Modi govt crushed dreams of India’s youth leading to rising suicides: Cong

New Delhi, Sep 28: The Congress on Thursday targeted the Narendra Modi government over the issue of unemployment alleging that it has crushed the hopes and dreams of India’s youth, leading to rising suicides among them. Congress general secretary communications Jairam Ramesh alleged that the government, instead of dealing with the crisis of demographic dividend turning into a demographic disaster, might want to “manipulate” the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data due for 2022 to hide the alarming suicide rate among the youth.
In a statement, he said unemployment in India remains a severe problem as well as the hidden under-employment.
Ramesh cited the interactions of Rahul Gandhi with porters at the Anand Vihar Terminal here where he had noted that large numbers of educated youth, including those with engineering degrees, were unable to find formal employment and were forced into precarious informal jobs such as porters. The Congress general secretary said the massive failure of the Modi government to provide sufficient formal-sector employment has led to this situation. Ramesh cited data from the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) for 2021-22 that shows that formal sector employment remains 5.3 per cent lower than it was in 2019-20. Further, the number of formal employers has declined by a massive 10.5 per cent from 2019-20 to 2021-22.
According to a report from Azim Premji University, the Congress leader said, 42 per cent of graduates under 25 were unemployed in 2021-22. Jobs in manufacturing dropped 31 per cent between 2016-17 and March 2023, according to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data. The latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for Jan-March 2023 shows that even in urban areas, less than 50 per cent of workers are salaried. The latest all-India PLFS data, including rural areas, is much worse – in 2021-22, just 21 per cent of workers have formal jobs, which is still lower than the pre-pandemic period of 23 per cent. Instead, self-employment and casual employment have risen.
“These numbers show that the unplanned lockdown, in combination with disastrous economic policies and the cronyism of the Modi government, have actually shrunk formal employment opportunities for educated youth,” he noted. Ramesh said in such a scenario a situation has arisen when in January this year, 8,000 candidates applied for 92 clerk positions at Gujarat University, including those with M.Sc and M.Tech degrees. In June 2023, 10.5 lakh people applied for 4,600 clerk posts in Maharashtra, including MBAs, engineers and PhD holders, he said. (PTI)