Opportunities don’t just show up out of nowhere, we have to create them. When a person does not find ample opportunities for development at home, when his talent is not appreciated in his own country, he is forced to consider moving to other countries. This process of human capital migrating to other countries is termed as Brain Drain. In other words, when a country loses its most educated and skilled workers to other countries through migration, it results in the brain drain of the country.
Earlier, manual labor and muscle power was in great demand but today with the advent of technology, things have changed. In today’s world, educated and skilled manpower has become a very valuable asset that countries seek to acquire.
More often, this migration occurs from developing countries to the developed countries. Human capital moves to a more favorable economic, geographic or professional environment. There are push factors at work such as the search for quality education, jobs and better standards of living which pushes human capital towards the developed first world.
This trend of migration is considered a serious problem because the most highly skilled and competent individuals leave their country of origin, and lend their skill and expertise in contributing to the economy of developed countries. The loss of skilled professionals is the loss of a country’s human capital. The country they leave behind often suffers economic hardships because those who remain are not educated, skilled or equipped with the best knowledge necessary to make a difference.
Brain Drain in India
Over the years, millions of young and talented Indians from various disciplines have left the country in search of better career opportunities abroad. A high number of Indian students, professionals, engineers, doctors, and scientists are studying and working abroad, mostly in the United States, Europe or Australia.
Today, among the Asian countries, India is the top most country of origin of immigrant scientists, engineers and professionals with 9,50,000 migrants out of Asia’s total of 2.96 million. India’s 2013 figure represents an 85% increase in the number of migrants since 2003.
India, the second most populated country of the world, generates a huge number of educated manpower every year, but is not able to provide them with better career opportunities. And so, it has become the major supplier of human capital to developed economies. More people migrate from India every year than from any other economy.
Indian youth are talented, skilled and very hardworking. Hence, the developed countries wholeheartedly welcome them to work there, with the lure of better pay and higher living standards. Today, Brain Drain has become one of the major issues facing India with respect to its intelligentsia and skilled workforce migrating to Europe, America and Australia in search of better future prospects.
What Causes the Brain Drain In India?
There can be various factors that lead to Brain Drain of a country. These may differ from country to country. Some of the main causes which can be considered the reason for Brain Drain in India are:
- Unemployment: Unemployment is the most likely reason for India’s Brain Drain. According to reports, in 2018-2019 about 18.6 million Indians were unemployed and another 393.7 million worked in poor quality jobs. Every year millions of students graduate from Indian Universities, but only 40 percent of them get a good job and the rest remain unemployed. In search of better job opportunities and higher pay, people prefer migrating to developing countries. A UNDP report in 2016 revealed that India had been able to absorb less than half of the new entrants into the labour market between 1991 and 2013. The report further says that a severe job crisis awaits India in the next 35 years.
- Quality of Higher Education: India greatly lags behind the developed countries in terms of its quality of higher education. Due to rampant high-level corruption and budget deficit, public universities in India lack the necessary infrastructure. Even private universities are not up to the mark, as per the global standard. The syllabus emphasizes more on theoretical knowledge rather than practical knowledge. Insufficient opportunities of skill development and employment due to low quality of education forces them to move abroad to keep pace with the current trend. Moreover, the top Indian Universities keep the cut offs close to an absurd 100% for admissions. Many students end up compromising on their dream of studying in any of these universities. This provides an incentive to pursue higher education abroad and secure an advantage in terms of skill and knowledge. Global exposure and access to better standards of living abroad make them reluctant to return to their country of origin.
- Wage Gap: A major reason that forces India’s skilled workforce to move abroad is the reward or wages that they get for their skills and hard work. The Indian job market has not expanded enough to accommodate highly skilled job-seekers and reward them with globally competitive salaries. When we compare the wages provided in India with the wages provided abroad, we find that the wages in developed countries is three times more in the management sector, double in the IT sector, and six times more in academia. It is obvious from here that people will prefer migrating to places where they receive the appreciation and pay due to their hard work.
- Taxation Policy: The Taxation Policy of India is another factor contributing to migration of labour. Everyone wants to get the maximum benefit out of their hard earned money. But if a person is employed in India, a huge amount of his earnings is spent on paying income tax every year. The tax rate charged for the taxable income between Rs 2.5 lakhs- Rs 5 lakhs is 5 percent, for taxable income between 5 lakhs – 7.5 lakhs is 10 percent, for taxable income between 7.5 lakhs – 10 lakhs is 15 percent and for taxable income above 15 lakhs is 30 percent. Moreover, on the tax payable, 4 percent health and education cess is also charged. After paying the taxes the person is left with very few amounts of money. In such situations they opt to move to countries abroad. There they earn a huge amount of money, which is sufficient even after paying the huge tax amounts.
- Better lifestyle and standards of living: The standard of living in developed nations is better than that of India. Every working man or woman desires to give his or her family and children a better lifestyle, where they have all the worldly comforts, opportunities of growth and avenues for development. They migrate to the first world countries in search of better standards of living, higher salaries, access to advanced technologies, ability to avail of the best quality education, more stable political conditions, and better future prospects.
One of the few things that were counted as upsides of labour migration, such as remittances to the country of origin, has declined greatly in recent years. As more and more people choose to work and settle abroad, the remittances they send home decreases gradually. The return of educated and skilled workers to the country of origin equipped with first class knowledge was thought to be very useful. But this has greatly declined as well.
India has a huge population of skilled and talented youth who can contribute towards the development of the country. As a developing nation, we cannot afford to lose a huge chunk of our workforce and suffer from stagnation and mediocrity. There is an urgent need to establish excellent educational institutions and create lucrative career opportunities here, so that we may not lose our valuable human capital to the developed world.
