NEW DELHI, 26 January 2005 — President A.P.J Abdul Kalam yesterday called for a war on unemployment to avoid “shattering” the dreams of the nation’s youth. In his address to the nation on the eve of the Republic Day, Kalam said the only way to “retain” the smile from the child to youth is to generate employment. It represents the aspirations and anxiety of nearly 540 million youth of our nation.” Excerpts from the president’s address:
Action Plan for Employment Generation
“Everyone has inside of him or her, a piece of good news.
The good news is, that you don’t know how great you can be!”
Dear Citizens, on the eve of the 56th Republic Day of India, my greetings to all of you, including those living abroad. I convey my special greetings, to the members of our armed forces and the paramilitary forces, who guard our frontiers on the land, the sea and in the air and also the internal security forces. While we are saddened by the wrath of the tsunami waves, we are not disheartened. The central and state governments, with utmost seriousness and sincerity have reached out to those who needed help and are in the process of providing relief that will at least partially wipe out the pains caused by the tsunami. During this period of active relief operations, my heart was with you, but I did not make a visit because the members of the government and non-government organizations (NGOs) were deployed in large numbers in relief operations, which were in full swing. Reviews were taken by our prime minister, governors, the chief ministers of the respective states and the Lt. governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Now, I feel that the time has come, for me to join you, my fellow citizens, to study the process of the reconstruction of homes and bringing back normalcy.
Smile of Youth
I have met more than 600,000 children from all parts of our country, after becoming the president. During my interaction with them, they posed a series of questions, with affection. They asked:
“Mr. President, you saw us smile, when we were five years old. We smiled because we were blossoming innocently. When we came to our teens, smiles slowly faded away and the signs of concern appeared. You said that it is because of our anxiety about our future. This anxiety, almost took away our smiles. When we complete our education, the top most questions in our mind were, what would I do after my education? Will I get employment? Our parents, who have spent all their savings on our education, also share the same concern. Mr. President, will I get proper employment and be able to contribute to India, to make it a Developed Nation?” Their questions really made me to think and think.
Concerns about employment are not only for those who are fortunate enough to have school and college education. It is the same fading away of the smiles, the shattering of the dreams and the weaning away of the gleam in the eyes that we see, in every cross section of youth in the country. The only answer to retain the smile from the child to the youth is to generate employment. It represents the aspirations and anxiety of nearly 540 million youth of our nation. Hence, I have selected the topic for the Republic Day address as “Action Plan for Employment Generation.”
Societal Transformation
In my earlier address to the nation on the eve of the 58th Independence Day, I talked to you on “Education for Dignity of Human Life”. The whole purpose of education in a country like India is to develop and enhance the potential of our human resource and progressively transform it into a knowledge society. The knowledge society will be a society producing products and services that are rich in both explicit and tacit knowledge, thus creating value added products. The real capital of this knowledge society will be its knowledge workers.
Changing Pattern of Society
When the world was moving from the industrial to the information and knowledge era, we witnessed a changing pattern in the sectoral share of gross domestic product and the number of people employed in each sector. The share of GDP percentage has undergone a considerable change. Contribution of agriculture to India’s GDP has reduced from 39 percent to 22 percent during the period 1979 to 2004. During the same period the contribution of the manufacturing sector has moved from 24 percent to 27 percent and whereas the contribution of the service sector has increased from 37 percent to 51 percent. There has been considerable change in the employment pattern also. The percentage of people employed in agriculture has come down from 64 percent to 54 percent. Simultaneously, the percentage of people employed in manufacturing has gone up from 15 percent to 19 percent and in the service sector from 20 percent to 27 percent. This trend has to continue and by 2020 our employment pattern should aim at 44 percent in agriculture, 21 percent in manufacturing and 35 percent in service sectors.
National Employment Status
Now I would like to discuss the national employment scenario. As per the estimates of the Planning Commission, the total number of people eligible for employment at present is approximately 400 million. Out of this, nine percent are unemployed which works out to around 36 million. In addition, there is a need to find value added employment for 10 percent of those employed in the agriculture sector in rural areas. Our attempt hence should be to find gainful employment for around 76 million people.
Employment Generators
Let me share with you how to generate employment. The most important sectors for sustainable national development are agriculture, education, health care, water and energy. The common thread that will run across these would be the three connectivities of PURA. One of the ways by which rural agriculturists could increase their earnings is by value adding to the agricultural produce through processing and manufacturing.
Conclusion
A new situation is emerging in the national scene in the year 2005. In Indian history, very rarely we have come across a situation, all at a time, an ascending economic trajectory, continuously rising foreign exchange reserves, global recognition of technological competence, emergence of our 540 million youth, both men and women, as a dynamic positive force for national development, umbilical connectivities of 20 million people of Indian origin in various parts of the planet and the interest shown by many developed countries to invest in our engineers and scientists including the setting up of new R&D centers.
Dear Citizens, let us rededicate ourselves on this occasion of the 56th Republic Day to build our nation as a nation which provides employment to all, leading to economic prosperity and a nation of civilizational heritage with a value system.
May God bless you.
Jai Hind.
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, President of India
