Dear Shilpi,
I don't know whether it is "individual concern" or "job concern" that you have for underprivileged people. Whatever it is, it is laudable. Are you in any way related to CII?
I have a good idea about how to reduce unemployment and offer employment to underprivileged people. But it is purely "lateral thinking"; it requires a great deal of dynamism on the part of the government and CII to respond to that idea. If you are in a position to push through this concept, then try to push it across.
Don't we see maid-servants working at the houses of middle-class and higher-middle-class people for the purpose of cleaning utensils, washing clothes, cleaning the floor of the house, etc.? The practice at our home is that if one day, the maid-servant does not come, she will send another worker to do her job.
Why can't we have the same practice for other jobs?
Let us say, Shilpi is Manager-HR in a big company like Reliance Industries Ltd. She gets a salary of Rs. 50,000 per month. But the timings of her job are from 9 a.m. in the morning to 9 p.m. in the evening. By the time she reaches home, it is 10 p.m. The only work she can do after she reaches home is to eat and then sleep and get up the next day morning at 7 a.m. and start preparing for going to the job to be in the office by 9 a.m.
She gets a good salary but she is not in a position to enjoy her family life because of her timings. She is ready to get rid of half of her salary if somebody is prepared to share half of her burden.
She wants to share half of her salary with her friend Vijaya, who is also an HR professional who is on the lookout for a good job, but because she does not have good experience, she will get a salary around Rs. 20,000 per month.
The Law of the land should allow Shilpi to share half of her job with Vijaya so that she can come home early and enjoy family life. At the same time, she can enjoy the friendship of Vijaya. That means both of them will be employed for the "same position" but half of the compensation benefits (like Salary, PF, Gratuity, Bonus, etc.) that Shilpi has been enjoying will go to Vijaya now, for sharing half of her work in proportion to the ratio of the number of days each one has worked for the organization.
Shilpi can quickly train Vijaya to match up to her talent because Vijaya needs as much competence to perform half of Shilpi's job as Shilpi has, and Shilpi can train Vijaya to perform the job.
Vijaya will not get as talented otherwise if she works for another company for a Rs. 20,000 salary. It will take another 5 years to grow as talented as Shilpi and earn a job that fetches her a salary of Rs. 30,000. But if she joins Shilpi as a co-worker, then after five years because of the increase in the salary of the job both of them have been doing, she may get a share of Rs. 35,000 per month after five years!
Even if she decides to part ways with Shilpi and do a full-time job somewhere else, she can get a job fetching Rs. 70,000 per month after five years because she is now as talented as Shilpi is.
Coming to the job aspect, how they divide the work between them is their problem. They can decide, "I will work from Jan to June, you work from July to December". Or, they can decide, "I will work from 9 to 3 in the afternoon, you work from 3 to 9 in the evening".
What is the advantage of this system of employing two persons for the same job for the company/employer?
They would not take leaves much because they will be working only half the time, i.e., six hours per day or six months per annum! The compensation paid is the same. Sometimes if there is work pressure, the boss can ask both of them to be on the job!
The company has absolutely nothing to lose. It only needs flexibility to allow Shilpi to take Vijaya as her co-worker.
If privileged sections of the Indian population can take underprivileged people to do half the job or some part of the job (there should be flexibility to allow the co-worker to even take 25%, 30%, or 40% of the job if the nature of the job allows to correctly arrive at the percentage work involved in the job), then the SCs, STs, and OBCs can be trained to become equals by the people who share their job with them!
It may sound quite unpracticable, but if this is done, then most of the unemployment problems in the country will vanish because India is a country where people do a lot for friendship. There may be workers in factories who want to share half their job with a friend. There may be people like Shilpi who want to share half their burden with people like Vijaya.
This can happen at all levels, from the position of an ordinary factory worker to the position of CMD in companies.
This kind of flexibility to allow the employees to share their job with their friends will ensure that the job is perfectly done. If the Law of the land and Companies can allow this kind of flexibility, then we will soon find advertisements in Newspapers given by Employees of companies asking people having a certain set of skills to "share their job". They will take the prospective candidates to the Employer and tell him, "this is the one who will do half of my job...I am responsible for him, his actions, and his placement in our company".
Remember this may not simply help friends but also the sons, daughters, or other relatives. A father who is Vice-President (marketing) in a big company like Tata Steel may share half of his job with his Son who has recently passed MBA with specialization in marketing. You know when a father gives training to his son, how it works...he will take personal interest and help him to grow as talented he is in no time... in other words, the Son will start the career from the position his father has left!
As emotional bondages between friends, relatives, family members are strong in our country, this kind of flexibility to share the job will do a lot of good for both the families, unemployed, and also to the companies/employers.
Thanks and regards,
Chandrasekhar.