Human Resource Development - Essay, UPSC MAINS | Course for UPPSC Preparation - UPPSC (UP) PDF Download

Human Resource Development

structure

(1) Opening    —    Quote: Contrast excess population with human resource.

(2) Body    —    Mental, physical, spiritual well-being.

    —    Skilled and gainfully employed.

    —    Opportunities for personality development.

    —    Inequalities, exploitation removed.

    —    Artistic and creative talents.

    —    Freedom and democracy.

    —    Attempts made till now.

(3) Closing

In the age of fast growing population and over mechanisation, we find that more and more people are getting converted to a liability than a resource. Machines are rendering people unemployed, traditional craftsmen and artisans are being obliterated, and in this fast pace of life, we are losing taste for simple pleasures and joys. Creative talents are getting scant attention causing them to remain stagnant. In this age of machines, are we becoming too uniform, too similar lacking variety and vitality?

“Man is known by the company he keeps and a country is known by the people it has”. One can accept this fact without iota of doubt that people are any nation’s greatest resource. It is the resourcefulness, creativity, courage and initiative by which man is characterised. Is our development indeed helping us encourage these traits in man or are we all becoming a part of a big machine without individuality. In pursuit for money and power, are we becoming blind to our creative self, our spirit.

There can be no doubt that development of technology and industrialisation has widened horizons of man’s knowledge. They have helped him become more skilled and in a way even more creative. They have helped to generate wealth, with more employment. But the benefits haven’t reached all. So we find that while traditional skills are being wiped out, no new avenues are being opened. The result is that man is becoming unproductive, a burden or a liability. It is not our development that is making all of us follow same worn path with little scope of becoming different, but it is the way we are carrying it. Development and mechanisation may have eaten up jobs but at the same time has created multitude of opportunities that only need to be seen to be exploited. Numerous avenues are being opened where man can use his creativity, he only needs to be trained and guided. But when everybody wants to follow same old path of becoming another doctor or an engineer, when no one wants to be diff-erent, how can we expect any thing better than what we have. So we have reached a situation when even doctors and engineers are remaining unemployed.

Human beings are a resource but it needs to be developed and harnessed else it is like an unpolished diamond which is just a piece of coal. Development of human resource implies physical, mental, spiritual and aesthetic development together. He has to be trained to become useful for the society. The usefulness need not always imply economic productivity though it is important but it may even imply artistic creativity that serves the spiritual and aesthetic needs of man. Even a musician or a painter is useful for the society.

But the first and foremost requirement is economic productivity to make man economically productive, it becomes important that he is trained. Today, in the age of specialisation, the need is of well trained skilled workers. It is quite true that machines displace man from his job but at the same time mechanisation also causes a number of ancillary and support units to come up. It throws open new and more challenging jobs which however require proper skill. The important thing is not to oppose mechanisation but to identify new avenues and develop suitable skills for them.

Today in the age of computers, so many software and hardware related jobs are coming up that suitable people are difficult to find and on the other hand numerous people with B.A. and B.Sc. are sitting idle. This mismatch of demand and supply in job market is to be corrected. Even in traditional fields like agriculture and animal husbandry, new techniques are getting developed, new fields of pisciculture, sericulture, aqua culture, mushroom cultivation etc. are coming up. Prawn cultivation is a highly lucrative business.

Along with economic productivity, even creative talents need to be encouraged. It becomes important that we change our outlook on standards of success in life and give adequate respect to artists and craftsmen. The richness of human culture must not be buried under machines. Physical wellbeing of our children demands that they are given suitable facilities to play. A lot of things can be learnt on the play field—team spirit and leadership qualities that are important in life.

To achieve true development of human resources, all types of inequalities and distinctions based on birth should be removed. We should forget our social prejudices and all forms of economic and social exploitation should be stopped. Everyone should get an opportunity to develop his/her personality and get what he/she deserves. Human beings who are in chains, who are exploited and abused, who do not have basic necessities of life cannot make into a resource. And when a large section of population is like this, how can a country be prosperous? So, the prior requirement for wealth and progress of any nation is that its biggest resource, its population, is turned into an asset.