Whose job is it to create jobs—the government, industry, or the education system whose finished products (students) are largely unemployed?
The fact is that the world’s youngest country by population is confronted with the world’s oldest problem—how to make a living!
The adage for a skewed economy has always been polarized growth between the ‘haves and have-nots.’ A look at India’s employment statistics reveals a ‘half and half not’ trend, with less than half of the young working-age population obtaining jobs. The poor educational quality worsens the problem, as evidenced by the considerable rise in individuals without jobs with at least a secondary education, which has grown from 35.2% in 2000 to 65.7% by 2022.
This is with an increasing population! According to International Labour Organization estimates, an alarming 83% of the total unemployed people in India are young individuals. The youth have the highest energy amidst them and, if not harnessed, could, in the absence of proper education, give way to cries, crime, and conflicts. I had earlier warned about a ‘Demographic Divide.’ Now it could easily catapult into a ‘Demographic Disaster.’
Interestingly, employment for women has been on the rise. For various reasons, they become the BETTER HALF. However, this situation may not persist for long, as the shortage of job opportunities could also leave women in a similar predicament. The March estimates recently released by the ILO are a throwback to Brutus’s warning to Julius Caesar before his assassination: ‘Beware the Ides of March.’ India needs the ‘Ideas of March,’ Fast and Futuristic.
