Among the youth in India’s rural areas, a report has shown that over 60 per cent of the male youth as well as 70 per cent of females do not want to migrate for work and would prefer finding meaningful work closer to their villages.
Based on a survey spanning 21 states, the report was produced by Global Development Incubator, Transform Rural India (TRI) and Sambodhi Research in collaboration with the Development Intelligence Unit (DIU).
Only around 32 per cent of male and 24 per cent of female respondents were willing to leave their village and migrate for employment, irrespective of distance.
Those willing to migrate to urban areas had expectations of a higher income (salary/earnings from business) than those who preferred to stay back in their villages or work within commutable distance from their homes. Male youth had slightly higher income expectations than their female counterparts.
Those currently working but looking for a change had the lowest income expectations, indicating that their present income from their current occupation was at or below subsistence level.
Around 70–85 per cent of young people who are working now stated they would like to switch employment in order to pursue new chances. The majority of people looking to change careers indicated that they would be interested in beginning small manufacturing, retail, or trading businesses.
According to the report, women looking for salaried professions strongly preferred teaching roles, which were followed by clerical positions. Men who were looking for salaried jobs preferred factory labour, accounting/clerical positions and teaching.
As a result of this shortage of workers, manufacturers, particularly in the textile industry, are considering moving operations from the established hubs to the hinterland areas, where there is an abundance of labour ready to work.
Relocating industrial operations to the hinterland is a move that gives access to a large workforce pool. This is because potential subsidies, higher production, and decreased absenteeism all result in cost savings.
Workers in the hinterlands can receive training in as little as one or two months, even if they are initially untrained. In addition, numerous government programs like the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana facilitate the acquisition of industry-relevant skills by a significant number of people.
Newly built industrial enterprises in Odisha are eligible for incentives under the Employment Cost Subsidy. For genuine employment by the unit, this entails Rs. 6000 per female worker and Rs. 5000 each male worker per month.
Similar to this, Bihar provides an employment subsidy under the Employment Generation Subsidy that is equivalent to 300 per cent of the ESI and EPF contributions made by the unit, subject to the following restrictions for various categories over a five-year period (up to Rs. 5000/month/employee).
The Government of Haryana offers all categories of textile firms an employment-generating subsidy of up to Rs. 36,000 per year per employee for a term of five years or twenty per cent of the SGST deposited, whichever is lower.
According to experts, having workers close to the factory can also greatly increase productivity and lower absenteeism.
