India suffering major ‘Brain Drain’
By: Jaswinder Pal Sharma
When a pool of learned and talented professionals especially doctors, engineers and those belonging to the financial sector leave their country of origin to seek better job opportunities in another country it is known as Brain Drain. The problem is quite common in developing countries such as India. The mass exodus of employees from one company or industry to join the other is also counted as Brain Drain.
Indians are making the country proud by excelling in different fields and securing highly paid jobs in different parts of the world. They are known to be brilliant in the fields of business and technology and there have been several reports stating that Indians form a major part of United State’s technology industry. Indians have thus contributed majorly towards building U.S. technology and in turn its economy. If they had contributed even half as much in the development of India, the country would have been in a better shape currently.
India suffers a major Brain Drain as the employment opportunities available here are not at par with the quality of education provided. Some of the other factors include the unfair reservation system, huge taxes and low standard of living.
The geographic brain drain as well as that happening at organizational level is equally difficult to deal with. So why not avoid it in the first place. Here are a few ways to overcome the problem of geographic as well as organizational brain drain:
In countries such as India, the talented lot suffer at the hands of the quota system. Many undeserving people from the reserved category secure highly paid jobs while the deserving candidates have to settle for lesser paying ones. It is but natural for such deserving individuals to seek job that is at par with their talent in a different country and shift base at the first opportunity they get. It is high time the government of India should do away with this biased quota system.
Apart from the quota system, people are also preferred based on their creed, race and other things that have nothing to do with their talent when it comes to giving jobs. Many people have an inclination of giving jobs to those belonging to their own community or town. All this must be stopped and a person must get job based on his merit and ability.
Many bosses have a liking for certain employees and a dislike for others. Often times it is seen that even if an employee is working hard and is doing a good job he still misses out on the promotion and the one who is the boss’ favourite gets promoted even though he does not qualify in certain parameters. This causes dissatisfaction among the employees and they seek better opportunities outside.
It is said that an employee does not leave the organization, he leaves his boss. Lack of good leaders and managers can cost the company a number of talented employees. People like being encouraged and rewarded for their work and if this does not happenat the right time, they feel de-motivated and look for opportunities outside.
An organization must be fair when it comes to deciding salary packages. There should not be huge variation when it comes to salary packages of the employees working at the same level. Also, the salary package must be at par with the market standards else the employee will leave as soon as he gets a deserving package elsewhere.
One of the ways to uplift the economy of developing countries such as India is to control the problem of Brain Drain. The ways to control this problem such as the ones mentioned here must be taken seriously and implemented by the government and organizations.
The writer is District Education Media Coordinator, Sri Muktsar Sahib Punjab.
