{"id":93744,"date":"2019-10-11T07:33:07","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T14:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=93744"},"modified":"2019-10-11T07:33:07","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T14:33:07","slug":"youth-employment-a-prime-necessity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/10\/11\/youth-employment-a-prime-necessity\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth Employment: A Prime Necessity"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D.<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

In view of the fact that over twenty percent of young people in\nthe World, have failed to find a due place in the economic ladder and have\nbecome drop offs of the education and development system, definite action to\nequip them to become contributors to society has to get priority. .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every country has a plethora of job skills training programmes,\nbut  the countries provide only skills\ntraining and expect the trained youth to either find suitable employment  or to become entrepreneurs. Finding suitable\nemployment to utilize their skills is a difficult task because the\nInternational Monetary Fund has already imposed its Structural Adjustment\nProgramme on almost all Third World countries with the result that these\ncountries have been directed to follow a \nset of policies \u2013 to allow unrestricted imports and are banned from\nimplementing any government programmes that attend to create commercial\nundertakings. This means that though skills training can be provided the\nGovernments cannot either restrict imports of items that can be made locally or\nset up programmes where the skills trained youth will be helped to establish\nmanufacturing units that make items for local consumption or export. The IMF\u2019s\nStructural Adjustment Programme also imposes a high interest rate policy which\nmeans that any entrepreneur has to obtain funds at a vfor bidding high interest\nat over twenty percent to establish any industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is that the vast majority of the skills trained youth\ncontinue to be unemployed and become consumers, receivers of welfare grants rather\nthan become contributors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this context, the achievement of the Youth Self Employment\nProgramme of Bangladesh comes of great importance in that it is the only  development programme that can claim success\nin guiding millions of youths to become self employed on a commercially viable\nbasis. It is easily the only youth employment programme that has achieved world\nstatus within the short space of three decades. It is a programme that has left\nits imprint on the sands of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No feasibility reports were written to get this programme\napproved. The approval came in a flash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In  Bangladesh when the new\nMilitary Government of General Ershard took over the country in 1982, the\nMinistry of Youth Development was providing skills training to 40,000 youths\nannually but the vast majority of them failed to find employment and continued\nto be unemployed for life. I happened to be the Commonwealth Fund Advisor to\nthe Ministry on Youth Development and the new Hon. Minister for Labour and\nManpower, Air Vice Marshall Aminul Islam at a Conference held to evaluate youth\ndevelopment programmes, ordered me,:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 What can you contribute\nfor Bangladesh\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would suggest that you approve a  self employment programme to supplement the\nskills training programmes  that are\nbeing implemented by the Ministry of Youth Development, where the lecturers who\ntrain the youths in skills will in addition, also guide the youths to establish\nenterprises to manufacture items for sale and become self employed\nentrepreneurs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Secretary to the Treasury, the highest official in the country\nwho was present replied:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Self Employment is not a task that can be done. The International\nLabor Organization (ILO) with all their unlimited resources have just miserably\nfailed to establish a self employment programme at Tangail in Bangladesh. They\nlaboured for three years and brought experts from all over and failed. It was a\ngreat loss \u2013 a massive expenditure and this Government is not going to waste\nany more funds again. Self Employment is not a task that can be done. That was\nthe conclusion of the ILO and they are the experts of international standing\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I replied:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the ILO failed,  I\ncan establish a Self Employment Programme. I hold the experience of\nestablishing self employment units in Sri Lanka for eighteen years and also\nhold the Ph.D in Agricultural Economics and Non Formal Education from Michigan\nState University. I am confident of success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

. The Secretary to the Treasury the highest official in Bangladesh\nlaughed loud at my attempt to make entrepreneurs out of school drop outs- the\ncategory from which the Department of Youth Development found youths for skills\ntraining. He was joined by Secretaries of a few other Ministries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

