully provided over 4 lakh 40 thousand jobs and are witnessing an optimistic trend in the state.", said Amit Dhaka, Commissioner-cum-Director Employment Generation and Training, Punjab

The last five years (2012-16) of Shiromani Akali Dal’s term had only produced a total of 17,415 jobs from organized job fairs while Captain, in 20 months, has already generated 51,087 jobs under the Employment Generation team, which itself is a commendable achievement. Chief Minister Amarinder Singh took on the mantle to actively promote the Fair from his personal Twitter and Facebook page by pushing locations of the districts where the job fair was to take place each day. It was especially laudable, as it is seldom a CM gets personally involved, leading from the front, in creating awareness for the Mega Job Melas. Captain first tweeted out this picture from his twitter handle on 12 November 2017 sharing the details of the Mega Job Fair, followed everyday tweets and Facebook posts.

Furthermore, the C-PYTE (Centre for Training & Employment of Punjab Youth) targets to train at least 10,000 for written/ physical test for 55,000 vacancies in CAPFs (Central Armed Police Forces) out of which 11,284 youth have been trained and a total of 1471 placed. The District Bureaus of Employment and Enterprise under the Department of Employment Generation and Training have also tied up with Naukri, LinkedIn, Monster etc. to generate productive results.

The fight is long and daunting, but with a growing congenial atmosphere in the State, the investment climate will get a boost, thus paving the way for the creation of enormous job opportunities in Punjab which the state and the Government has been focusing on.