Professional footprint: Can it be a success indicator?

As I graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Sociology, what bothers me more today than ever is the anxiety of what would embrace me here-after. The job market is small, job seekers are aplenty, skills and experiences are pre-requisites for every simple job, and more of all, competition is so huge that a vacancy for an administrative assistant is flooded with applications from thousands of university graduates. These are the realities today and civil service still remains a preference for every job seeker.

 Even if I get a job, will it provide me with a space to prosper intellectually? Would I be able to contribute enough to my nation? Could I survive to the dynamism and sophistication of technology advancements? Or would my fate in the system be like the venomous snake that enters one side and comes out from the other outlet of a pipe? 

On one hand, our economy is so much constricted that employment creation is stagnated to a few single digits. Our youth have been persistently scavenging for all sorts of job opportunities in the market, running from pillar to post, just to hear government official persuade them to take up farming at the end. Where is the land to undertake farming when the whole nation is confined to the 8.3% (maximum extension) arable land? The environment and forestry laws forbid transforming the rest of the areas and, farming cannot happen on roofs of Bhutanese houses yet. Youths are asked to take up the cottage and small industries to curve import substitution. Where is the market for these products when government offices choose foreign brand snacks over Bhutanese khabzey and jhony walker whisky over our home-brewed ara? Where are laws and policies that enforce some provisions such as the preferential treatment for Bhutanese products?

On the other hand, it is believed that there are so many employees in the system who have secured their place in the civil service. Whether they perform or not, their positions are secured till their retirement age because our system does not practise ‘hiring and firing’ strategies and it is a sin to break the employees’ morale.

All thanks to this karmic law, today there are many Research Officers who have never written a research paper, Planning Officers who have never participated in the formulation of a five-year plan, Policy Makers who still do not know the nuances of policy-making, Agriculture Officers who have never adopted a kitchen garden, and of course, Human Resource Officers who have never read the Bhutan Civil Service Rules in complete. Some are at the verge of superannuating and soon to have a fulfilled-retired life.

After someone takes his feet away from the system, where can we find his footprint? I feel it is important that professional footprint of every employee vis-à-vis every Bhutanese be captured so that some of the underlying issues in the job market could be manoeuvred. The beauty could be, Bhutan would have many engineers in the poultry farms, agriculturists in the kitchen garden, vetenirarists in the animal farms, and planners and human resources in the remote ramshackle dwellings.

Where do we start? Putting Professional Footprint as a success indicator for civil servants and corporate employees?                           

This article is earlier published in the Sunday Issue of The Journalist.

 

Disclaimer: All views expressed are my personal opinion and do not represent the views of any entity associated with me.

Policy Poverty: Will it still stand a sacrosanct rubric?

Bhutan has survived between the two global economic giants. Despite being a landlocked economy with access to the market in the south, our economy has been performing much better than some of the countries in the Latin America. While the economic growth has remained at 5-7 % over some years, the World Bank has, at one pointin time, projected the growth at 11%, one of the highest in South Asia.

 

By this token, it is fair to believe that our economic development and related policies are good enough to foster greater growth in the coming years, especially, with the 21^st century economic roadmap at the helm of all policies that would direct our actions and thoughts for greater and holistic growth.

 

However, our policies also are faced with a kind of poverty that could bind our economic development intent and growth. The policy poverty may have been born from the complete disconnect between drafter, implementer, regulator, and those who are guided by the policies.

 

For instance, the agriculture and marketing policy is drafted by well-educated policy makers well guided by a set of specialists who holds doctoral degree in agriculture and related fields. The policy debated in the forum where the Minister of Agriculture and Forests alone defends the other members of the forum. In the course of drafting the policy, these officials visit Japan, Korea, and Switzerland to see the best practices. Officials from the Dzongkhags are sent to Nepal, Philippines and India to see how the policy is being implemented effectively. On fact check, we find these cohorts of officials never adopted a kitchen garden. Our farmers are taken to Wengkhar, Bumthang and Paro to let them see what the fellow farmers in these places are growing despite knowing there is nothing different from what they already know.

 

Finally, the poor farmers, who have to put their hands into the soil, who have to grow resistant to all kinds of weathers of four seasons and who have to face the brunt of all deficiencies. And whenever the market runs low on agriculture produces, everyone blames the agrarian society for risking their lives and food security. Everyone is happy to make farmers the punching bag without realizing that growing food in the field is completely different from growing the same food in the computer screen. And yet, we talk about food sovereignty over food security.

 

Will the 21^st century economic roadmap bring a paradigm shift to mindset reversion? Can Bhutan find a better means to foster greater change to how we do things? Where do we begin? In the computer or in the kitchen garden? Would this policy poverty trap undo the Agenda 21?

 

This article is earlier published in the Sunday Issue of The Journalist.

Disclaimer: All views expressed are my personal opinion and do not represent views of any entity associated with me.