April 21, 2014

Creating new employment opportunities in West Bengal

Tanmay Mondal
IIM graduate, Batch of 2014


West Bengal suffered a lot due to brain drain from the State during the Left regime. Even lockouts and militant trade-unionism led to a negative image of the state being projected globally. However, after coming to power, the Trinamool led government under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee has started infusing fresh energy into the youth of the State, and have also begun extending Government support to the labour force in several ways.

New Employment Bank to provide new opportunities: After the Employment Bank Portal was introduced in July, 2012, approximately 15 lakh verified and registered employment-seekers have been enlisted so far. The total number of verified and registered employers is 279 up to 31 January 2014.


New Dimension Yuvashree Project

To provide unemployed youth with monthly incentive, the West Bengal Government has inserted the Yuvashree Project.

The project has been implemented from October, 2013.

The Government has settled to give monthly Rs 1500 financial aid to the one lakh unemployed youth.

At present, 87,000 young job-seekers are receiving this allowance.

Employment: In 2013-14, new employment provisions have reached to 13 lakh 22 thousand. The government has planned to build more than 16 lakh employment opportunities in 2014-15 financial years.

Enhancement of age-limit for recruitment to government jobs: The age-limit for recruitment to the government jobs has been enhanced to 40 years in case of general candidates, 45 years for SC / ST candidates and 43 years for Differently-able and OBC candidates.


Reduction in the number of man days on account of strikes

The work culture is back in the state after the new government has assumed power

The number of lost man days due to strikes was nearly 3.6 crore in the pair of 2007 to 2011

Whereas it has been cut back to 60 thousand in 2011-12

In 2012-13 it has further reduced to 5,200 and till January, 2014 the number is equivalent to 0


More speed to Social Security Projects

The number of registered workers in Social Security Projects was 26 lakh within the span of 2001-2011; this is an average of 2.6 lakh per year.

The numbers of registered workers under this project within May, 2011 to January 2014 are 31 lakh with an average of 12.4 lakh per year.

An amount of Rs 9 crore was distributed among 45,000 workers within 2001 to April 2011.

The amount of  Rs 176 crore has been distributed among 6.32 lakh workers within May, 2011 and January, 2014.

Samajik Mukti Card: Every member of unorganized sector has an easy access to the account of State Assisted Scheme of Provident Fund for unorganized Workers (SASPFUW) through the smart card. So far, 7.5 lakh workers in the unorganized sector have been given the smart card.

Shramik Mela was organized to reach out to more workers in the unorganized sector. Similar fairs have been organized in seven places in 2014.

Shramik Barta - All news ready at hand: The labour department has been publishing a quarterly Bengali journal named Shramik Barta since August, 2013.


ESI – Manifold increase in facilities

The ESI Hospital of Manicktala has been developed through the initiation of the Modular Operation Theatre and Postgraduate courses in Pathology and Anesthesia

This is the first ESI Hospital in the country, declared to be the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Science and Research

For the first time in India, the Pain Management Institute has been operational at the ESI Hospital, Sealdah

ESI facilities have been introduced in the regions out of its service-area. Service-dispensaries have been operational in Medinipur town, Baharampur, Malda, Rampurhat and Jamuria during the tenure of the present government.