Addressing unemployment
Jammu and Kashmir has been under the central rule since June 2018. Though the day to day issues of the people have witnessed some early redressal unlike the erstwhile government, the major crisis of unemployment however, has remained unaddressed.
With nearly six lakh educated youth striving to get employment, the administration’s response should have been much better than what it has shown over the years. Even the figures shown in the last economic survey reveal that unemployment rate in Jammu and Kashmir is higher than the average national unemployment rate.
Interestingly, Jammu and Kashmir is having 24.6 percent unemployed population in the age group of (18-29 years) which is far more than the All India unemployment rate of 13.2 percent.
However, the region has not been able to respond to the crises in a measured and calculated way. The reasons can be manifold. One being the over indulgence with security related issues as the government during the past two years has not been able to devote much time and efforts to the other important issue confronting the newly carved out UT.
One wonders as to why the government’s response to the already announced schemes to provide relief to the unemployed youth is pathetic. The government’s much talked about Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme is one such example which can be quoted here.
The previous PDP-BJP coalition government took all the credit for introducing the scheme, however, the scheme like the coalition itself failed to tread the path of success.
The scheme was necessitated by growing demand for development and Government’s inability to cope with all the demands owing to lack of infrastructure. Therefore, attention was mounted on raising, improving and extending infrastructure in as many ways as was possible.
For this purpose, the Government decided to co-opt private sector and thus came into being the PPP scheme. Under this scheme, as publicized by the Government, various private entrepreneurs were expected to come forward and participate in the developmental mission of the country.
This would have ensured that thousands of young and educated minds would have got an opportunity to get involved in the development process which would have in turn resulted in providing employment to them as well. Besides, a sense of involvement would also have crept in among the youth.
But frankly speaking, the scheme never took off in its true spirit. No sign of bridging infrastructure deficit in crucial sectors is in sight and the scheme has failed to become reality despite passage of enough time and spending of resources.
What is adding to the anxiety of the youth is that the admin is yet to announce a major recruitment in various government departments as the guidelines are yet to be formulated after the abrogation of article 370 and converting the erstwhile state into a UT. And if things continue the way they are going, the youth may scale a step higher on disillusionment.
KV Network
