‘Our apprenticeship promise is like MNREGA. We will make it a legal right … a world first’: Congress manifesto panel member

All India Professionals’ Congress chairperson Praveen Chakravarty is among the key members of the Opposition party’s manifesto committee. On the day Congress leader Rahul Gandhi announced the party’s five poll guarantees for the youth, Chakravarty discussed the rationale behind the promises, including the right to apprenticeship, and how it will fulfil them if voted to power. Excerpts:

We discussed them in the manifesto committee. It is only after a discussion with the manifesto committee that Mr Gandhi made the announcement today.

The Central government vacancies are about 9.6 lakh. Then there are vacancies in health services, primary education, higher educational institutions, central armed police forces, courts, and judiciary vacancies. All combined are 30 lakh. There are state government vacancies that we have not taken into account. That is another 30 lakh.

There could be various reasons. What we are saying is that we are going to take this up on a war footing. We will provide a timetable by which these vacancies will be filled. And that is the not important idea here. The timetable will also be published.

That is the biggest announcement in my view. This, first and foremost, is going to be a right. Apprenticeship is a technical word. It is essentially a legal right for every diploma holder or college graduate below the age of 25 years. They can now demand proper formal employment for a year and they will get it. It is like MGNREGA demand. It is going to be right. To the best of my knowledge, India will be the first country in the world to make it a legal right, which means there will be demand for this and then we have to ensure that this demand gets fulfilled because it is a right.

We looked at what could be the