Unemployment Problem in India
Synopsis: Unemployment is found worldwide but is more pronounced in developing countries like India etc. The problem is chronic, serious and multi-dimensional. Population boom and defective education system are the two major causes of unemployment in India. In India there is 16 per cent of the total world population which has been now increasing at the rate of 2 per cent per year. Every year there is an addition of 16 million more people. It is planned to reduce the unemployment to the negligible levels by the turn of the century. But the target seems too optimistic to be achieved by the present standards of creation of employment opportunities. Our education system suffers from adhocism, tokenism and half-heated policies and programmes while there is urgent need of structural changes. There is no quality education.. Market friendly, vocational and competitive education is the need of the hour. Education should be job-oriented and more attention should be paid to elementary and secondary education instead of higher education. Industries and corporate sectors should enter the field of vocational education and training in a big way. Total government and bureaucratic control of education has not been productive in terms of quality, growth and expansion.
The problem of unemployment, on a vast scale, is a world phenomenon. It is not confined to India or developing countries alone, but certainly it is more serious and pronounced in developing and underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa, South and Latin America etc. India is the second largest country in the world in terms of population and manpower, nut because of the lack of proper opportunities for employment there is a huge waste of manpower. There are skilled, intelligent, willing and trained hands but there is no suitable jobs for them.. Unemployment causes frustration, alienation, indiscipline and crimes among the people, especially among the educated young men and women.
Because of increasing unemployment there is appalling poverty, backwardness, social evils and crimes. The number of the unemployed men and women registered with the hundreds of employment exchanges is ever on the increase. These numbers just give a rough idea of the problem because all the unemployed men and women do no get themselves registered with these exchanges. Moreover, there are many rural and far flung areas of the country which are not covered by these exchanges.
The chronic problem of unemployment is widespread. There are thousands and thousands of men and women waiting for reemployment in villages, towns and cities. There is huge unemployment among educated, trained, skilled and semi-skilled people. It is also three among laborers, marginal farmer and worker. There is under employment also. For a major part of the year they remain unemployed,. The hops being created are miserably insufficient to satisfy the ever increasing demand for jobs. Idle hands and minds of millions and millions of people pose a great challenge to our leaders, planners and administrators.
The two main reasons of this chronic and unmanageable problem are rapidly ever increasing population and defective education system. According to the 1991 Census, India’s population was 846.30 million against the world’s estimated 5,480 million. Thus, India has about 16 per cent of the total world population with only 2.42 per cent of the total geographical area of the world. With such a huge population, India finds it difficult to make any significant success in the areas of employment, alleviation of poverty and backwardness. Every sixth person in the world is an India. In other words, we are adding an Australia to our population every year or a Japan every ten years. There are about 31 new babies every minute or 45,000 new persons daily. Thus, every year there are 16 million more people to feed, clothe, educate and give employment to. This prevailing trend of population growth is quite disturbing.
In March, 1996 there were over 10 lakh unemployed person registered with employment exchanges in Delhi alone. In West Bengal the number stood at 54,35,800. It was followed by Maharashtra with 36,91,5000 registered unemployed persons. IN December 1992 there were 777 employment exchanges and 83 university employment information and guidance bureaus. There were about 23 special exchanges for physically handicapped and 17 vocational rehabilitation centers.
In the Eighth- Plan it is aimed to reduce the unemployment to negligible levels. The labour force is projected to increase by 35 million during 1997-2002. In view of the backlog of unemployed person numbering about 23 million, the total number of person requiring employment will be 58 million during 1992-97 and 94 million during 1997-2002. This would call for an employment growth rate of 4 per cent over the ten year period, if employment to all is to be provided by the end of the Eighth Plan. The present plan has set a target of 2.6 to 2.8 per cent per annum growth in employment,. Which if achieved will reduce the unemployment to negligible levels by 2002. The Plan will focus not only on the creation of new jobs but also on increasing productivity and income in the existing jobs because it is felt that larger and efficient use of
Available human resources is the most effective way of poverty alleviation, reduction in inequalities and for high pace of economic growth. The envisaged GDP growth rate of 5.6 per cent during the Eighth-Plan will result in employment growth of about 2.6 to 2.8 per cent per annum or on an average of about 80-90 lakh additional employment opportunities per year.
The parents spend huge sums of money on the education and training of their children. The students spare no efforts in successful completion of their courses and trainings and yet the jobs prove elusive because of our defective education system and ad hocism and tokenism in giving vocational training in schools etc. According to a recent write-up on the matter we have vocational training for two hours a week in secondary schools and that too given in a casual manner. We have “job-oriented courses” in higher education which are neither higher nor educative, neither liberal nor vocational, neither fish nor fowl. The write-up further says that the proliferation of training and job connected and vocational courses without standards and without making adequate demands on the students is producing an underclass that would permanently damage India’s competitive strength in the world. It is true that a large number of our students do extremely well abroad. This has more to do with the values of their upbringing, their ability to work hard and combines it with simple living. There has been no particular contribution from our schooling or training stems.
This is a factual but sad commentary on our present educations and training system and institutions. We need urgently a system of vocational education which is both competitive and market friendly. The schools, training institutions and universities should provide quality training and education and not just produce degree and diploma holders in drovers. There are it is, polytechnics, engineering colleges, its, the plus 2 level schools where vocational training is given twice or more per week, but we need more such institutions where employment-oriented education is imparted. It underlines the need of industry and corporate sector participation in education and training. About 80 per cent of educational institutions are under the government. The expenditure on education, at 3.5 per cent of GDP, is also comparatively better than in other developing countries but the quality and standard are not up to desired levels. Our schools and technical institutes do not equip the students properly to suit the market demands. The curricular is outdated and sometimes even irrelevant. Our schools suffer from too much bureaucratic approach and interference. IN this age of globalization, we need fundamental structural changes in our entire education system so as to make it more practical and vocational oriented in place of theoretical.
Three is much pressure at the higher level of education because lack of proper vocational training, and training facilities at tower levels, consequently, students go for post-graduation after obtaining degrees. Recently, some useful steps have been taken to reverse the trend. The UGC has introduced such vocational subjects like advertising, marketing, travel and tourism, tax-procedures, instrumentation and industrial chemistry etc. along with regular courses at the graduation. This will result in reducing the gap between education and industry and also remove unemployment to some extent.
What is special about these courses is that the basic courses are funded by the UGC in consultation and coordination with industry. Thus, industry has been involved from the very beginning. The undergraduates have to undergo a lot of practical training through workshops, guest lectures and industry participation. There is on-the-job-training of four weeks after the first and second year of college.
Education for its own sake is not desirable. It should be for employment and earning. As such, higher education in many cases like India can hardly afford. The indiscriminate expansion of education at college and higher levels should be discouraged. More attention should be paid to elementary and secondary education along with vocational education. We need more of technical education than liberal and theoretical education
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