More than 50% of Indian youth will not have skills for 21st century jobs: UNICEF

According to the data produced by the Global Business Coalition for Education (GBC-Education), the Education Commission, and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), approximately 54% of South Asian youth that leave school will lack the necessary skills to find a decent job by 2030. The data also said that more than 50% of Indian youth are not on track to have the education and skills necessary for employment by 2030.

“Every day, nearly 100,000 young South Asians – a large sports stadium of young people – enter the labour market, almost half of them not on track to find 21st century jobs,” Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director, was quoted as saying in a press release by UNICEF.

“South Asia is at a critical juncture, with a limited window during which it can reap significant demographic dividends from its talented and capable youth. Get it right, and millions could be lifted out of poverty. Fail to do so, and economic growth will falter, youth despair will rise, and further talent will be lost to other regions,” Fore added.

“This is a crisis,” said Justin Van Fleet, Executive Director of the Global Business Coalition for Education. “Addressing the youth skills gap in South Asia requires government investments, commitments from the business community, contributions from civil society, and the perspective of young people to best equip the next generation to successfully enter the rapidly changing job market.”

Image Credits: The Times Of India

According to UNICEF, almost half of the population of 1.8 billion in South Asia is under the age of 24, providing the region with the largest youth labour force in the world until 2040.

“The world of work is changing fast. If governments invest in better and modern education, and businesses create better opportunities for young people to enter the job market, South Asia can set an example for the world. But this can only be done if we act smart, and act together,” said Fore.

Challenges In Offering Skills Training For Youth In India
A report commissioned by UNICEF and compiled by Ernst & Young India outlined several challenges in equipping Indian youth with adequate skills. These included issues like lack of quality trainers, proper timing of training programs and time-consuming certification processes.

The report also pointed out that most institutions in India still follow outdated curricula. In addition to this, inadequate infrastructure and quality of faculty make it difficult to provide students with relevant skills demanded by the labour market.

The lack of awareness among youth about the various government-run skill development programs is also a major challenge.

Recommendations From UNICEF
UNICEF pointed out the necessity for combining education with workforce readiness, soft skills, technical skills and entrepreneurship so that the youth can easily adapt to the work environment.

In order to increase women participation, the report also recommended providing subsidised childcare facilities and paid leaves. Gender sensitization workshops will also help to increase awareness for the requirement of female workforce.

The report suggested that spending on secondary education with a focus on quality and relevance and the availability of teachers. Upgrading technology and supporting labour-intensive industries can also help in generating jobs.

(Source: The Logical Indian)

Female genital mutilation is a sad reality in India, support the campaign to ban it

A group of 30 survivors of female genital mutilation (FGM), belonging to a particular community, has started an online campaign against the practice and to put pressure on the government to bring a law to ban it. The group, ‘Speak Out on FGM‘, has launched the petition on ‘Change.org’ website, and claimed to have received over forty thousand signatures already.

Female genital mutilation refers to several different harmful practices involving the cutting of the female genitals for non-medical reasons. In December 2012, the UN General Assembly unanimously voted to work for the elimination of FGM, reckoned as a violation of human rights.

The group is launching another campaign, ‘Each One-Reach One’, on February 6, observed as Female Genital Mutilation Day, to reach out to the people and raise awareness about it. “This is an effort to wipe out this custom from our community. I am happy that thousands of survivors are joining this campaign not only from India, but also from Canada, Australia, South Africa, Britain, etc,” A survivor told PTI.

She said, “At the age of seven, I was subjected to FGM in Mumbai in an unhygienic condition and clandestine manner. The shock and the physical and psychological trauma of that day are still fresh in my mind.” “We have also launched several WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages, which have received overwhelming response from across the globe,” said the survivor, who is now 53 and working with a publishing company.

Survivors maintained the reason for the tradition of FGM is to curb sexual drive of women and control them. They claimed FGM has nothing to do with religion and is more of a cultural practice. According to the World Health Organisation, between 100 million and 140 million women and girls across the world are thought to be living with the consequences of FGM.

“This is the first time that survivors in India have joined hands to publicly campaign against this horrific practice,” said Preethi Herman, Country Lead, change.org. The message of this campaign is loud and clear. FGM needs to be banned, she added.

Please sign the petition here.

At least 200 million females estimated undergo FGM globally
At least 200 million girls and women in 30 countries are estimated to have undergone female circumcision, half of them in Egypt, Ethiopia and Indonesia, the UN children’s agency has said in a report. The UNICEF statistical report said the global figure includes nearly 70 million more girls and women than it estimated in 2014. It said this is due to population growth in some countries and new data from Indonesia.

The UN General Assembly unanimously approved a resolution in December 2012 calling for a global ban on female genital mutilation, a centuries-old practice stemming from the belief that circumcising girls controls women’s sexuality and enhances fertility. One of the targets in the new UN goals adopted last September calls for the practice to be eliminated by 2030.

While there has been an overall decline in the prevalence of female genital mutilation over the last three decades, UNICEF said it isn’t enough to keep up with increasing population growth. If current trends continue, it warned that the number of girls and women undergoing FGM “will rise significantly over the next 15 years.” In the 30 countries, UNICEF said the majority of girls were circumcised before reaching their fifth birthdays. “In Yemen, 85 per cent of girls experienced the practice within their first week of life,” the agency said.

According to the data, girls under the age of 14 represent an estimated 44 million of those who have been cut, with the highest prevalence in this age group in Gambia at 56 per cent, Mauritania at 54 per cent and Indonesia where about half of girls aged 11 or under have undergone the practice.

(Source: Your Story)

Akshaya Tritiya: Hotbed of child marriages

On the auspicious day of 'Akshaya Tritiya', thousands of child brides become victims of early marriage in India.

"I am one of those unfortunate Hindu women whose hard lot is to suffer the unnameable miseries entailed by the custom of early marriage. This wicked practice of child marriage has destroyed the happiness of my life. It comes between me and the things which I prize above all others - study and mental cultivation. Without the least fault of mine, I am doomed to seclusion; every aspiration of mine to rise above my ignorant sisters is looked down upon with suspicion and is interpreted in the most uncharitable manner..."

- Extract from a letter written by a woman named Rukhmabai to The Times of India on June 26, 1885, reproduced in Child Marriage in India: Socio-legal and Human Rights Dimensions, by Jaya Sagade (Oxford University Press, 2005). 

This is not just the case of one Rukhmabai. There are hundreds of thousands of Rukhmabais who fall victim to early marriage. In fact, UNICEF's State of the World's Children 2012 report says that more than 40 per cent of the world's child marriages happen in India.

More than 60 million women across the world now aged between 20 and 24 years were married before they turned 18. Even though the extent of early marriage varies from countries and regions, the highest rate is found in West Africa, followed by South Asia.

"About half the girls in early marriage live in Southeast Asia," the WHO said in the Geneva meet last month.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the chair of The Elders, who was in Bihar, India, in February 2012, said that child marriage is "a practice that robs millions of girls of their childhood, their rights and their dignity. I find it astounding that this issue does not receive far greater attention. Together, we and our partners commit to working together to end it."

The numbers are different in urban versus rural areas. According to the Union health ministry's Family Welfare Statistics 2011, "for every woman aged below 18 getting married in urban centres, three women are getting married in rural areas". Read more...