Linking Jobless Growth with Reservation Protests

In the year 2015, the Patels in Gujarat asked for the job quotas in the public sector. Subsequently, in the year 2016, various dominant castes in other parts of the country did the same. In February, the Jats of Haryana demonstrated violently for reservation. This agitation by the Jats resulted in more than 20 deaths. Following it, in Maharashtra, the Marathas started an agitation demanding reservation.The root cause of such agitation in all these places was common, which was the lack of adequate employment opportunities. The main reason behind this social unrest was the issue of growing unemployment.

Jobless growth can be explained in many different ways, but the major problem lies in India’s employability problem.In the recent time, problem of jobless growth appears to have plagued India’s economy. Earlier, the agriculture sector generated lot of employment opportunities.However, with the passing time agriculture as an occupation lost its shine and the youth started to diversify their means of livelihood in other sectors. But in other sectors they started to face problems such as lack of quality qualification, lack of vocational training etc. Moreover, in private sectors not only the jobs are few, but they are unwarranted and do not pay well also. Therefore, the decent remuneration in the government sector has started to attract the youth, which explains the demand for job quotas by the dominant castes.

Major reasons for growing unemployment

• Huge gap in job opportunities and job application – In India, there is a chronic under-employment or unemployment among the educated classes in the urban areas. The main cause of this issue is the slow rate growth of the economy in relation to increase in the number of educated persons. The gap between numbers of jobs created and jobs required has widened despite strong GDP growth during the decade of the 2000s.
• Negative impact of Industrial revolution- The industrial civilization which has brought a sea change in the country’s economy in one way is also responsible for the growing unemployment since high technologies and machines have thrown many persons out of employment. It is not to doubt that this industrial civilization has greatly opened up many new opportunities for employment. But this increase in scope for employment has not been able to absorb the men discharged.
• Inadequate Employment Planning- The employment planning of the government is not keeping pace with growing population. In India, the employment opportunities is not increasing in the proportion to the rate of population growth. As a consequence, a great difference is visible between the job opportunities and population growth.
• Problem of rising population- The population of our country is ever-rising. This abnormal rise in population has exaggerated the problem of unemployment in India. That is why the problem of employment has been getting more and more acute every year.

Growing unemployment leading to agitation

Several studies show that well-being and self-esteem are highly linked to employment. The kinds of emotions associated with unemployment together with the low opportunity cost of an unemployed person’s time is expected to result in agitations and have a negative impact on the well-being of citizens. Thus, the resulting instability will not only hamper the right environment needed for future economic and social progress but also drives the youth towards the miscreants in this society.

Therefore, something substantial needs to be done to keep away our youth from deviating. Government should make sincere efforts to adopt and encourage labour intensive investment and production programmes. The policymakers should devise policies for channelizing the youth bulge constructively.

Measures to resolve this issue

• Governments should facilitate small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which have a labour intensity about four times that of large firms.
• Government should establish vocational and technical training institutes and manual labor should be made compulsory. More stress should be given to practical side.
• The present education system should also be changed radically. Instead of giving only theoretical education to the students, vocational training should also be given, so that they can start some work after they finish their education. This will also help them choose a profession in accordance with their capability and aptitude.
• The country should promote industrialization so that more job opportunities can be created for the workers. The focus should be on establishment of heavy industries which has potential to employ thousands of man-powers of varied skills.
• Government should take initiatives to encourage self-employment. Young entrepreneurs should be assisted with hassle free loans.
• Government should encourage and develop the agriculture based industries in rural areas so that the rural candidates do not migrate to the urban areas causing pressure on urban job opportunities.

Conclusion

There is a great potential in young people. Youth reflects a window of opportunity and can be of real good if used in the right way.Unemployment is the most disturbing problem of the present time. Since, the youth is the future of the country, if the problem of youth unemployment is not resolved then the future of the country is also bleak. Tremendous amount of youth energy is being wasted in the name of protests and agitations. Therefore, the govt. should come with various schemes which could generate employment for both the urban and rural youth population. This will provide the youth with the sense of satisfaction and thus they can channelize their potential towards the betterment of the society.