The problem of unemployment is a worldwide phenomenon. Even the rich and developed nations of the west also suffer from this malady though the nature and degree of their unemployment is different. It is not as acute, severe and deadly as in our country where it is worse than death.
Without a job a young man’s life becomes meaningless. He loses self-respect and confidence. Even family members start ridiculing him as good for nothing. The problem of unemployment is a threat to India’s economic well being and social development. A huge, huge man power is going waste due to it. The capable minds and willing hand find no work.
The registers of employment exchanges are getting bigger and bigger, bettered only by census rolls. And they only represent educated youth of towns and cities. Rural areas don’t have exchanges. Even well educated, trained and skilled youth are waiting for jobs. The problem is not confined to any particular segment, class or social group. Then, there are unemployed semi-skilled and unskilled workers, small and marginal farmers and field labourers. There also is problem of partial employment.
In remote areas the problem is more acute. There no one even bothers to put one’s name on some list. They are God and government forsaken people.
As a result there is mass exodus from villages to towns, cities and nearest metros. It transfers the problem to cities and metros creating various problems there. Even in the big cities opportunities have shrunk or the migrants are too many to be accommodated. Fed up with unemployment many of the migrants take to crime and crime graph of the cities rise. Many of the scenes of the unrest, agitation and violence are due to these frustrated and angry youth. The need of the hour is to find ways to employ these youth and harness their energies, skills, and capabilities in the nation building.
The problem of unemployment should be dealt with without any delay. Our population is increasing at frightening rate and the unemployment would also rise proportionately. This problem will aggravate in future creating more problems.
The major cause of rising unemployment is population explosion, faulty education system, slow growth of industries, neglect of cottage industries, outdated agricultural methods, distaste for manual labour, lack of enterprise, unimaginative manpower planning etc. The education system needs to be reviewed. It only produces graduates fit only for white collar jobs. The matriculates, graduates and post-graduates keep adding to the list of unemployed every year. They can handle only clerical jobs. It is a matter of great concern and worry.
Education must be made work oriented to enable one to stand on one’s own feet. It is a pity that even engineers, doctors and scientists have to run after government jobs. They are not ready to set up their own factories, labs, clinics, workshops and business. Getting a government job has become a great achievement like winning Noble Prize. Vocational training must be a part of education. Higher education must be reserved for merited students only.
Man power planning must be made sensible. Defective planning has led to a situation where we have jobs for which there are not enough seekers and on the other hands there are jobs for each of which we have thousands of candidates.
Population control measures must be seriously taken. All the political parties must draw up common programme on this issue. Then rural unemployment is also increasing creating pressure on land cultivation and cottage industries. Handicrafts and village industries must be revived and strengthened. Industrialisation should be speeded up by creating SEZs to create jobs at massive scale to employ semi- skilled population. More schemes like Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Jawahar Rozgar Yojna should be drawn up and implemented to provide partial or full employment to village folk. It will ease pressure on towns and cities for jobs.