Unemployment Crisis in India

• Unemployment has become a major issue in India, with 1 out of 3 youths in the country being unemployed, according to the India Employment Report 2024. • The unemployment rate among graduates is 29.1%, with many foreign companies earning millions and billions in profit in India, but the youth are unable to find jobs with a salary of ₹12,800. • India has become the 5th largest economy, with a projected growth to a $5 trillion economy, but there is a lack of jobs for the youth. • Prime Minister Modi had promised millions of jobs, but according to some media channels, he never made this promise, and the BJP's election campaign never promised to provide 20 million jobs every year. • The reality is that Haryana has become the state with the highest unemployment rate, at 37.4%, according to the December 2022 CMI data. • PM Modi had launched the Make in India campaign, promising to create jobs for the youth, but the reality is that there are not enough jobs being created. • Some news anchors, like Sudhir Chaudhary, blame the citizens for wanting government jobs, citing that they want bribes and are not skilled enough, but this is a flawed argument. • The reality is that there are not enough college seats to accommodate the tens of millions of students who want to pursue higher education, with only 140,000 MBBS seats available for over 2 million applicants. • There is a severe shortage of doctors in India, and the government has not built sufficient educational infrastructure to meet the demand. • Half of the total medical seats in India are in government medical colleges, and the other half is in private medical colleges, with extremely high fees, making it unaffordable for most families. • The median fee in private medical colleges is ₹1.15 million per year, and the total fee for an MBBS degree can be as high as ₹6 million, which is unaffordable for 90% of Indians who earn less than ₹25,000 per month. • The number of seats in engineering colleges has been decreasing over the last 5 years, with over 33% seats vacant in 2021-22, and millions of people wanting to become engineers. • The reasons for vacant seats in engineering colleges include high fees, low quality of education, shortage of faculty, and lack of proper infrastructure. • The fees of colleges, including IITs, have increased significantly, with a hike of almost 100% in some cases, making it unaffordable for many students. • The quality of education in most private engineering colleges is sub-standard, with unqualified or underpaid faculty, and a shortage of faculty in many colleges, including IITs. • The lack of proper infrastructure in many colleges has led to a reduction of seats in government engineering colleges, highlighting the need for better infrastructure and education system.

• In 2022, Anna University conducted a physical inspection and found that more than 50% of engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu lack adequate infrastructure.

• In 2021, 37 engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu did not admit a single student, indicating a crisis in India's engineering education system.

• A report by Aspiring Minds in 2019 revealed that 60% of engineering graduates in India do not do an internship, and only about 3% of engineers have new-age technological skills.

• As a result, more than 80% of Indian engineers are not employable, mainly due to a shortage of engineering colleges and a lack of competent faculty and proper infrastructure.

• The Indian government's Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Rajiv Chandrasekhar, stated that there are around 15,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) with a total seating capacity of around 2.5 million.

• However, the total number of eligible students in India exceeds 30 million, leaving a significant gap in the number of available seats.

• Even if all available seats are filled, and top-quality education is provided, there is no guarantee of jobs, as the Indian manufacturing sector has seen a 30% decline in jobs from 2016 to 2023.

• According to the CMIE report, more than 120 million Indians lost their jobs after the coronavirus lockdown in April 2020, and further job losses occurred during the second wave of Covid.

• In May 2023, the Indian Staffing Federation reported that 6% of contract workers had lost their jobs in the IT sector, and in June 2023, more than 11,000 Indian startup employees were laid off.

• In August 2023, a layoff tsunami hit, with tech companies firing more than 200,000 employees, and companies like TCS, Cognizant, and Wipro not resuming campus hiring.

• Despite recording profits, companies are not hiring new employees, instead opting to overwork existing employees, leading to workplace burnout, with 62% of Indian employees reporting exhaustion.

• The trend of companies not recruiting new employees and overworking existing ones is prevalent, with companies like Amazon, Meta, and Twitter also engaging in similar practices.

• The Indian government and private companies are promising employment, but the reality is that there is a shortage of jobs, and the government needs to take action to promote cooperative and small and micro enterprises.

• The government needs to fill existing vacancies, focus on improving education infrastructure, and take action to promote local economies and job creation.

• The government's interventions in the past, such as setting up public sector undertakings and nationalizing banks, have led to employment generation, and similar actions are needed to address the current crisis.

• Ultimately, individuals need to take responsibility for their own skills development and job creation, rather than relying solely on the government or private sector for employment opportunities.