Breaking the ‘vicious circle’ 

Guwahati, Oct. 28: The additional chief secretary of Assam, Rajiv Kumar Bora, today said school and college dropouts in the state are getting caught in the "vicious circle" of militancy because of lack of skill development.

"Those who drop out of school or college education do not get any job in today's competitive job market. Falling prey to unemployment, the youths ultimately join the militant groups. If they were equipped with skills, they would have pursued their own careers," said Bora, in his inaugural speech at the two-day National Skill Conference.

The conference was organised by the Functional Vocational Training and Research Society (FVTRS) in collaboration with Don Bosco Institute on the institute's premises at Kharguli here.

"Our population, and especially the young people of the country, have not been trained properly in skill development programmes. Due to this, the total quality of human resource is very low here. However, both the central and the state governments have taken up several initiatives in this field," Bora said.

Jayanta Madhav, former economic and financial adviser to the chief minister, who was the guest of honour, said 10 years ago the dropout rate in schools and colleges was much higher. "Students having skill-oriented knowledge, however, were only 0.4 per cent. The figure in the recent times has no doubt increased but it still has a long way to go," he added.

The Society is a Bangalore-based organisation formed through the collaboration of 150 NGOs that work in promoting skill development in the country. Delegates from almost all these NGOs have come here to attend the two-day conference with an objective to discuss the topic: Community Owned and Managed Skill Development.

The executive director of Functional Vocational Training and Research Society, P.M. Philip, and vice-president Gandhi Doss were also present during the programme.