Recently, the CEO of L&T said that his business is facing a shortage of labour to the tune of about 40,000 carpenters, masons, etc. The company is struggling to find enough skilled people for those jobs. Harsh Goenka of RPG Enterprises, too, revealed that his company is unable to find skilled people. "We want construction workers- we can’t find enough! We want truck drivers- huge shortage! We want plantation workers- they are not available," he tweeted, asking if mechanization is the solution.
Value Investor Jiten Parmar feels that the shortage problem is not just because of low pay in the industry. "The other side of the issue is that a lot of people will stay home. They do not do these jobs as it does involve menial and hard work. Not enough people want to get skilled in these kinds of jobs," he says, adding that the dignity of labor is unfortunately low in India. "The total capacity of ITIs is 26 lakh and intake is only 12 lakh," he adds.
Venkataramana Reddy sees a systemic and societal problem. "The problem is we have deprioritised polytechnic courses and the kind of employment they generate. Therefore, very few polytechnic colleges are there. Employable courses like carpentry, masonry, electrical, and plumbing are the need of the hour. But we don’t focus enough on this. That's why there is the shortage of labour," he adds.
Are there any solutions? Arjit Soni, an entrepreneur, says that his business was finding it hard to hire mechanics. "We eventually started hiring freshers and built a training program through which we get trained mechanics in 6-12 months," he added.