.. I argued that though the ILO failed I would succeed. The\nSecretary to the Treasury  were adamant\nthat such a programme would never succeed, but I quoted instances where I had\nestablished  successful employment projects providing incomes to youths\nwhile simultaneously producing what the country imported. The battle went on\nfor an easy two full hours The Hon.Minister was listening in silence till his\npatience was exhausted.  The Minister\nfinally ordered us to shut up. He asked for any \nGovernment training programmes that guided youths to become\nentrepreneurs. The Secretary to the Treasurty replied None\u201d. Then the Minister\nasked for the number of youths that failed to get into higher education as well\nas finding a suitable job- the youths that will be scraping the barrel for\nlife,  unemployed. The Secretary answered\nthat it was in the millions, every year The Hon Minister without any hesitation\nordered that I should establish a self employment programme to create  entrepreneurs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Secretary to the Treasury stumped,  stating\u201a  that there will be no \nfunds to establish a self employment programme, to which I replied that we will\nfind savings within the  approved budgets  for the skills training of\nthe youths and re deploy staff as necessary. The  Hon Minister \napproved my suggestion.. .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We started planning work that night itself. The next morning I was\naddressing trainees at the training centers and also training our Lecturers and\nYouth Officers on how the programme should be done. The officers who had till\nthen done traditional youth development work were trained in concepts of\neconomics. All Training Institutes were immediately altered to Training Cum\nExtension Institutes where the youths in training were to be guided to become\nself employed. Overnight we established a countrywide special extension service\nfor the lecturers to go out on inspections and help the youths who faced\nproblems.  The youths were guided to draft their own projects to become\nself employed, starting small farms even with a few cows or chicks. Dresses\nwere sewn using the machines at the training centers that were kept open after\nwork till ten at night.  The method was to intensively guide the trainees\nin the management of their enterprises. Every action from the planning of their\nprojects, to the purchase of raw materials, the chicks, the feed, the process\nof manufacture, the process of the growth and sale of cattle, the making of\ngarments and their sale was all monitored on a non formal education  basis\nwhere the youths were trained to look at the advantages and disadvantages of\neach course of action and act on their own. They were monitored closely and\nhelped when they failed. . The trainees were taught basic economics related to\ntheir ventures\u201a  The training included understanding the free market\neconomy and the youths were guided to think, understand and increase their\nability and capacity in the process. This was non formal education in action.\nThe achievement was within the village setting where the projects became family\nconcerns with brothers and sisters becoming involved. On our Visits, Training\nsessions were provided impromptu where everyone could participate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The effort was to make a youth movement to make youths establish\nventures and guide them till they are income bearing equal to the earnings of a\nclerical officer in the Public Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Programme began at the end of March 1982 with a few trainees\nand was expanded to 2000 by October 1983. By the time I left Bangladesh at the\nend of October  1983- in  sixteen months my team was guiding 2000\nyouths.  The team comprised the\nSecretary, the Joint Secretary of the Ministry with a few hundred staff of\nDirectors, Deputy Directors of Youth, Director for Livestock and Poultry ,\nDirectors of the 3 Residential Training Centers in Livestock & Poultry,\nLecturers in Training Institutes- all of whom were taught the essentials of\neconomics firstly to be able to analyse the economy of Bangladesh and to arrive\nat areas of economic activity where self employment production would be an\nasset.to the country. They were also taught methods of imparting instructions\nin a manner that would evoke the active participation of the trainees and\nenable them to think and make their own decisions. This included national and\nregional planning culled down to the village level., where the self employment\nunits were established. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We got down to work in earnest.. The officers were patriotic to\nthe extreme. It was long hours every day for months Daily circuits in Toyota\nHiace bone shakers- leaving early morning to return whenever. The officials\nresponded ably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In an evaluation conducted\nin March 1983, eleven months from the commencement it was found that of the\nyouths that commenced by May 1982,   283\nyouths had established  their own\ncommercial ventures, with stocks of flocks and head of cattle  valued at Tk.911,630.00.  It was building up stocks, buying chicks and\nducklings and seeing them grow. As much as 223 of them had reached a net income\nof TK 369.00 a month. Of them 83 earned over Tk. 500.00 a month. In the  Jamalpur District, in disciplines like dress\nmaking, fisheries, retail sales, electrical goods repairing workshops, welding,\netc. 73 youths were involved, earning an average net income of Tk 445.00 a\nmonth with 20 of them earning net incomes of Tk. 500.00 or over:\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that time Tk. 500.00 a month was the salary drawn by a Clerical\nOfficer in the Government Service. Getting the youths to reach a net income of\nTk. 500.00 was our aim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an Evaluation done in August 1983, 16 months since\ncommencement  the Evaluation Report\nstates:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Programme of Excellence in every respect  unfolds in the results documented. .Of  500 unemployed youths who joined the\nprogramme in the early months,   479 are\nearning  an average net income  of Tk 596.00 in August 1983, 8 to 12 months\nafter they commenced their commercial ventures, 55 of them earn over Tk.