Kerala Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac, who has been reiterating that employment received the hardest blow due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said that an extensive scheme was being initiated by the state government to provide employment to at least 20 lakh educated people through digital platforms within five years.
While presenting the state budget for the fiscal 2021-22 on Friday, Isaac said, “Unemployment of the educated is the biggest developmental challenge faced by Kerala. While the national level unemployment in the age group of 15 to 59 was 5.8% in 2018-19, it was 10.4% in Kerala. The main reason is the unemployment of women in Kerala. While the male unemployment rate in Kerala is 5.8% that of women is 19.1%.”
He noted that “women stop seeking jobs and go out of the work force on realising the difficulties in getting a job. It’s shameful to note that while the labour participation rate of men is 73.5%, that of women is only 28.5%.”
Issac, while presenting the last budget of the incumbent Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, said that five lakh women professionals have taken career breaks and are staying at home. “Another 40 lakh educated women who are outside the labour force and are staying at home, will be willing to work from home or a nearer location. Around 16 lakh educated youngsters registered with employment exchange are waiting for employment. Hence, the total comes to 60 lakh. An extensive scheme is being initiated to provide employment to at least 20 lakh educated unemployed through digital platforms within five years,” he said.
Isaac called unemployment the important developmental challenge faced by the state since its formation. “The core of the Budget is the action plan for this,” he said.
The state government is optimistic of utilising the situation, which it calls an ‘opportunity’ created by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Globally, almost 50 lakh people were doing digital jobs outside centralised offices. We are intending to formulate a scheme to utilise this situation most effectively and imaginatively. As per the work from near home scheme, steps were taken to convert resorts to work stations during the COVID-19 period. If at least one 5000 square feet building facility is made available at block or municipal level, we propose a scheme to convert them into work stations.” Rs 20 crore was earmarked to convert buildings into work stations.
Apart from this, the budget has earmarked Rs 200 crore for K-DISC (Kerala Development Innovation Strategic Council) as ‘knowledge economy fund’. The state government said that this would ensure employment to at least 2 lakh people, who have taken a break from professional jobs in 2021-22. In this manner, the budget said, twenty lakh persons will be given employment in five years.