Staging a 2-day Employment Fair in Reasi is a highly useful exercise undertaken by the District administration. Sixty departments are reported to have put up their stalls with the unique objective of bringing awareness to the aspirants about the scope, dimensions and opportunities of self-employment schemes sponsored by the government or organizations. It is relevant to mention that self-employment has been recognized as the most viable and achievable mechanism of providing employment to the unemployed youth particularly the educated. The biggest employer is the government of the State. Normally the private sector should have been enjoying that privilege but owing to various physical and other reasons, industries have not developed in the State to the extent that these could absorb fairly large number of educated unemployed youth. Though the Government is focusing on steady and systematic industrialization of the Stat, but that will take its own time. Also we would not want to give up some of the profitable indigenous occupations have provided support to our economy.
There are numerous schemes of self employment floated by the centre and the state government. But these being people-oriented should reach the common man. Actually common man has rather scant knowledge about the dimensions of these schemes. For some reasons they have remained ignorant and have not benefitted from them adequately. Since each scheme has its dimensions and purport, ordinary people are not in a position to put them to his use. The Employment Fair staged in Reasi was meant to bring under one umbrella all the schemes that have been floated so that aspirant can choose which one suits them and what is the procedure of drawing benefit from them. We would congratulate the district administration of Reasi for organizing the fair. It is doubly significant for it has been organized for the first time and also it has been organized in one of the most backward districts of the State. For certain the people of remote areas who don’t have access to the sources of self-employment will be the maximum beneficiaries of the enterprise.
The address of the Governor on the occasion is a broad roadmap for the aspirants as well as the administration of how best the purpose of the schemes for self-employment can be achieved. He has made several suggestions to strengthen and widen the scope of these schemes and advised the district administration to work toward that end. Apart from the fact that the aspiring youth will be in a better position to make an assessment of what possibility the schemes offer them, it is also envisaged that when put into practice some new ideas of improving and making the schemes broad based could be made available to the government by way of feedback. The Governor is very right that some areas like agriculture, horticulture, bee keeping, fisheries, sheep breeding etc. have enormous potential to be expanded and put into use with proper guidance and instructions from the concerned departments. What actually the Governor suggested was that the expertise available in the academic institutions in the country has to be shifted from office to the ground. Being the Chancellor of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, which is located at Katra in Reasi district, the Governor seized the opportunity of giving a glimpse of what this prestigious university intends to do by way of supporting self employment schemes. He rightly laid emphasis on youth-related skills as guaranteed long-term employment. He also advised the district administration to give due thought to providing such skills to the youth as would generate demand in the market. Katra was a fast developing town for various reasons and in such a situation the youth could have many opportunities of employing themselves gainfully.
We would suggest that such Employment Fairs are staged in other districts also. We have large number of unemployed youth in these districts and they, too, lack adequate awareness of the schemes in pipeline. Such fairs would go a long way in bringing full awareness to the youth and help them earn a decent living almost independently. They have to be informed about the incentives the government is offering to the unemployed youth. An encouraging feature of Reasi Employment Fair was the review presented by the Reasi D.C. in his speech about the support given by the district administration to the youth of the district so far. In particular he stated that J&K SC/ST and BCs Development Corporation had reached these deprived sections of society in befitting manner as laid down in the guidelines for uplifting of them economically and otherwise.
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