VRS can be an opportunity

There are enterprise opportunities, especially in the service sector. The investment in each case often does not exceed Rs. 10,000. If this possibility-opportunity is explored and exploited, the VRS scheme is the best thing that could have happened to an individual.

WHEN YOU are handed a lemon, you can make it into a lemonade. That is an old saying. Can we not make this saying applicable to the voluntary retirement scheme or VRS?

Private companies, banks and even governments are now talking in terms of VRS - for their employees. Some companies even boast of the fact that the number of employees they have relieved compare `favourably' with the number that many U.S. companies are reported to have relieved. In anything U.S. corporations do, it should be of a `Texan' size and the pink slip is no exception. The number involved and the speed with which it is done makes sensational news in the U.S.

In his budget proposal on February 28, the Indian Finance Minister stated that the Government proposed to bring in legislation allowing organisations employing less than 1,000 persons to lay off their employees after offering a separation package.

The standard reaction to this proposal by some of the political and trade union leaders has been that VRS will not be allowed to happen.

While the union leaders vehemently oppose the VRS scheme, there are reports that in the case of nationalised banks, the VRS scheme has been `oversubscribed'. In other words, those opting for it see a big advantage in the scheme.

There are instances such as Standard Chartered Bank where specialists are even flown down to advise the bank to help out the VRS-affected by way of outplacement. Both in Parliament and outside we hear people shouting: ``Where are the jobs? Jobs are going and along with that the job-holders."

VRS created problems

The affected, especially those at the lower levels of the hierarchy, however, have a problem. In fact, they spend sleepless nights over the future. ``Yes, I get some big money but where is my next place of work, if any?'' they keep asking.

The money received by the VRS employees is substantial. It runs into a few lakhs of rupees in each case. That is the attractive part of the scheme. A few companies - very few in fact - are advising the affected employees on where and how to invest the VRS money wisely. And that is certainly some help.

But in most cases VRS optees find it difficult to make wise investment decisions. There are enough sharks around who promise you 40 per cent return! And quite a few feel tempted by such offers.

Money management training is routinely given to employees in some of the U.S. corporations. We hardly do that here. We philosophically argue: ``That is the employee's business.''

It will be a public service if an organisation - an NGO, educational or professional - prepares a commoner's guide to investment planning. It should be in the form of questions and answers. It should be in a number of languages. Companies planning VRS can buy such a publication in numbers and distribute them to their employees.

In fact, there is a case for a few professionals to set up a service enterprise in many parts of the country. Competent and dependable service is what VRS-affected people need and not just paper advice. We are a law ridden country and one slip will land us in permanent trouble.

Investment planning and execution, however, is a minor part of reordering life for the VRS-affected. A greater challenge for most in their middle ages is what to do with one's time after taking voluntary retirement.

Money not the main problem

To say they can lead a happy `retired' life, meaning they need not do anything except eat, watch TV and sleep with occasional visits to pilgrim centres and relatives and friends may appeal only to a few. Time hanging heavily on you is something to experience.

For a person who has been spending 10 to 12 hours a day of the waking hours outside the house and on an organised piece of work and more so for one in his forties or fifties the proverbial retired life cannot be a welcome proposition.

In fact, the traditional retirement age of 55, revised to 60 and then reverted to 58, is obsolete. In western countries, it is now 65, even 70. Just as we hold on to other obsolete laws and rules, here too we are hugging this 55-58-60 rule. And we find people are good for at least another 15 years if not more. The poser is: How to find work for the too early retired? VRS is an early retirement, that may be a too early one for many.

Only when we do not have work, we understand the value of work in one's life. With three continuous holidays, most of us feel bored. Then how can we face a life of holidays? When we do not have a work place to go, we lose status in society, even in the eyes of family members.

Finding work a challenge

When this writer was doing his doctoral study on micro entrepreneurship, what he noted was India is not a country of employment jobs but a country of endless enterprise opportunities. There are not one million jobs but ten million work opportunities going for those willing to do productive work. In Martin Luther King Jr.'s words, everybody can be great because everybody can serve. And for this work, they do not need the help of banks which proverbially offer a life boat after you reach the shore.

In fact, they can be employers themselves, may be employers of one or ten but still employers. The writer's study showed that even in the tiniest village there are enterprise opportunities, especially in the service sector. For example, in a tiny village near Rajkot, a half day survey showed four enterprise opportunities and a suburb of Madurai 67 enterprise opportunities. The investment often does not exceed Rs. 10,000. If this possibility-opportunity idea is explored and exploited, the VRS scheme is the best thing that could happen to an individual and to the country.

The VRS opting employees are indeed blessed. They are blessed to start a second career, an enterprise career, a career where they can choose their retirement date! All that they need do is to set aside say 25 per cent of the VRS money for a tiny enterprise and invest the rest in safe securities. That way the financial needs of the family can be taken care of. More importantly, their self respect, dignity, worthwhile work needs can be taken care of.

Starting a tiny enterprise is a self help proposition. We can start a day enterprise just `tomorrow'. It may or may not give big money. Enterprise is a seed and it may grow into a creeper or a skyscraper. That is secondary but for the VRS affected what is important is work, chosen work, worthwhile work. Of course, it calls for a different mindset, a reorientation in work habits but this is manageable. Others also can help.

The Government, on its part, can scrap the many legal hurdles for a person who wants to start an enterprise. The tiny enterprises being commended here are unlike industries. They need next to no sanctions from the Government.

In 1954, the author met a Czechoslovakian refugee in Sydney who told him ``One thing I cannot understand is that you have so many unemployed people in your country. I am a qualified accountant. Soon after the war, there was no work for people like me in my country. All our factories had been bombed out. I looked around and I found the visiting soldiers had some work for me. It was repairing their shoes. I repaired the shoes. That was the work available then. Things are different today but at that time I had that work to do or no work at all. I chose."

We may agree with him or not. But he had a point, namely, what work you do is not material but what is material is that you do the work that is available at that moment, at that place. If we look at work this way, our country is certainly a worker's paradise. There are so many opportunities for work. And VRS offers us a bonus. It enables us to do the thing we want to do, where we want to do, and how we want to do.

N. H. Atthreya

The writer is an educator and author based in Mumbai.

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