\n1000.00 a month and 253 earn  over Tk\n500.00.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 1983, barely 16 months since the commencent, the\nachievement was hailed by the two Secretaries of the Ministry of Labour and\nManpower; In their words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr.Karunaratne\u2019s\nsignificant contribution has been in the field of self employment to the\ndrop-out youths. This programme was not only designed but also guided by him.\nThis activity which was initially launched as a pilot experimental project has\nbeen a great success and has now being adopted as a fill-fledged Programme. The\nGovernment of Bamgladesh..has been successful in providing meaningful\nemployment to a large number of youths on this Programme\u201d .(Asafuddowlah)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Karunaratne\u2019s role as\nthe formulator of the program has been particularly commendable. It was mainly\nthrough his dedication and hard work that the pilot project has now been\nformally accepted as one of the most important development projects. (Ayubur Rahaman)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The YSEP has stood the test\nof time for over three decades (1982-2019) The Five Year Plan of 1997-2002\ndevotes 8 pages to this program. This is easily the premier employment creation\nprogram that one can find in the world today. All other programs involve\ntraining and apprenticeship only and never include the tasks of motivating\nyouths, involving them in non-formal education endeavor to develop their\nabilities and capacities, through technical guidance and management advice\nprovided as they work on their projects aimed at their  becoming commercially viable, which are the\ncornerstones on which this programme  has\nbeen based.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of traditional\nyouth work, the aims of the Ministry of Youth had been altered  To facilitate the unemployed youth for\ngainful employment\/self employment, providing vocational\/skills development\ntraining and micro credit support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To involve the youth in the\nmainstream of national development processes” (www.dyd.gov.bd\/nyp_activities.php<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above achievement of the Youth Self Employment Programme\nstands great in comparison to what was achieved by the ILO Project in Tangail\nin the earlier three years, where the number of entrepreneurs was only 626,\nwhere Tk. 1.38 million was disbursed of which only Tk. .61 million was recovered.\nThe best cases document people owning one milk cow or fattening one head of\ncattle for sale. Many of the 626 people have dropped off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 By  August 1983, 16 months after\ncommencement  The Department of Youth\nDevelopment  were training  2000 youths. The Programme was expanded apace\nto involve 7000 youths by 1987, to 16,000 by 1992 and to 160,000 a year  from 1997. In 1982 we had only 3 Residential\nTraining Centers. This was increased to 64 by 1997.  In \n2011 February  The Government of\nBangladesh reported to the 34 th Session of the Governing Council of\nIFAD(FAO)  that this programme had guided\nas much as two million youths to be self employed\u201a  on  a\ncommercially viable basis.(Statement by Bangladesh to the 34 th Session of the\nGoverning Council of IFAD(FAO), dated19\/02\/2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My task was also to train the officers to carry on the programme\nafter my\u201a  two year period of service ended.\u201a  True to a man\nBangladeshi officers carried on the ardous task and\u201a   today 160,000\nyouths are being guided annually.. A full Department of Youth Development now\ndevotes 95% of their time to training and guiding youths to become self\nemployed..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every country boasts of skills training programmes where youths\nare trained in the thousands but none provide training to guide the trained to\nbecome entrepreneurs- the task that was successfully done in this Youth Seldf\nEmployment Programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would behove  every\nGovernment to  decide that all skills\ntraining programmes should include guidance to enable the youths in training to\nestablish enterprises of their own and become entrepreneurs. This can be\nachieved with little extra cost as the staff that train youths in skills will\nalso be guiding them to become self employed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another important fact is that for the first few years, no new\nfunds were provided. Savings were found within the skills training programme\nbudgets for holding training workshops to create self employment..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having a live successful employment creation programme to follow\nand guide is a great asset to any country that wishes to commence activity. The\nmay be   available for any country that\nhopes to convert their unemployed youth to become entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

. The entire world yearns for that development today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D. Michigan State University\u201a <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commonwealth Fund Advisor of Youth Development to the Government\nof Bangladesh(1981-1983)  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author of;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternative Programs of \nSuccess (Godages)2006
\n\u2013Success in Development-\u009d(Godages)2010
\nPapers on the Economic Development of Sri Lanka-\u009d, Godages 2012
\nHow the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development,  Kindle\/Godages,\n2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n

October 11, 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D. In view of the fact that over twenty percent of young people in the World, have failed to find a due place in the economic ladder and have become drop offs of the education and development system, definite action to equip them to become contributors to society has to get priority. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-garvin-karunaratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}