ASSAM: AT THE ECONOMIC CROSSROADS

As the government sector is saturated, the authorities concerned are floating many schemes for the young generation which are basically self-employment generation plans.

The focus is being laid on the realization of the acumen of the young people, and to groom them to tap the local natural resources.

OCCUPATION PATTERNS

Though the majority of the Assamese population depends on agriculture as its primary means of livelihood it is not that all the family members carry on this trade. It normally happens that the children always get a better education from that of their parents. This single factor has its positive as well as negative aspects.

The positive aspect is that the children always would be going for a better social status. Nonetheless, this has in its roots the very germs of the negative aspect. The father may be a peasant however the son after clearing the high school stage would be looking askance at the patriarchal profession. This leads the son or the daughter to seek government jobs which are again quite scarce in India.

This mad race for plump ‘sitting jobs’ in the government sector

The typical psychology is to go for a government job even if it is of the third-grade stage simply because the person would one day be able to retire with pension and gratuity.

This feeling makes many of the government employees so complacent that they refuse to even read the writings on the wall. Most of them do not possess any house of their own on the day of superannuation. This is because they have been living in quarters till date.  As a result, they turn out to be ships without rudders.

Interestingly enough, very few of the Assamese parents seek blessings of the Almighty to make their children entrepreneurs. As a consequence thereof, the majority of the youth seek white collar jobs.

However, the trend is changing nowadays.

OPTIMUM UTILIZATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES

An important aspect of these innovative governmental schemes is that they are able to provide gainful employment to the young force.

Their energy tends to get dissipated very fast.

In the paucity of such scopes to utilize their potential and their talents, they can easily get frustrated and join hands with anti-social elements. As a result, the indirect results are that the unemployment problem is being solved and militancy curbed to a great extent.

The governmental agencies also focus on the need for a peaceful socio-economic and political scene to create the congenial atmosphere for rapid industrialization. In this attempt, the youths who come forward to become entrepreneurs naturally become the buffer force against the elements that carry out sabotage activities. At the same time, these enterprising young people prove to be models for their compatriots.

ENTREPRENURIAL MISSION: A MULTI-PRONGED STRATEGY

In the process, they are also giving employment to other young people. Various options are open before them.

The employed youths are also being enthused to learn the tricks of the trade.

Subsequently, these learners are offered easy government loans with the help of which they too set up similar endeavors.

Ultimately, this sets in motion a chain reaction.

Simultaneously, the multi-pronged effort is aimed at transforming the youths to be entrepreneurs.

Towards this direction, the official rigmarole of accessing loans from the financial institutions is also being simplified.

The single-window scheme is being implemented. It is delivering the results. 

ENTREPRENEURIAL MISSION

Many enterprising youth – both educated employed as well as the illiterate and the semi-literate young people as well are coming forward to set up small-scale and even medium-scale industries.

As a result, young boys and girls in Assam are taking up programs in the tourism, horticulture, agriculture and even industrial sectors besides transport.

TAPPING OF YOUTH FORCE

In the tourism sector, the young entrepreneurs are becoming the buffer force against the poachers. They also keep guard against the other anti-social elements operating in the jungles.

This is primarily because the enterprising youth do not want any disturbing elements to rob them of their livelihood. The state government is therefore getting sentinels in these young people who have been taking up self-employment schemes with the active help of the government agencies.

In the tourism sector, these young Assamese youth are setting up eateries like the motels locally known as dhabas, restaurants, lodging facilities, building up the transportation networks for tourists, and also other ancillary units.

They are also into eco-tourism, adventure tourism and culture tourism, besides other ancillary industries connected with the tourism sector.