<p>Governance in the present era demands realism, responsibility, and foresight. One of the most pressing challenges before any governments today is ensuring that young people are not left without opportunity in an increasingly competitive and globalised labour market. Addressing this challenge requires a dual approach: strengthening opportunities within the State while also responsibly enabling access to global employment for those who voluntarily seek it.<br>It is in this context that the Government of Sikkim under the leadership of Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang-Golay has established the Foreign Employment and the Recruitment Facilitation Board. These institutions are not instruments of compulsion, but of informed choice. Their purpose is to ensure that overseas employment, when pursued voluntarily, is safe, regulated, transparent, and dignified. Creating structured pathways for global employment reflects prudent and responsive governance, not a withdrawal from responsibility.<br>For decades, overseas employment across the country has largely functioned through informal and unregulated channels, often exposing workers to misinformation, exploitation, and legal vulnerability. By placing this board under the Skill Development Department at Niyukti Kendra, the Government of Sikkim has sought to address this long-standing exploitation. The objective is to introduce accountability into recruitment processes, provide accurate information and counselling, strengthen skill and language preparedness, and ensure secure placement through institutional oversight.<br>All recruitment under this framework will be carried out strictly in accordance with national laws and guidelines. Engagement will be limited to verified agencies registered with the Protector General of Emigrants under the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. This ensures legal compliance, international credibility, and the protection of workers’ rights. Such regulation does not create migration; it safeguards those who already aspire to work abroad by bringing their aspirations within a lawful and monitored system.<br>Sikkim’s initiative is aligned with best practices followed across the country. States such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh have long institutionalised overseas employment facilitation mechanisms to protect their citizens and maximise the benefits of global labour mobility. Sikkim’s approach draws from this shared national experience while adapting the framework to local realities, capacities, and aspirations.<br>Globally, youth mobility is recognised as a driver of skill enhancement, income generation, and long-term human capital development. When properly regulated, overseas employment contributes to skill circulation, household stability, and economic resilience. Preventing young people from accessing global opportunities does not strengthen development; equipping and protecting them does.<br>At the same time, it is important to underscore that overseas employment facilitation is only one component of a broader development strategy. The Government of Sikkim is equally focused on building a strong domestic intellectual and creative ecosystem. Efforts are underway to nurture a vibrant pool of academicians, researchers, entrepreneurs, start-ups, and innovators by strengthening educational institutions, encouraging enterprise, and supporting innovation-driven initiatives.<br>Parallel emphasis is also being placed on culture, creativity, and the arts. The State is working to create enabling spaces for artists, performers, designers, and creative professionals, recognising that creative industries are integral to contemporary economies and social identity. By investing in intellectual capital and creative expression, the Government aims to ensure that Sikkim’s youth have multiple pathways to fulfilment: academic, entrepreneurial, artistic, and professional.<br>The Foreign Employment and Recruitment Facilitation Board must therefore be viewed as part of a comprehensive employment and human development ecosystem, not as a substitute for domestic growth. They represent an honest assessment of labour market realities and a constructive policy response grounded in regulation, protection, and expanded opportunity.<br>Leadership today is measured not by the denial of challenges, but by the quality and balance of solutions offered. By institutionalising overseas employment facilitation while simultaneously investing in intellectual, entrepreneurial, and creative capacity at home, the Government of Sikkim has taken a responsible and forward-looking step to broaden opportunities for its youth while safeguarding their dignity and rights.<br>The recent reaction from the Citizen Action Party suggests a predictable reflex rather than a measured concern. Their criticism lacks specific details regarding operational bottlenecks or identifiable flaws, and it fails to offer any viable alternative framework. By relying on broad generalizations and recycled rhetoric, the party seems more focused on public perception than on meaningful policy engagement. This approach reflects a habit of opposition rather than the result of diligent analysis.<br>This pattern has not gone unnoticed in public discourse. Many observers have pointed out that the CAP tends to oppose initiatives before fully understanding them, rarely proposing constructive solutions in their place. When every government action is met with immediate hostility, criticism loses its value as a tool for oversight and begins to look like political opportunism.<br>Dismissing the Foreign Employment and Recruitment Facilitation Boards without even a cursory glance at their structure or intent is a textbook example of intellectual laziness. The people of Sikkim deserve an opposition capable of diagnosing actual problems and suggesting practical remedies. Unfortunately, blanket rejection is not a substitute for a policy mind, no matter how loudly it is delivered.<br><br></p>

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