Youth Turn to Old Song Amid Rising Unemployment in India
As unemployment rates climb, Indian youth are revisiting a nostalgic song, reflecting their frustrations and hopes for change in the current job market.
Movies of the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s all still hold a special place in hindi cinema. It was the time where writers were experimenting with earthy stories with each of them holding a mirror to the society we live in. One such movie of the 50’s is Naukri.
Indian youth finds itself humming to this song by Kishor Kumar from this movie- ‘Ek choti se naukri ka taalabgar hu main’ whilst massive tech layoffs and rising unemployment in the country.
Kishor Kumar can be seen scanning through newspapers and applying for a one that he finds from the job classified. The movie Naukri talks about the unemployment situation in the 50’s and youth struggling to find jobs. This movie still holds relevance today for the reason Indian youth are still struggling to find jobs for different reasons.
Unemployment in India is at a three month high this April, with 8% as on 16th April, 2023. The rural unemployment stands at 7.4% and urban at 9.2%, as per data retrieved from CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy).
This means 8% of the labour force who are willing and looking for jobs but are unable to find one. The post-covid era has made it difficult, and now it seems more blur with ever changing demands in the workforce, massive layoffs in tech, disappearing female workforce and youth who gave up looking for work.
STATES IN INDIA AND THEIR UNEMPLOYMENT
Unemployment in Indian states, data collected through CMIE
Among the states that have high unemployment rates, Haryana stands first, followed by Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, and Sikkim.
Haryana has been plagued with unemployment for quite some time. In January 2023, the Haryana youths dressed up as grooms and took out a fake wedding procession to mock the lack of job opportunities in the state. Its youth, like Punjab, are fleeing outside India with the hope to secure jobs. The men in the Haryana state are finding it difficult to get married due to the unemployment situation and this mockery was their protest against a failed system.
The youth in haryana resort to fake wedding procession as protest. (Image credits: Latest LY)
The dependence on agriculture as the predominant profession amongst Haryana, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Jammu and Kashmir can be considered as the main reason for this unemployment.
Agrarian economies are susceptible to seasonal unemployment and this causes these states these workers to work only at particular windows of the year, and with less or no work for the rest of the year as this goes with the cycles of crops. For instance, the period after sowing and before harvesting, farmers will have less work.
Interestingly, Jammu and Kashmir is also the second state with high literacy rate suffering from unemployment after Kerala. A crippling infrastructure and almost invisible efforts to promote private entities and self employment, all add to the miseries of Kashmiri people.
ANOTHER POSSIBLE REASONS FOR UNEMPLOYMENT IN INDIA
1. TECH LAYOFF HAY FEVER continues...
The year 2020 brought in a lot of changes, from working from home to extensive hiring after demand growth during the pandemic, 2023 is more of a reality check for big firms.
Job cuts, mergers, acquisitions all among causing this temperature change in the job market with many losing jobs. Tech is no longer the stable industry to work in. With demand changes, hiring and firing in the same sentence and for some the same month. A post by an IT professional went viral after he resorted to the internet to sort out his dilemma of losing 3 jobs in a span of four months.
Image credits: Blind, screenshot of the post by the user
Major tech firms like Amazon, Google, Twitter, Salesforce, reportedly have laid off 50,000 employees worldwide and will continue this spree of layoffs to restructure and reorganise resources.
The situation in India looks no different with as many as 25000 people laid off from 88 startups, which includes big names like BYJU’s, Dunzo, Ola, OYO, Meesho, Myspace among many.
Not just tech workers, but changes in demand are also putting pressure on the gig economy which currently employs 7.7 million. These people get easily replaced putting their rights at risk. The situation of high employment in the country, where many are looking for jobs and less jobs available in hand to meet these requirements is also a risky situation where workers would be forced to work despite low pay, as they have to prioritise their ‘roti, kapda, makan’ and then later think about the perks and incentives. The latest Blinkit’s decision to reduce the delivery fee from 25 per km to 15 per km is also an example of how vulnerable the gig workers are.
2. WOMEN EXITING THE WORKFORCE
India has come a long way when it comes to women’s education from 9% at the time of independence to 77%, as of 2023. Indian women have come a long way; making a mark in the top managerial position, creating a difference by breaking the shackles of age-old patriarchy.
With all these changes, it is expected that women participation in the workforce would be as positive as the literacy levels. The conflict here is, it is not. While India is soaring to make its 10 trillion dollar economy, the women in the country are left behind to look after their domestic responsibilities.
The unemployment data released by the World Bank, shows that women participation has seen a decline of 19% as of 2021, from the previous 30% in 1990. These women staying back would push not just their dreams but also the nation.
With these roadblocks ahead, it looks like the road ahead is not easy and requires fixing problems at different levels to achieve the vision India dreams of achieving.
Finally, years after independence finding its youth in a similar situation of desperately looking out for jobs is painful for a country. India needs to gear up to maximise the demographic advantage that it has right now. The absence to tap on this asset would prove fatel.
India can hum to this song by Kishor Kumar in the presence of this crisis or absence. Well, it would be delightful to sing this one without the unemployment crisis.
Cover Image Source: Hindi Song Lyrics
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