Islamabad, July 31, 2022 (PPI-OT):The unemployment rate in Indian Illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) rose above 20 percent for the ninth time, since the abrogation of Article 370 of Indian Constitution in August 2019. The unemployment rate in Kashmir, a month before the August 2019 clampdown, was about 14.74 percent but drastically rose in the next six months to 21.08 percent.

The unemployment rate, according to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), in March 2022 was 25 percent, almost three times the national average for the month, 7.60 percent, and second highest after Haryana’s 26.7 percent.

Unemployment among the educated youth in Jammu Kashmir was 46.3 percent, only behind Kerala where the number was 47 percent, the source said. The average annual unemployment rate in Jammu and Kashmir for 2017 was 12.98 percent, 11.56 percent in 2018, 16.29 percent in 2019, 15.77 percent in 2020, 15.69 percent in 2021 and 17.3 percent so far in 2022.

Prominent Human Rights Activist Dr Farzana Bari in a media interview said that although the ratio of unemployment increased substantially after the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe; however, its impact on IIOJK was more obvious.

“Since the people of IIOJK have been suffering from exploitation by the Indian state, increase in the unemployment rate is not surprising for me. Protecting the rights of Kashmiri people is a farfetched thing, but Indian state has been the biggest violator of their basic rights”, Dr Bari observed.

About the Youm-i-Istehsal to be marked on August 05, Dr Bari said that it was the right time to show solidarity with the Kashmiri people and condemn the Indian government’s decision to strip occupied Kashmir’s special status and its continuous atrocities against the residents of the region.

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