Unemployment is a challenge for any nation. A sustainable growth to a country comes when the labor force of the country is engaged in gainful employment. The economic growth of a country is proportionate to the effective labor force the country is exploiting. Unemployment is often considered as not having a job but it also means that doing a job for which the person is not qualified or interested. Due to the circumstances and the pressure to earn bread and butter for the family people take on the job for which they are not qualified or they are not interested. Wrong person for the correct job is a disaster in itself which has butterfly effect in the eco-system of economy. In the past three decades the population in India has increased exponentially. The census data has predicted that by the end of 2023 India will surpass China and will become the world’s highest populated country. Questions we must ask ourselves are what implication this population growth will have on our economic growth? How are we going to handle this? Jammu and Kashmir is also a victim for this wild fire. Jammu and Kashmir has always been suffering because of the political instability and impractical approach by the government when it comes to the economic growth. In this article we will discuss the major causes for the unemployment in J&K and probable counter measures for the same.
The J & K state has lot of problems so far as unemployment is concerned. The main problems which are responsible are as the education system, fragile economic structure, agrarian economy, stereo-type mindset of rural people and political instability. There is an unseen relation between the education and unemployment. The theoretical wisdom imparted in schools and colleges may not actually help in the practical job a person has to do. The students are always encouraged to memorize the concepts rather than understand it, by virtue the room for creative thinking and innovative approach is curbed. The end result of this is a disaster wherein we have more bookish knowledge but less of skill labor and innovative minds.
A strong domestic structure of any economy has self-sustaining growth which automatically generates huge number of jobs annually but the J& K is confined to few sectors like tourism, energy and agriculture. By being confined to a few sectors is a failed plan already. The correlation between the primary and secondary sector is missing in the structure of J&K. For economic development basic infrastructure like roads and electricity is a must. An all-weather black top road and continuous power supply is still a dream in rural areas of J&K. The result is unemployment because the secondary sector and small scale business lack infrastructure to survive.
In J&K almost 70% of the population is directly or indirectly depended on agriculture and allied activities for livelihood. But the community is still following the traditional and outdated methods for cultivation. Around 58% of the cultivation land area depends on rain. These areas are economically fragile and highly vulnerable to vagaries of climate change. The ‘educated’ class of youth hardly rakes interest in agriculture as they believe in ‘decent pay decent work with minimum effort’ principle but unfortunately agriculture sector does not obey this principle. In J&K more than 50% of the population lives in rural areas. Due to their conservative and stereo type mindset their approach to life is deviating from the mindset of other region. People hence create an unbreakable wall for modern methods and ideas of the system.
The J&K region has been under political turmoil since independence. Political instability leads to inconsistent growth of the state economy. It takes years of planned investment to make an industrial base for the system and government. Considering the collateral damage done to the state in every riot, the money which should have spent on replenishing has always been sent on repairing the damage done. The final result is again unemployment since there was no industrial growth in the region.
A pragmatic approach to the method of teaching and giving more room for the students to be creative will enhance the students to find their potential. Adding to this the government can open platforms online/offline to teach skills to students which will empower them find a job or may give a leverage to start small scale business in the rural areas. The primary focus of the government should be on infrastructure development like roads and electricity in rural areas. The government can create small pockets of economic ecosystem in rural areas by enhancing the people in particular region with different skills which will lead to diversification of opportunities for people of different age with different skills. This will help in reducing the unemployment numbers and will catalyze the economic growth.
Motivating the agriculture sector by giving subsidiary for the equipment’s and machines purchased for agriculture. The youths in rural areas can be educated more on the modern methods of agriculture so that they take interest in agriculture. This can be achieved by campaigns organized for modern agriculture in rural areas by government. The government should focus on development and prosperity instead of investing time and money in street politics for its people.
