The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Why IT jobs have not percolated to the weaker sections

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 18, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Why IT jobs have not percolated to the weaker sections

N. Ravi Kumar

It is attributable to the inability of economically weak youth to afford computer education

CHENNAI: The high cost of computer education, lack of adequate knowledge of English and poor communication skills are keeping economically weak youth in Tamil Nadu from getting even low-end jobs in the field of information technology.

This is the key finding of an investigative study on "computer training and the under-privileged," conducted by Nandini Voice for the Deprived, a non-profit organisation.

"Unfortunately, the poorer sections of the society remain largely disconnected from the computer revolution," says the study by the teachers at the free computer schools run by Nandini at Chennai, Dindigul, Perambalur and Nagercoil.

The study is based on the response gathered during informal discussions with 1,500 boys and girls upto 23 years of age in the State, including many students of Nandini Computer Schools, according to N.S. Venkataraman, trustee of the organisation.

Stating that the middle and upper income groups corner most of the jobs in the field of IT, the study report attributes this to the inability of the economically weak youth to afford computer education.

But, huge employment opportunities would open up for the youth, if they were trained. The study recommends setting up of free computer schools by the State Governments on a massive scale. They should encourage non-governmental organisations to establish such institutions by providing necessary support.

Though some State Governments like Tamil Nadu provide computer education with stipendiary support to poor students, the course is of a short duration, student intake low and feedback of the students in the institutions disappointing.

The governments should also standardise computer education at basic level and conduct qualifying examinations, as in the case of typewriting and shorthand. Apart from meeting the requirement of the employers, this measure was necessitated in view of the increase in the number of computer education institutes.

"Such institutions do not come under the control of the governments or statutory bodies. They decide their own syllabus and duration of the course. Many of them are understaffed or have inadequately trained teachers. The fee fixed by the institutions is arbitrary and often high."

Noting that a sense of disappointment was apparent among the respondents at their inability to access computer education, the study says their inadequate knowledge of English comes in the way of their landing jobs involving computers. Many of them cannot afford newspapers or journals to improve their knowledge level or spoken English capability and have little opportunity to converse in English in their family circles. Therefore, employers insisting on good spoken English capability do not provide them jobs.

Even those under-privileged youth who manage to get training in basic computer operations find it difficult to get jobs in established companies for lack of communication skills.

They end up being recruited by small firms on temporary basis as data entry operators and with paltry salary.

Many of the young men and women who take loans at high interest and enrol in expensive computer courses do not get suitable jobs — due to their own inadequacies. Their economic conditions turn worse after such courses.

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