Ex-NITI Aayog member Virmani: Focus on job skills for inclusive growth

'Focus on job skills': Ex-NITI Aayog member Virmani outlines path to broad-based growth; calls for public health reforms

New Delhi, May 17

Speaking with ANI, Virmani underscored that while a high GDP growth rate (such as India's consistent 6.5% to 7%+ trajectory) looks excellent on a macroeconomic scoreboard, it doesn't automatically translate to widespread wealth. For that growth to actively lift the bottom 50% to 60% of the population, the structural foundation of human capital must be reformed.

His argument rests on a crucial macroeconomic formula: Sustained Fast GDP Growth to Accelerated Per Capita GDP to Higher Average Welfare. However, to unlock this chain reaction, he outlines three major structural bottlenecks that India must fix.

"If you accelerate GDP growth, that accelerates per capita GDP and makes the average welfare of the people higher," he said. But beyond faster sustained inclusive growth, he stressed the need for it to be "sustained fast growth."

"There have been many welfare programs, for example, electricity etc so one part of it is what we call public goods, and there has been a lot of that, so in my view again the focus needs to shift much more strongly to building capabilities," Virmani argued that inclusion depends on building public goods and individual capabilities.

Virmani pulled no punches on India's education crisis, pointing out a stark reality: 50% of Indian children cannot read basic text even after completing primary school. He said India remains too focused on "credentialism", awarding certificates, rather than actual learning. He said roughly 50% of children cannot read a basic text even after completing primary school.

"We have completed primary, they have a degree or certificate, but they can't read," he said. "We have to increase this focus on minimum reading, not just think that they passed primary."

He pointed to Uttar Pradesh as proof that change is possible. Minimum reading proficiency in the state has risen by 10 percentage points over the last decade. "It is not rocket science; it can be done. But the focus has to be there. That's how you get broad-based growth if everybody has that basic learning, not just a piece of paper," Virmani said.

Secondly, job skills, he said, are the second pillar of broad-based growth. Only 2% of India's school population is in vocational education and training. For India's per capita income level, that figure should be closer to 20%, he added.

"We are not giving them the job skills which will raise their real income. Higher real wages come from higher productivity," Virmani said. "We somehow have a mental attitude that skills are not the important thing, it's that piece of paper."

While schemes like Vishwakarma exist, he said, implementation lags because education and skilling are state subjects. The National Education Policy recognises holistic education, but "people who are actually on the ground are not realising how important this is," he added.

The Pradhan Mantri Vishwakarma Kaushal Samman Yojana was launched in 2023 to uplift the lives of these artisans and craftsperson by enhancing their skills and increasing the reach of their products and services. It aims to provide end-to-end holistic support to artisans and craftspeople for their respective trades.

It emphasises encouraging the trades in rural and urban areas, with special attention to women empowerment and marginalised or underserved groups like the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs, Specially Abled, Transgenders, residents of NER states, Island Territories, and Hilly Areas.

On state-level cash transfer schemes for women and unemployed youth, Virmani said governments running out of public goods to provide often turn to "freebies." A better alternative, he said, is investment in public health infrastructure.

"Sanitation and sewage, we have done a lot on private toilets, but the systems have not improved," he said. "You need a modern sewage system all over the country. Our metros are groaning. I have been to industrial areas where there was no sewage system."

Cleanliness, sewage networks and basic road maintenance are still missing across large parts of India, he said. "We can never be called a developed country unless your sewage systems, your drainage systems work. I have driven on village roads where there were big holes. Water collects, germs will collect."

Virmani said public health, women's education and child nutrition are deeply linked. Research shows that an educated mother reduces child malnutrition and mortality. "When we think of health, we think of individual problems like heart issues. But this is public health," he said.

Since education, health, and sanitation are largely state responsibilities, Virmani said the Centre can only provide incentives. However, the real shift has to happen at the ground level.

He called on the media to educate citizens about the value of public goods. "We have this idea that something we get is good, but what everybody gets is not. But that is actually much better for your children if they have clean parks, clean roads, if there's a public toilet wherever you need it," he said.

For India's growth to be truly inclusive by 2047, he concluded, states must prioritise minimum learning, job skilling, and sanitation systems over short-term transfers.

— ANI