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in our jobs placement company,” says system is weak. If it is improved, many
Sabharwal, an alum of Delhi Univer- more youth will step forward to enroll
sity and Wharton School of business in our skills development programmes
management, USA, who has oppor- which will provide a big boost to ru-
tunely timed his entry into vocational ral productivity and production,” ex-
skills training and employment busi- plains Dr. Alka Singh, an alumna of
nesses. Gujarat Agri University, Chaudhury
Perhaps even better tidings are that Charan Singh University, Meerut and
with print media and television includ- University of California, who is prin-
ing government and political party ads cipal and dean of the Aspee College
showing prosperous, cheerful farmers, of Horticulture, Navsari Agricultural
skilling fever is spreading in rural In- University.
dia which although grudgingly hosts In particular, Dr. Singh makes a
60 percent of the national population, strong plea for the development of In-
contributes a mere 17 percent of an- dia’s horticulture processing industry.
nual GDP. The inescapable truth is “Horticulture produce — fruits and
that unless there is a huge productiv- Sabharwal: "repair, prepare & upgrade" vegetables — are highly perishable
ity leap forward in rural India, there’s and barely 10 percent is processed,
little chance of the country transform- our short-term courses in fertilizer a colossal annual wastage. There is a
ing into a $30-40 trillion economy by and pesticides usage, soil and water strong case for building a strong food
2047 as predicted by Prime Minister and green house management this processing industry to reduce the
Narendra Modi and his chorus. Be- year. Simultaneously, there is greater huge annual wastage of horticulture
cause of abysmal primary education demand for our field extension ser- produce,” adds Singh.
dispensed by the country’s 1.20 mil- vices. This promises better yields in To its credit, since it was voted to
lion government schools, two-thirds the coming harvest seasons. Indian power at the Centre in 2014 and again
of them in rural India, the majority of agriculture is changing, especially in in 2019, the BJP government has ac-
the farming community is still using Gujarat where four new agriculture corded considerable attention to voca-
antiquated tools and equipment dat- universities were promoted by the tional education and training (VET).
ing back several centuries. state government in 2004. However, For one, the title of the broadly named
I N PUNJAB AND OTHER major million), and its history of the Amul has been more accurately narrowed
Union ministry of human resources
given the population of Gujarat (65
cooperative movement, the pace of
foodgrains growing areas, ig-
down to the Union ministry of Edu-
norant farmers have deserti-
fied large land tracts by over- rural upskilling is too slow. This is cation, and a new ministry for Skills
Development and Entrepreneurship
because the public primary education
using urea (instead of optimal NPK ASPEE College's Dr. Alka Singh (centre right): food processing industry plea
mix) while the number of unskilled,
unemployed youth is multiplying be-
cause of the slow growth of industry,
especially labour-intensive MSMEs
(micro, small and medium enter-
prises), which employ 40 percent of
the industrial workforce. According
to farmers’ leader Sharad Joshi (1935-
2015), given globally benchmarked
primary and skilling education op-
tions, rural India has the capability to
“feed the world”. Per-acre foodgrains
yields even in India’s bread-basket re-
gions are a mere one-tenth of yields
even in the US and France, and one-
fifth of China.
Therefore, the compulsions of up-
skilling are spreading across rural
India as well. “We are experiencing
a sharp increase in applications for

JULY 2023 EDUCATIONWORLD 59