SHARES
A summit on Livelihood Security was inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The summit that focussed on Realizing the vision for 1.3 billion Indians, was an ASSOCHAM (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India) initiative.
Generate more jobs in non-farm sector:
While addressing the event, the President highlighted the need for employment creation in the non-farm sector since creating more jobs can act as a potent tool to bring down poverty. He also requested the trade and commerce to look for new mechanism for income opportunities and capacity building under CSR enterprises as directed by the Companies Act of 2013.
He emphasised, “To lift the pressure off the farm sector, more jobs in non-farm sector are required to be created through a paradigm shift from primary to secondary agriculture.”
‘Poverty elimination’ and not merely ‘poverty alleviation’:
He stressed the need to provide livelihood security to the poverty hit population of the country and emphasised on the urgency to recognise the ambitious of the young Indian generation. Further speaking on the issues, he said that fulfilling these responsibilities can become a daunting challenge to the country inhabiting 17 per cent of the global population in just 2.4 per cent of world’s total geographical area.
“In India, the high incidence of poverty of over 60 per cent that prevailed six decades ago have come down to over 30 per cent now. …Even then a sizeable number of about 270 million remained below the poverty line as on 2011-12. Our goal now is ‘poverty elimination’ and not merely ‘poverty alleviation’,” said the President at theASSOCHAM event.
Demographic challenges:
Noting that by 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, he said that the country is faced by the dual task of finding gainful employment to keep the growing manpower engaged, in addition to equipping that manpower with expertise and capacity.
Speaking more about job creation and combatting poverty he said that there was a “freeze in fresh farm jobs” because of ‘over-employment’, hence the significance of creating more jobs in various domains cannot be understated.
Food Processing Sector – a new ray of hope:
He further added, “Developing this sunrise sector calls for greater investment in infrastructure like cold chains, handling, packaging and transportation.” Mukherjee pointed out that the food processing sector arranges for new sources of job generation in small townships and rural areas.
Even though he underlined the need to create more jobs in non-farm sector, he maintained that efforts should be made to make agriculture a viable and rewarding profession by improving farm yields through intervention of modern technologies.
Livelihood and social security:
The President said, “Livelihood security is incomplete without the provision of social security. To make a decisive change in the livelihood security of Indians, the challenges are many and time limited. But he was certain that with the combined efforts of all stakeholders – government, industry, non-governmental agencies and the community at large – we will be able to extend to our countrymen enormous livelihood prospects.”
At this Meet, he anticipated an honest appraisal of issues concerning livelihood security and expects solutions that will guide policy makers and expressed the hope that the Summit would discuss issues threadbare and make recommendations in the right perspective.
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About Tushita
Tushita is a political writer at thenational.net. Her deep rooted interest in politics, passion for writing and craze for travelling define her. Writing since her school days, she aspires to write lifelong and make the world a happier place to live with the power of her pen.
