The International Labour Organisation (ILO) this week launched a youth employment project targeting unemployed young people in the districts of Ratanapura and Kegalle, covering 21 estates and their surrounding villages.
The two districts belong to one ofthe country’s poorest provinces. At the end of the programme in 2010, says the ILO, 6,000 young people will have better access to labour market services and self employment opportunities. The project is a pilot project under the National Plan of Action on Youth Employment and is funded by the Japanese government, to address Sri Lanka’s long standing youth unemployment problem. As it is, despite many ministries and projects targeting young people, Sri Lanka’s youth unemployment is much higher than in most countries.
“In Sri Lanka youth unemployment is 22% at present. The world average is 13%. The average for South Asia is 10%. So Sri Lanka stands out with a very large problem,” said the chief technical advisor of the ILO’s Youth Employment project, Henrik Vistisen, speaking at the launch of the pilot project.
As much as 86% of unemployed young people are in rural parts of the country and over half (60%), have been looking for work for more than 1 year.
The situation in the plantation sector is seen as worse because of lower availability of resources like education and training programmes, and also fewer employment opportunities outside of plantation jobs. However, increasing numbers of young people are not willing to work in plantation jobs, that are seen as low status jobs. |
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