New Delhi, September 29, 2023 (PPI-OT): The Congress has 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.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh in a statement in New Delhi said 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.
Ramesh cited the interactions of Rahul Gandhi with porters at the Anand Vihar Terminal in New Delhi 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.
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.
To make matters worse, even the public sector has been shrinking under the Modi government, he claimed.
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