Dr. Sukamal Deb

Decent work is Employment that provides fair income, safe conditions,social protections, and growth opportunities, ensuring dignity, equity, and equality. It promotes stability, inclusivity, and respect for workers’ rights. The concept of decent work is aligned with fair pay, dignity, and job quality. When we speak of a formal job, we mean a paid position or regular employment.

A formal job indicates regulated employment with contractual agreements and benefits, secured with businesses or companies within the official legal framework, taxed and regulated by the government.

Again, the informal work opportunities refer to unregulated, often temporary employment without contractual agreements and benefits. It includes micro entrepreneurship and income-generating activities in the informal economy.

We live in a region, the North East Region of India, where, in spite of untapped vast entrepreneurial opportunities, many of our youths and women have become victims of precarious futures. In particular, during my several visits, mingling with community leaders and youths in the district of Dima Hasao, Assam (2018 – 2022), I could realise this fact. Building an entrepreneurial ecosystem that creates dignified work locally would be the highest priority of any welfare Government and other stakeholders. This is what is perhaps lagging.

Investors and enterprises can create decent work opportunities that align with youth aspirations. Entrepreneurs face challenges in navigating policy, raising capital, and building resilient supply chains. A state where the investors and funders rolled up their sleeves to co-design new solutions for the youth, the governance that upholds this beyond a narrow line of politics, has enough scope for social and economic prosperity.

Our youths and women face limited formal employment opportunities, often turning to the informal economy for survival. Yet, too many remained trapped in low-income, precarious work that perpetuates poverty.

The four core elements youth value in decent work – fair income, safety, flexibility and autonomy- and how integrating these into work opportunities can create a pathway out of our poverty. We need actionable insights for investors, social enterprises, and policymakers looking to create work opportunities that align with youth aspirations and drive sustainable economic growth. But where are the investors?

Youths and women normally face multiple barriers to decent work, with their aspirations often being unmet due to financial constraints, gender norms, and lack of access to formal jobs and finance. There are several drivers influencing their aspirations to attain this.

These drivers interact with work retention to build the resilience needed to escape poverty.We need to understand the employment aspirations of youths and women. Identify the factors influencing these aspirations, including family, cultural, and community dynamics. Explore the barriers to securing and retaining decent work opportunitieswhich align with their aspirations and the trade-offs they make between their ambitions and the realities of the job market.

Many youths and women aspire to achieve financial stability through consistent, reliable income. However, since stable jobs with reliable income are often out of reach, they make ends meet through a portfolio of work, including daily informal work, gig opportunities, and small investments into side businesses. Entrepreneurial ambitions meet barriers of limited capital and market access.

There is a strong desire to start and grow businesses. Yet, limited access to capital and formal markets means many must bootstrap their businesses, relying on small-scale, community-driven enterprises or informal loans to expand incrementally. Youths are motivated by flexibility and career growth opportunities, which we failed to ensure. 

The North East region is predominantly a rural setup with a limited urban locale and conglomerate. This makes it a special case to design her pathway to development. We mostly depend on the informal economy.

The growth of digital platforms and fintech solutions presents an opportunity to improve livelihoods in the informal economy by expanding access to capital, logistics, and inclusive markets. So, the stakeholders can promote and enable fintech platforms that leverage employer or gig platform data, such as work history, transaction records, and performance metrics, to provide tailored financial services like credit, insurance, and savings specifically designed for gig workers.

By analysing this data, fintech companies can offer more accurate risk assessments, enabling them to extend workers affordable credit and personalised financial products. Support startups in developing financing models that provide entrepreneurs and small retail businesses with cheap capital and access to asset finance.

Explore ways to provide digital training and skilling platforms for youths in the creative and across sectors to upskill and move into formalised employment. Support initiatives that promote formalisation in informal sectors, farm and non-farm, both, enabling greater job security.

Skills beyond digital literacy are critical for growth and aspirational careers. Digital literacy is increasingly important across sectors; youths need more than technology skills. So, the task is mammoth; we need to build a generation of youth and women who usher in entrepreneurship.

This generation is our pathfinder. But, somehow, we are yet to put sincere and visionary efforts in this direction. The onus is ours, of the Government, the community leaders. We are looking for individuals who can think critically, work independently, demonstrate a willingness to learn and adapt to new challenges continuously, and have patience, dedication, hard work, and consistency.

These are entrepreneurial traits. The media is important too;it influences young minds. The Tribal Voice, Haflong, for which I write this article, can incorporate, from time to time, write-ups that are relevant to youths’ careers. Why not our Social media spreads words of entrepreneurship, presents learning and mentorship opportunities, projects paths to success and wealth, undermining many less important issues that spread like buzzwords.

Focus on instant gratification discourages our youth from committing to the gradual process of building a career, where consistent effort and skill development are essential for real success. Of late, this has been spreading like a new trend, political aspirations, derailing our youths, and there is hardly any space left in contemporary politics to make our youth true leaders for all.

Only the Entrepreneurial path will be the panacea; formal employment, like government jobs, is scant.  We have no legacy of entrepreneurship, like in Gujarat, Rajasthan, we will have to found our own legacy. Let the desire for independence and self-employment keepyouths motivated; instead of seeking jobs, let’s you be givers to our people.

The agriculture sector holds significant potential for scalable job creation, particularly through value-added processing, agribusiness, and commercialisation in rural areas. Expanding access to markets, modern farming techniques, and financial services can help unlock these opportunities. Let us band on this.

Let us create enabling work environments that support fair income, safety, flexibility, and autonomy, which are elements of decent work prioritised by youths and women in other parts of the developed world. Let’s innovate flexible work arrangements, especially for women balancing family responsibilities.

My memories of the transformation of the Boro Nianglo village, Dima Hasao, in 2018, through scientific beekeeping, constantly motivate me. High-altitude organic honey is priceless; it has high global demand, but there are few makers. Can’t Dima Hasao’s high-altitude honey become a global brand? Beekeeping addresses at least five goals out of the 17 SDGs. Local community leaders Nteukumbe Nrime and Iradiakpe Newme supported this.

Our work with the 26 women militants in Assam is a source of inspiration to me. Let me quote from a report of The Voice of Fashion, New Delhi, by Shefalee Vasudev, on 29.11.2022, captioned Khadi Weaving for Surrendered Militant Women, which writes, “This is the first batch of women from Ceasefire Women Cadres, confirms Dr Sukamal Deb later on the phone from Assam. They belonged to DNLA-5, UPLA-7, and PDCK-14 factionsbefore they surrendered.

At Tamulpur, the Union Home Minister (Amit Shah), declared that KVIC should take up a special initiative for them,” adds Deb.  Incidentally, I had to leave KVIC, unplanned, in Dec 2022, and I couldn’t continue with this work. But I have a strong faith, none of our youth and girls in North East will take this dangerous path if we understand their grievances and address them with compassion. North East can’t continue to be a poorer region; we are blessed with plenty, and brilliant, promising youth and women. I ardently believe peace can be built through work, income and livelihood.

What we need is to address regional variations with context-specific solutions. Youth employment challenges and aspirations vary significantly across regions due to cultural, economic, and infrastructural differences. In the North East in general, and the Dima Hasao district in particular, it appears as our immediate task to deal with prudence and commitment.

In our rural areas, we need to prioritise agriculture, agribusiness, and rural entrepreneurship, supported by access to modern farming techniques, financing, and market linkages.We need to design targeted interventions, mentorship, and flexible work arrangements to promote gender equity.

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