National service scheme
Thursday, 12 November 2009
THE incumbent government is promise-bound to provide employment to one member of each of the families by the year, 2014. It has already taken up a programme, styled, the national service scheme (NSS) and recruitment under the same, according to Finance Minister AMA Muhith, would begin from the next month. In the first phase, two districts, one each in the country's northern and southern parts, would be covered by the scheme. Youths having passed the Higher Secondary (HSC) examinations would be recruited and imparted with basic training under the scheme, before their employment. According to the minister, only deserving candidates would be recruited.
The employment scheme deserves appreciation considering the high rates of unemployment and underemployment in the country, which has an estimated labour force of 50 million. Every third person in Bangladesh is either unemployed or underemployed. The government only employs 2.0 million people when a workforce of the same number enters the labour market every year. The private sector is a major provider of employments and, more importantly, a sizeable part of the workforce is self-employed. The agriculture sector, which has otherwise shrunk over time in terms of its contribution to the country's gross domestic product (GDP), is not being able to create more jobs. Rather, its labour retention capacity has been ebbing because of low wage and gradual mechanisation of the farming practices. This has resulted in an unending migration of unemployed rural labourers to urban centers.
In its maiden budget presented in June last, the present government, promised to generate more employment in agriculture and rural sectors by constructing labour-intensive infrastructures and strengthening self-employment opportunities. An evaluation of the performance of the government in this respect would be rather immature. Yet the poor rate of implementation of the annual development programme (ADP) in the first quarter of the current fiscal does not indicate any major improvement in additional employment generation. The situation in the private sector is also disconcerting. Investment has remarkably slowed down because of the impact of the ongoing global recession and a host of domestic factors, including power and gas shortage. To make the situation worse, the outward flow of migrant workers, who generally belong to rural areas, has somewhat declined in recent months.
In the backdrop of such unhealthy developments in the job markets, the scheme to provide employment to one educated youth from each of the families is a welcome move. However, not all the families do deserve the coverage by the scheme. There are well-to-do families as well as needy ones. Of course, the latter deserves priority attention of the government. This will require a substantial amount of budgetary resources for implementation of the scheme the details of which are not yet known. Though the government would implement the scheme in a phased manner, managing resources for it could prove a daunting task, particularly when its recurring expenditure is set to go up with the implementation of the new pay scale for the public servants. Moreover, the government needs to be careful to maintain an unbiased character of the scheme, meaning that only deserving youths get employment and political consideration does not come into play in the selection process. Then again, all obstacles to sustained growth of the private sector having the potentials for substantial employment generation should be removed. This would make the task easy for the government.
The employment scheme deserves appreciation considering the high rates of unemployment and underemployment in the country, which has an estimated labour force of 50 million. Every third person in Bangladesh is either unemployed or underemployed. The government only employs 2.0 million people when a workforce of the same number enters the labour market every year. The private sector is a major provider of employments and, more importantly, a sizeable part of the workforce is self-employed. The agriculture sector, which has otherwise shrunk over time in terms of its contribution to the country's gross domestic product (GDP), is not being able to create more jobs. Rather, its labour retention capacity has been ebbing because of low wage and gradual mechanisation of the farming practices. This has resulted in an unending migration of unemployed rural labourers to urban centers.
In its maiden budget presented in June last, the present government, promised to generate more employment in agriculture and rural sectors by constructing labour-intensive infrastructures and strengthening self-employment opportunities. An evaluation of the performance of the government in this respect would be rather immature. Yet the poor rate of implementation of the annual development programme (ADP) in the first quarter of the current fiscal does not indicate any major improvement in additional employment generation. The situation in the private sector is also disconcerting. Investment has remarkably slowed down because of the impact of the ongoing global recession and a host of domestic factors, including power and gas shortage. To make the situation worse, the outward flow of migrant workers, who generally belong to rural areas, has somewhat declined in recent months.
In the backdrop of such unhealthy developments in the job markets, the scheme to provide employment to one educated youth from each of the families is a welcome move. However, not all the families do deserve the coverage by the scheme. There are well-to-do families as well as needy ones. Of course, the latter deserves priority attention of the government. This will require a substantial amount of budgetary resources for implementation of the scheme the details of which are not yet known. Though the government would implement the scheme in a phased manner, managing resources for it could prove a daunting task, particularly when its recurring expenditure is set to go up with the implementation of the new pay scale for the public servants. Moreover, the government needs to be careful to maintain an unbiased character of the scheme, meaning that only deserving youths get employment and political consideration does not come into play in the selection process. Then again, all obstacles to sustained growth of the private sector having the potentials for substantial employment generation should be removed. This would make the task easy for the government.