New Delhi, Nov 9 (KNN) “Our Country has highest youth population in the world and every youth want jobs. Coming generations will not forgive us if urgent steps are not taken in the direction of employment generation”, Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Union Minister of State (I/C) for Labour & Employment said while addressing the experts in  a brain-storming session  on employment generation strategies organized by VV Giri National Labour Institute (VVGNLI) in Noida.

Gangwar said the government and the ministry had been moving in the right direction to promote skill development and employment generation in the country.

The Minister noted that EPFO and ESIC had increased its beneficiaries to one crore in the last one year.

The Union Minister termed Demonetisation a historic decision of government and said that the decision had yielded lot of good results during the last one year.

M. Sathiyavathy, Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment said that many youngsters lack skills to get a job in the market. She added that government had been constantly trying to fill up the gap. About 920 job fairs have been organized by the government and 1.17 crore youth have been trained in various skills in recent past.

Referring to the important legislation of 26 weeks of maternity leave to pregnant lady workers, Smt. Sathiyavathy said that many employers are not willing to give this paid leave of 26 weeks.

Director General, VVGNLI, Dr. H. Srinivas expressed the hope that some fruitful and  practical suggestions would come from the session which could be handed over to Ministry of Labour and Employment for further consideration and implementation. (KNN/AG)