Between Jobs and Dreams
J&K’s Youth Turn to Enterprise as Unemployment Stays above National Average
Assembly told joblessness at 6.7%; 4.73 lakh willing to work — Mission YUVA pushes entrepreneurship with Rs1000-crore bank sanction
Our Special Correspondent
Srinagar: In a Union Territory where government employment has long been seen as the surest path to stability, the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday heard a sobering statistic– Jammu and Kashmir’s unemployment rate stands at 6.7 percent, almost double the national average of 3.5 percent.
The figures, drawn from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (2023-24) and placed before the House in response to a starred question by MLA Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi, offer a snapshot of a labour market in transition — one where aspiration remains high but opportunities are evolving.
A recent survey conducted in January 2025 under Mission YUVA covered 64.8 lakh individuals aged 18–60 across the Union Territory. Of them, 4.73 lakh people said they were not working but were willing to work, revealing both the scale of the challenge and the size of the potential workforce waiting to be absorbed.
The government acknowledged unemployment, especially among youth, as a pressing concern, but indicated a shift in approach: from recruitment-led relief to entrepreneurship-led livelihoods.
Over 1.71 lakh young people have registered on the Mission YUVA portal so far, generating nearly 70,000 enterprise applications. For many, it represents a departure from the decades-old culture of waiting for government vacancies.
Through Small Business Development Units, 52,875 Detailed Project Reports have been prepared to make business proposals technically and financially viable. District administrations have examined 47,816 applications, certifying their authenticity and alignment with the programme.
The numbers are beginning to translate into money on the ground. According to the reply, 16,141 cases have completed the full process, resulting in bank sanctions approaching ₹1,000 crore, with more than ₹700 crore already disbursed. Officials say these loans have enabled the establishment of thousands of small enterprises across districts.
Training is also part of the pipeline: 7,339 entrepreneurs have completed capacity-building programmes and another 5,000 are currently undergoing training.
The process, however, is not without friction. Nearly 9,500 applications were returned by banks due to adverse credit history, family-level loan defaults or incomplete documentation, while others require corrections before reconsideration. About 15,000 applications are expected to be sanctioned by March 31, 2026, and another 22,000 may follow in subsequent months.
The government clarified that direct recruitment falls outside the Labour and Employment Department’s mandate, but stressed the broader policy shift — encouraging youth to become employers rather than applicants.
The figures reveal a quiet change underway in Jammu and Kashmir’s economic thinking. For decades, employment meant a government post; today, policy is nudging young people toward shops, workshops, service ventures and small manufacturing units.
Whether entrepreneurship can absorb the 4.73 lakh willing workers remains an open question. But for a region where job notifications once defined hope, the new wager is clear– replacing the waiting list with a business plan.
