How Public-Private Partnerships Can Spur Rural Employment

Villgro Fellow Mayank Jaiswal highlights the working of a new public-private partnership to address the challenges of rural employment. As part of his Fellowship, Mayank works with e-Jeevika, a Villgro incubatee company that provides employment and recruitment services for rural India.

Rural India is teeming with youth who could be made employable. This will bring the youth and their families out of a vicious circle of poverty and deprivation. It not only imparts the youth with the financial stability that comes with a job but also empowers them and develops their self confidence by enhancing their social status in the community.  Companies are increasingly relying on rural India to staff their front and back offices in urban and semi-urban towns.

For long the most coveted jobs in India were with the government. Rapid economic growth, driven by a thriving private sector has changed that, but the government isn’t completely out of the picture as yet. In fact a new initiative in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, offers models for public-private partnership in providing employment to rural youth. The The Employment Generation & Marketing Mission (EGMM), headquartered in Hyderabad, not only trains young people, but also helps them get employed. The project was started by World Bank and was taken over by the state government of Andhra Pradesh.

The program identifies Grad 10-level students studying in government schools (where education is free)  in rural Andhra Pradesh,  who can be trained, groomed and prepared for an assortment of entry-level jobs in a range of sectors, including telecom, hospitality, manufacturing, retail and outsourcing. EGMM proactively talks to the industry and develops a curriculum, which it makes sure to include essential soft skills . The Mission provides a basic 75-day residential training program, which includes English and computer-skills classes, personal hygiene sessions and counseling. To minimize preconceived notions of what employment might entail, the last 15 days of the program provide on-the-job training at prospective workplaces ranging from security agencies and telecom firms to pharmaceutical companies and retail outlets. This allows trainees to get a feel for the work environment and see what’s expected of them. The familiarization helps youth adapt to their new lives later.

EGMM is a small but important start. If other states are able to replicate the model, there could be enough ammunition to handle India’s rural employment dilemma.

Read more about the EGMM, here.