Education

Revisit the Apprenticeship Act to facilitate our youth to Earn while they Learn

Fulfilled

The Apprenticeship Act was amended and then notified in December 2014. The amendments were aimed at enhancing the skills of youth and make them employable.  Some amendments that facilitate Apprenticeship includes mandating a certain percentage of the workforce to be hired as apprentices, and increasing the minimum age for apprentices in hazardous industries. Though the promise has been fulfilled by the BJP government, two provisions, however, deserve to be explicitly called out for they seek to undermine the rights and dignity of the apprentices. The Act removes imprisonment as punishment for violating the provisions of the Apprentices Act. This makes the Act open to misuse. The Act further allows employers full liberty to fix work hours, and leaves of the apprentices as per their discretion. Both the clauses become quite dangerous in their application in a setting where profit is the guiding principle.

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