NEW DELHI: The Congress' promise of legal right to apprenticeships for youth is a unique step and the first of its kind in the world, according to Praveen Chakravarty, chairman of the All India Professionals' Congress and a member of the Congress manifesto committee.
On Friday, while unveiling the five guarantees for youth, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi announced that every young diploma and degree holder below the age of 25 will have the right to apprenticeships in the private or government sectors. During the one-year apprenticeship, they will be paid Rs 1 lakh (Rs 8,500 monthly) and it will be backed by law, said Gandhi.
Though Germany has an apprenticeship program, it has not made it a legal right, Chakravarty told The New Indian Express. "No country has made it a legal right," he said.
He elaborated that the scheme is about offering "dignity and skilling rather than giving money to the unemployed youth".
"After apprenticeship, they will be employable. So, this is not about giving money to the unemployed. There is a bigger philosophy here and it is all about aspiration," he said.
The cost of the apprenticeship will be shared by the government and the employer, according to the Congress leader.
The idea of the Right to Apprenticeship came about after a month-long brainstorming with domain experts across the world, said Chakravarty.
"Myself and P Chidambaram, chairman of the manifesto committee, have consulted more than 20 experts in various fields across the world and India. We have consulted veteran economists Jean Dreze, Santosh Mehrotra, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and academicians from Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and Cambridge. It will also help small and medium businesses because it reduces their cost of labor," he said.
"We are confident that it'll work. When we brought in the NREGA scheme, there were a lot of skeptics. Now, 15 years later, it's a big success," said Chakravarty in a bid to underscore that this scheme could be a similar success.
To implement the promise, existing educational systems and the National Apprentices Act of 1961, have been reviewed, he said. Apart from apprenticeships, the party also has promised the filling of 30 lakh government vacancies, freedom from paper leaks, social security for gig workers, and a start-up fund for youths below 40 years of age.
"The start-up scheme will be about Rs 10 crore for every parliamentary constituency. It will cover reserved constituencies, OBC, Dalit, and minority populations," he said.
