Srinagar, Dec 14: The Jammu and Kashmir state has earned a distinction to have the highest number of unemployment rate in entire North India, reveals a survey.
As per the “Annual Employment and Unemployment Survey Report released by Labour Bureau under Union Ministry of Labor and Employment, J&K has the highest unemployment rate in North India with 10 percent unemployment rate.
“The number of unemployed youths registered in various district employments and counseling centers was 6.01 lakh,” reads the report.
Official sources told KNS that the number would touch 10 lakh in 2017 as thousands of youths had been passing out from various universities in the country every year.
“Due to lack of political will, the unemployment rate is increasing while the pockets of politicians are swelling,” said Muzammil, a post-graduation student of the University of Kashmir.
Sources added that over the years the exact number of unemployed educated youth in the state was not known as registration in the employment exchanges was not mandatory for them to get a government job.
“As per directions of the Supreme Court, the registration with the employment exchanges was held as not mandatory for obtaining government job. The government did not have exact figures about educated or uneducated unemployed persons. However, the number of unemployed youth registered with various Employment Exchanges is 1. Lakh,” one of the officials of the government said.
However sources said that this (one lakh figure) is not correct as during the past years number was more than five lakh.
Sources termed the issue as ‘serious’, saying the Government would plan job policy on basis of one lakh figure and not five lakh. “Government should re-work the data and present the factual picture,” sources maintained.
Sources said that the government should aware about the threat of radicalisation due to the growing rate of unemployment in the state.
As per the reports it has been found that the number of jobless youth in the state has almost doubled in five years.
An official of the Employment department said that getting 2-3 thousand rupees a month is as equal as unemployment. “It has been found that among educated unemployed youth in J&K, 54.9 percent youth are from rural areas while the remaining are from urban areas,” sources said
A senior official said if a 10th pass couldn’t find a job that could be understood but the post graduates with degrees in sciences and humanities sitting idle are something that can have a disastrous impact on society during the times to come.
In a 2011 report, a US based development agency, Mercy Corps, found 48 percent of youth in Kashmir were unemployed.
The unofficial figures reveal that in valley there are more than 15000 graduates who are unemployed and in Jammu province the number of jobless graduates is 12426.
The details inform that Kashmir division has 38000 people jobless who have passed 10+2 in various streams while as in Jammu the number is 27212.
The figures further inform more than four thousand five hundred registered degree holders of engineering are jobless in the state are yet to find their livelihood.
It is to mention here that the government on record in last Assembly session in Srinagar had announced to undertake the survey to know the “exact number of the unemployed youth in Jammu and Kashmir.
After the PDP-BJP coalition and opposition differed on the number of educated unemployed youth in the State, the Finance Minister had said that the government would undertake a survey in this regard. “We will undertake a survey to get the exact figure of unemployed youth,” he had said. (KNS)