By Mahesh Trivedi

India’s 30-million-odd frustrated job-hunters are fretting and fuming over the federal government’s failure to provide employment even as opposition Congress held nationwide protests on Nov. 8, the second anniversary of demonetization that left the unorganized sector bruised and battered.

Studies revealed that the unemployment rate in the country had risen to 6.9 percent, the highest in two years, and the count of the jobless men and women actively looking for job almost doubled to 29.5 million last month from a low of 14 million in July last year.

According to the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy, the labor participation rate — a measure of the proportion of adults willing to work — fell to 42.4 percent, the lowest since January 2016 but Prime Minister Narendra Modi kept shouting from rooftops about the “fourth industrial revolution”, saying it will change the nature of jobs and provide more opportunities.

Government data

After taking up the reins of the country, the Modi administration had promised 20 million new jobs every year, meaning 90 million jobs by now after four and a half years, but the data released by his government shows that only 600,000 new jobs have been created.

The plight of on-the-breadline job-seekers could be gauged from the fact that as many as 992 PhD scholars, 23,000 M. Phil holders, 2,50,000 post-graduates and 800,000 graduates were among the two million applicants for exams conducted earlier this year by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission to fill 9,500 posts of typists, village administrative officers and stenographers, not to forget the 28 millions who applied for 90,000 jobs in the Indian Railways not long ago.

No wonder, 10,000 angry, educated members of Democratic Youth Federation of India from different states marched to parliament last week to express their anxiety about their future and disappointment with the betrayal of promises made by the prime minister in 2014.

Educated youth

Indeed, an Azim Premji University study found that the unemployment rate among the highly educated youth in India is as high as 16 percent, and after demonetization and goods and services tax (GST), the small and medium industries in the country had collapsed with an estimated job loss of 2.4 million, with export rates falling by 24 percent.

DYFI Vice President Preethy Shekhar claimed that the Modi government in its slew of tall promises had launched ambitious projects in the name of youth but these had fallen flat on their face, adding that projects like Skill India and Make-in-India had failed to produce even half the amount of targeted jobs shattering especially women job-seekers’ dreams.

In Modi’s own home state of Gujarat, six million people are running from pillar to post for decent jobs and some 3,000 youths have committed suicide in the past 17 years, including the 13-year Modi rule, after they lost their job or were sacked from their cash-strapped workplaces.

All said and done, India may be the world’s fastest-growing major economy but the link between growth and job creation is fast weakening what with the current growth rate of 7 percent leading to only 1 percent improvement in employment. If the federal government fails to create opportunities for the young workforce hunting for decent jobs, Modi’s re-election dream will be smashed to smithereens and the economy’s current pace of expansion will be stonewalled for sure. — Al Arabiya English