A meeting of the Coordination Committee on Affirmative Action has been held in the Prime Minister’s Office, under the chairmanship of the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister. It was attended by the representatives of the three national Chambers of Industry: FICCI, CII and ASSOCHAM.  Representatives of key Ministries such as  Industrial Policy & Promotion, Social Justice & Empowerment and Tribal Affairs also attended the meeting.
 
In the meeting, progress was reviewed on affirmative action for SCs/STs. It was noted that some progress had been made in adopting the Voluntary Code of Conduct and running skill development and vocation education programs to improve the employability of weaker sections.

FICCI has adopted Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh which has more than 47% population of SCs/STs. Two initiatives have been undertaken by FICCI recently. First, in partnership with IL&FS, two skill development training centres were opened and an employment centre would also be opened soon. It was mentioned that 39 companies under FICCI have adopted the Voluntary Code of Conduct (VCC) so far.

ASSOCHAM informed that they have a National Council of Affirmative Action and programmes were organized to sensitize their industry members on affirmative action. ASSOCHAM has taken a decision that it would prepare an annual report every year on the subject.

The representative of CII said that their organization is committed to working on the four E’s i.e. education, employability, employment and entrepreneurship. They were of the view that any programme on affirmative action should have economic targets.  It was also stated that the employment data with the CII may not reflect the actual status of SCs/STs employment in the private companies because many of the members do not maintain data caste wise although they are employing people from the target group. Their own studies show that the percentage of employees from SCs/STs is between 16% to 24% and depends on the educational development of the region. CII also suggested having ‘Aadhaar’ cards as the only identity card for beneficiaries amongst SC/ST population.

Officials from the P.M.O. appreciated the work being done by the industry associations to promote the employment of SCs/STs and other disadvantaged groups and thanked the coordinating committee members for their suggestions.  There is a continuing need to carry on the dialogue. The following decisions were agreed upon:

(i). There is scope to ramp up these initiatives and scale up the activities and coverage for there to be a visible impact and recognition of ongoing efforts. A lot of effort is being made but it is still sporadic and scattered. It was suggested that each industry chamber could work out a five year vision voluntarily which could guide the annual action plans. This would give an idea of the long term path and where they aim to be.

(ii). It was also felt that a lot of work has been done in the area of affirmative action but not captured well. A database also needs to be built up and shared with the Government. It was decided that Secretary (DIPP) would set up a system to collect quarterly data from the three chambers and build a database on Affirmative Action for SCs/STs.

(iii). Industry chambers were also requested to focus on certain geographical areas and leverage on similar other government programmes. 27 districts identified as having 47% population of SCs/STs as per th  2011 census could be adopted by Industry Associations.

(iv). Skill development is a national priority and focus should always be on the weaker sections of the society so as to enable them to avail the benefits of Government programmes.

(v). There is a huge demand for coaching for competitive examinations, especially in the rural areas. This demand could be addressed by fixing quantifiable targets. Conducting coaching classes is a very good idea for the SC/ST population and weaker sections, it was concurred.