The economic indicators presented by the government from time to time seemingly point towards a robust economy but those who observe it closely point to the existence of a phenomenon of jobless growth. Reports suggest that 67 per cent of the unemployed are youth
The pent-up anger of a section of the population, predominantly made up of the youth, was on display in the nation’s capital on Saturday when they came out on the streets under the banner of the ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ demanding the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. It is an understatement that Mr Pradhan has no moral right to continue in office after having presided over a failed system that has injected pessimism about their lives in the minds of the young people. He is yet to understand the frustration of students who have completed their Class 12 studies this year owing to the mess made by his ministry of conducting the CBSE examination, the cancellation of the National Eligibility-cum Entrance Test for admission to undergraduate medical courses and, too, glitches in the Common University Entrance Test.
The economic indicators presented by the government from time to time seemingly point towards a robust economy but those who observe it closely point to the existence of a phenomenon of jobless growth. Reports suggest that 67 per cent of the unemployed are youth. This means that the market has failed to absorb the young citizens who walk out of the campus with the hope of finding a job. There are too many issues that have brought the country to such a pass, including a mismatch between skills that are in demand and those that are imparted in our educational institutions as well as the absence of suitable policies that can address an issue that can have disturbing consequences in the future.
The sliding rupee may be cited as the reason why India dropped to the sixth position from fourth in size of economy but the fact remains that India ranks 147th when it comes to per capita GDP. The size of the population has its advantage statistically in certain areas but that need not benefit the people at large. How easily people can find a job and be part of the economy is the prime point which is often lost sight of by the apparatchiks of the growth theory. Artificial celebrations of statistical advantages do not satisfy the youth; creation of jobs does.
The youth have one too many reasons to be upset in the country. The government of the day many not be able to find a solution for each one of them, but it ought to convince them that they are on the job. The system could crash some time but there must be honest attempts to fix them. Owning moral responsibility for a failure does not solve the problem but it brings accountability to the focus so that a repeat can be avoided. The Union government appears to have failed to measure the disenchantment of the youth with the establishment, and hence its obstinacy in continuing with a minister who has proved to be unequal to the task he was assigned.
Democracies give elected governments a long rope. But it is the job of the rulers to identify the faults and fix them. And if they don’t, and even refuse to acknowledge the presence of the faults, it falls on the people to correct them. The cockroaches have said as much. It’s up to the government to listen to them before it is too late.
