Kerala has been pursuing a policy of ensuring more jobs in the public sector in divergence from the Union government's policy of cutting down on recruitments in the public sector, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
He was inaugurating the Thozhil Sabha initiative on Tuesday, aimed at bringing together jobseekers, entrepreneurs, skill trainers, and job providers on a common platform.
The development standing committee of the local body would be the organiser of the Thozhil Sabha. Each such sabha would consist of an estimated 200-250 people, and would be formed for one or two wards. With the formation of Thozhil Sabhas, the local bodies would have accurate information on the number of jobseekers as well as job creators within their area. This would include people from the area who were running businesses outside Kerala or abroad, or were in key positions in various companies, based on whose requirements jobseekers with the necessary skills could be connected.
"This is an era when there are strong opinions being made to advocate governments to stay away from the responsibility of providing jobs. In the past five years, the number of employees in Central government public sector undertakings (PSUs ) has fallen by 2.68 lakh, while only 0.33% of those who have applied for jobs in the past eight years has got appointment. Unlike this, the State government's policy is to ensure job security and more recruitments. Initiatives like Thozhil Sabha are part of that policy," Mr. Vijayan said.
Mr. Vijayan said the government had organised job fairs in all districts as well as a special job fair for women who had to take a career break. Fifty-eight innovation clusters were selected as part of the ‘one district, one idea’ scheme.
As part of the ‘Work near home’ initiative to set up workstations in all local bodies, clearance was accorded to the first such project at Kodakara panchayat in Thrissur. In the past six years, 86,993 new MSMEs were launched in the State, bringing in ₹8,154-crore in investments and generating 3.09 lakh jobs. A total of 46 lakh square metres of new workspace was created in the IT sector and more than 45,000 jobs created, he said, rubbishing claims that the State was investment-unfriendly.
Minister for Local Self-Governments M.B. Rajesh said that for economic growth to bring about prosperity to everyone, jobs also needed to be created. The LDF government's Thozhil Sabha initiative was being launched with this aim, he said.
