Not everyone can be diplomatically correct all the time. Or so a random call, like the one this reporter made to the Employment Exchange on KG Marg in Delhi, revealed. The intention of the caller was to confirm whether the address was indeed that of an exchange. ?Yahaan sirf naam register hote hain, naukri nahi milti,? (only names are registered here, no jobs are give) came back the curt reply.
The statement pretty much reflects the current relevance of employment exchanges in India. Though over 95 exchanges have been added to the network in the last decade, taking their total count to 968, not all seems to be well. A 2009 report by Assocham, Relevance of Employment Exchanges in the New Millennium, notes that employment exchanges in 21 states have each failed miserably to provide jobs to more than 100 applicants during the year. Worse, the average placements for the 37 employment exchanges in Bihar were just four. The report also indicates that despite the number of registrations growing at 5.5%, the percentage of placements to the vacancies notified on the exchanges registered dropped from 66.21% in 2001-02 to 50% in 2006-07. The figures only get more dismal. A budget analysis for Delhi NCR revealed that it cost the exchequer over Rs 80,000 for a single placement!
?It is the government?s duty to provide jobs to the unemployed, at whatever cost,? says DC Pandey, special secretary, Directorate of Employment. But how is the exchange preparing for the future? ?We have suggested amendment to the Employment Exchange (Compulsory Notification of Vacancy) Act, 1959. Presently, it applies to all establishments in the public sector and those in the private sector engaged in non-agricultural activities and employing 25 or more workers. We are trying to bring that number down to 10. Besides, right now a lot of vacancies are outside the purview of the exchanges, such as UPSC, SSB, etc,? he says, adding that a lot of things have changed for the good too. ?Everything is online now. Earlier, it used to take us weeks to send list of candidates to the employers. Now, it?s done within a day,? says Pandey. However, he refuses to share any placement targets for the current year: ?We can only recommend candidates. We are not part of the selection process,? he says. For now, Pandey is trying to partner with private companies to expand the network of exchanges. That must work. A PPP initiative at Mangalore with Teamlease, a private staffing company, turned out to be a hit. ?Over 250 people were placed in the first month as against 75 placements in the two years prior to that,? says Amitava Ghosh, head (regulatory), TeamLease Services. ?The current government exchanges do not function to address the market reality. We worked on bringing the look and feel of a private sector centre, reaching out to employers and candidates, and also tried to measure the KRAs of the team on the ground,? adds Ghosh.
Perception does matter. And that possibly explains the success of private job portals. ?Job sites have created a virtuous circle. So, there are more candidates logging in and potential employers coming in. That?s what the government needs to do,? says Ambarish Raghuvanshi, CFO, Info Edge, an online classifieds company in recruitment.