Self Employment: Positive Resultant of Global Downturn

Self Employment: Positive Resultant of Global Downturn

from Trakin' the india business buzz by Arun Prabhudesai

Recent volatility in Global Market did pose a question on the credibility of outsourcing market; hundreds of highly trained and hard working professionals recruited from India’s best colleges/universities were laid off to save the multi billion dollar companies from vanishing.

These moves not just made consideration of uncertainty in one’s career important but also lead to changes in trend of employment statistics in India. And as said “Change is always good” (at least I believe so!) the situation demanded the working population to think about other possibilities.

Self Employment came out as a major resultant of the situation. No doubt the idea doesn’t promise six digit salary and added perks and luxury but it does manage to give self reliance to an individual.

Many of you might question how does it save one from uncertainty? In fact it escalates the same. For that doubt I don’t have any sound fact to defend but a simple logic, just the way in a highly paid job we tend to bestow our faith in its management (obviously run by key individuals), in case of self employment the onus falls on one’s self (SELF EMPLOYMENT).

So, this form of employment is more than just earning money (analogy is intended for the perks). Indian employment sector is witnessing evolving growth pattern in this area.

The dependency rate which is estimated to be around 17.1 (17 for 100 working people) for India in 2025, is expected to go down if the trend continues. Until now rural India has dominated this sector with self employment of 57% among males and nearly 62% among females. The corresponding figures in urban India were 42% for male and 44% for female.

Though there are reasons to cheer for the shifting trend as it reflects the growing entrepreneurial values among the masses and the healthy quest to explore possibilities there are reasons to be concerned about as well.

Our government is still contemplating to give this sector its share of recognition, self employment is still regarded as part of Unorganized Sector, which could be a major turn off for aspiring participants.

Moreover, while education system does play its part to inculcate basic skills among youth, traits like creativity and innovation can’t be taught, they can be harnesses and honed. MNC’s can play a vital role here to make up for the missing attribute of our present education system.

So instead of working aimlessly for these big corporations’ youth can work for a reason, this not only offer challenges to ones skill but the psychological factors can release many from the gloominess of mundane and extracting work life.

Would love to hear your views on this!

[The post has been written by Kirti Agarwal, an engineer by profession and aspiring consultant/analyst. you can reach her at kirtee.agarwal@gmail.com ]