Unemployment is a situation when a person actively searches for a job and is unable to find work. Unemployment indicates the health of the economy.
As per the Census 2011, the total population of india is 1,21,01,93,422 out of which the population of Jammu and kashmir is 1,25,48,926 that accounts 1.04% of the total population of the India. According to survey conducted by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the unemployment rate of india on May, 2021 reported 12.7%. The Jammu and Kashmir has reported 12.1%. that is little lower than unemployment rate of the national average.The unemployment rates are produced by CMIE using its Consumer Pyramids Household Survey machinery. The types of unemployment found in the Jammu and Kashmir are Disguised unemployment, Structural Unemployment, Seasonal unemployment, Frictional unemployment, cyclical unemployment, Technological Unemployment, Open unemployment, vulnerable Unemployment and Educated unemployment. The Educated unemployment is the most common and very high in the Jammu and Kashmir. The gravity of the unemployment in the Jammu and kashmir is so high that around 6,00,000 educated youth had applied for 10,000 class-IV jobs including 1800 Accounts Assistant posts and about 2.5 lakh educated unemployed youth including PhD scholars, M Phil students and postgraduates were registered with the department of employment during a drive last year to count the number of jobless persons in J&K.This number excludes the graduates, undergraduates and those who did not opt for registration at the employment department. There are many factors that are responsible for growing unemployment rate in the Jammu and kashmir. First and foremost factor is the growing neglect and lack of comprehensive job policy by the state government that fail to absorb the educated youth in government sector. Lack of skill development among youth is also one of the reasons for unemployment as there is a mismatch between the degrees of students and jobs, and the youth after completing their education are finding themselves unsuitable for jobs. Lack of well developed industries, factories and subsistence agriculture have contributed much to the unemployment here. Prolonged lockdowns post abrogation of article 370 and current covid 19 pandemic have also aggravated the unemployment rate in the Jammu and Kashmir. According to the survey over 4.56 lakh job have been lost since August 5, 2019. Due to current covid 19 lockdowns, tourism and Horticulture sectors, small scale industries, hotels, restaurants and transport enterprises that absorb major chunk of youth have been worst hit leading to rise of further unemployement. Other factors of rising unemployement are rapidly growing population, slow economic development, lack of investment in productive and labour intensive industries.
The youth of J&K are full of potential and what they need is to channelize their positive vibes and energies with dignified avenues for their sustainable livelihood. Good governance, strong administration, skill development education and awareness among the youth along with ‘Special Job creation policy” by the government is the need of the hour and unavoidable otherwise we will lose the young and educated youth which are the real assets of Jammu & Kashmir.
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The rising unemployment among the youth of Jammu and Kashmir has lead to serious consequences. The most unemployed youth who failed to get their jobs after completing their education fell prey to anxiety, depressions and some unemployed youth get addicted to drugs and alcohol or attempted suicides. The unemployment among the youth is one of the reasons of the late marriages in the Jammu and Kashmir and lakhs of youth have crossed the marriageable age due to unemployment. Unemployment increases poverty, Domestic violences, crimes and illegal and wrong activities in the society. Growing unemployment in J&K is a matter of serious concern; the Jammu and Kashmir government must come up with a comprehensive “job creation policy” to address the issue of growing unemployment. The state government of Jammu and Kashmir must fill up all the vacancies lying in different departments in a transparent manner. An economic growth and unemployment are two sides of the same coin, if economic growth increases, unemployment will decrease and vice versa. To this end, Jammu and Kashmir needs a well-defined industrial setup as soon as possible. Apart from this, village industrial sector should also be invigorated. Skill development among youth of Jammu and Kashmir should be encouraged and new avenues for showing these skills should be made available. Subsidy on loans to be provided to the youth by the government for setting up small scale industrial units, special packages to labour intensive manufacturing sectors like food processing, wood, furniture, etc and more investment in education, health, police etc sectors will create more jobs for the youth that will resolve the unemployment of youth to some extent. Effective implementation government schemes like Make in India, Skill India, Start up and Stand-Up India will make the youth independent and self reliant and employment providers instead employment seekers that will develop confidence and encourage the youth of Jammu and kashmir besides boost the economy of the state. The youth of J&K are full of potential and what they need is to channelize their positive vibes and energies with dignified avenues for their sustainable livelihood. Good governance, strong administration, skill development education and awareness among the youth along with ‘Special Job creation policy” by the government is the need of the hour and unavoidable otherwise we will lose the young and educated youth which are the real assets of Jammu & Kashmir.
(The author is a teacher at Govt Boys Higher Secondary School Beerwah . Views are his own)
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