An Employment programme for low income groups

Abstract

In this case-study we try to understand the unemployment income of low income'groups in the city of Colombo and study the possibilities of creating employment opportunities for one of such communities* At first, in the first chapter, we deal with the unemployment problem in a wider context; examining .the relationship between employment and factors of production - land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship . How these factors of production could generate employment opportunities and how unemployment could affect the Man's living conditions are also discussed. In the following chapter, we prepare population projections for the C.M.C. area and attempt to estimate the magnitude of unemployment considering the backlog of unemployment and the need of employment opportunities during the period until 1991. In the third chapter we identify low inccme group areas in the city by using various criteria. For this , employment stress areas are identified by analysing ward-wise" employment indicators" and housing stress areas are identified by analysing "Housing indicators". A corelation between housing stress and low income communities is observed. Next we analyse employment conditions of low income groups in regard to their income levels, work places, nature of employment and status of employment by studying some previous surveys conducted in low income communities in the Colombo City. Next chapter is devoted to describe the findings of the survey conducted in our case study area - Mattakkuliya Sammantranapura. Here the size of the population of the community, employment and income levels, unemployment magnitudes and wishes, desires and needs of the community are discussed. This is a client oriented survey based on interviews and questionaire method.'

Our Intention-is to prepare an employment programme for unemployed low income people in this community for its development. After identifying the skills and resources of the community we engage in a survey to find institutional resources that would be useful to solve their unemployment problem. With this background information we fix our objectives which are, in someway, connected with our goal of "employment generation" for unemployed people. Having revealed the 'community resources' and 'institutional resources' available, we identify strategies to generate employment opportunieis. Then the relationship between community development and employment generation, vocational training programmes which can give employment and •' economic mobility'* to unskilled, »unemployed people are discussed. Some feasible action projects and their objectives are described in the last chapter. These projects have been planned in a way to open avenues and overcome constraints for the community to achieve development on. a collective effort.