- authorparminderksh
(UN)BURDENED
Recently, I was the Chief Guest in Govt ITI College in a small city and was to address 150 plus freshers who were ready to take up challenges after acquiring technical SKILLS and be a part of the workforce. The theme was ‘Motivation for Self Employment’.
The cheerful faces of both boys and girls (I would rather say young graduates) greeted me. Being a hard core banker, I was asked to deliberate on Self employment viz a viz how to start one’s own business or work rather than depending on Govt or private jobs which we all know is limited,
given the size of young, eligible population of our country.
I went on to motivate the young minds with a proper course of action. First and foremost, I told them, was to know their mindset well. They should be sure of the business or the work they would like to do based on the skills they had acquired through their education. This, has to be followed by the preparation of a project report and amount that one is ready to invest. If the amount in hand is not sufficient, then comes the role of Banks.I then tried to educate them about the factors related to granting loan.
I also drove the message home to eager students to be rooted to their home place instead of rooted out in big cities for so called jobs. Finally they could contribute by giving jobs to the needy and generating income for self, family and workers. This way, in paving their own future, they would contribute (Unburden) to society where large unemployment prevails. The message was well received.
There was an officer from Employment exchange office too who initially spoke about freeing oneself from dependency on parents by either getting a job or starting one’s own work. She soon shifted to Govt paying out ‘Berojgar bhatta ‘ ranging from Rs1000 to Rs6500 per month, based on qualification and how to ENROLL for the same.
This was an utterly shocking statement as it was totally contradictory to the purpose of the gathering! And I truly believe such people and such attitude drives young influential minds to run behind easy money! After all Berojgar bhatta is the contribution of the Tax payers. For me, it stands for killing the enthusiasm of young people to work and work hard to earn a living, thereby being a burden on society for ever.
Not long ago, a few young customers visited my branch to open a second account. The reason given was to receive Berojgar bhatta from Govt . When I asked them why they wanted it as they were already receiving salary, the reply given was, “We are on contract and what is the harm when govt is paying?”
Similarly in some states ‘Budapa pension’ is rolled out to senior citizens even if their children/ grandchildren are earning in lakhs p.a. or are settled abroad thereby loading on exchequer. I am not against such provisions but a line has to be drawn so that only the Needy get the money. After all it’s the tax payers’ hard earned money and it should be used judiciously and not as easy money (khairat).
What is actually required is to mould young minds to work to earn a living and children to look after their parents and not to be dependent on freebies. The tax payers’ money is for the development of the Nation and for the benefit of all.
The author, Asha Desai, a regular guest blogger, is presently working as Chief LDM ensuring banking facilities in all villages in District along with administration. Sensitising villagers about different products of Government implemented through banks and other Bank schemes and benefits drawn.
What appealed to her is the formation of SHGs where a group of (illiterate) women come together and cultivate the habit of saving and giving money to needy on interest.