The government, till date, has been able to register 36,896 job seekers in the last three years under an initiative to create a roster of educated or skilled workers in the country. Prime minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai had launched the initiative — Employment Information Centre — when he was the finance minister three years back.

About 36,896 youths have registered themselves at the Employment Information Centre since 2008-09, said director at the Department of Labour Kashiram Marasini. The department has been operating the centres spread across the 14 zones of the country. “It has not attracted the required number of youths because the centre is not associated with providing skill training or jobs,” he said.

According to him, youth have been refusing to register themselves because of the lack of direct benefits.

“Without a massive awareness campaign and training or job benefits to them, it will not succeed,” Marasini claimed.

The prime minister had introduced the centre in fiscal year 2008-09 to identify the educated and skilled population.

The government has aims to utilise it as a data bank to provide information about available human resource to domestic and international employers.

However, it has failed to achieve its goal because only 8.04 per cent of the 4.58 million unemployed youth have registered since 2008-09.

Central Bureau of Statistics has identified 17.2 million people as unemployed or under employed in the Labour Force Survey in 2008.

According to the department, there has been a better response to the programme in the Mid-West and Far-West regions as compared to other development regions. The highest number of unemployed –– 5,461 –– was registered in Rapti zone.

Narayani zone from the central development region has a significant number of unemployed youths –– 3,652 –– as compared to other zones while Janakpur has the lowest registration of 954 youths. Bagmati zone, which covers Kathmandu, recorded 2,582 youths seeking jobs or job intensive training.

Published on: 24 March 2012 | The Himalayan Times