Today’s world is full of uncertainty. The young generations are facing many difficulties to match with the uncertain and stressful environment particularly after COVID-19 pandemic.
Today’s market/job demands competent human resource, which can manage the rapidly changing environment very smoothly.
But on the other side most of the graduate and post graduate candidate of our country are not getting any job due to the lack of required skill set. This creates a huge gap between haves and haven’t which is a great challenge in the path of building a balanced society or nation.
Unemployment is a major social issue of our country amidst all other issues. it not only deteriorate the financial status of an individual but also make them socially exclusive by lowering their self esteem. This issue specially affect the young mass a lot.
“As per the World Economic Forum, of the 13 million people who join India’s workforce each year, only one in four management professionals, one in five engineers, and one in 10 graduates are employable.”
According to a report, almost 2 million graduates and half a million postgraduates are unemployed in India.
Around 47% graduates in India are not suitable for any kind of industry role. Above all, the level of educated unemployment in India increases with higher education.
While, at the primary level, youth unemployment is somewhere around 3.6%, it is 8% at the graduate level and 9.3% at the post-graduate level.
Let us take a look at the ground reality. In a recent survey of about 6,000 young people aged between 15 and 34, the Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) found that 48 per cent of respondents cited unemployment as India’s biggest problem.
“India happens to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and yet this financial growth has not trickled down to benefit the sheer volume of people who are out of jobs.”
What is even more unfortunate is that it is not so much the dearth of jobs, but the lack of skilled manpower is the reason behind such large numbers of unemployed youth. It is not unemployment, but unemployment that leaves the Indian youth frustrated, dejected and disillusioned.
“Unequal access to opportunity remains a persistent problem while lack of formal vocational education, high school dropout rates, inadequate skill training capacity, negative perception towards skilling, and lack of industry ready skills,” soft skills even in professional courses are the major causes of poor skill levels of India’s workforce.
“Cognizant of the fact, over the years, successive Indian governments have launched schemes to both increase the number of new jobs being created and young people’s ability to do them.”
The most recent of these is the Skill India Mission, which aims to provide training to 400 million people by 2022 through various government initiatives.
India has one of the highest youth population in the world with an estimate high of 356 million youth. 500 million Indian citizens are expected to be under the age of 25 by 2020.
If its 500 million youth, around 64% of our population will be added to our workforce and the country’s socio-economic development will witness an unprecedented rise. Economists believe such favorable demographic dividend could add a significant 2% to the GDP growth rate.
On the other hand, however, while the Indian economy is growing, it appears that those with college degrees are not benefiting in terms of suitable employment. There are several reports of hundreds of young people with master’s degrees or even PhDs applying for jobs they are overqualified for.
According to a report prepared by the Centre for Sustainable Employment at Azim Premji University, unemployment among the well-educated is thrice the national average.
There are approximately 55 million people in the labour market with at least a graduate degree – of which nine million are estimated to be unemployed.
The high rate of unemployment among the educated is both due to the lack of sufficient jobs and poor schooling as well as the mediocre quality of education on offer at most colleges. This makes large numbers of graduates unsuitable for employment that is commensurate with their degrees.
While the employ ability rates of college students have improved over the years, it remains under 50% and as low as 30% for graduates in arts and commerce.
Nearly half of all undergraduate students – who make up for 80% of the total number of students – are enrolled in the least employable disciplines. The result is that many college graduates end up enrolling for advanced and/or additional degrees, taking up lesser jobs or remaining unemployed while they wait for something worthwhile in terms of employment.
As they could not able to earn their livelihood and fulfill the basic and urgent needs of their own self and family, they become depressed or frustrated. In this juncture grief, anger, jealousy, agitations are the general human emotions flows intensively. But very less people could able to manage with their emotions.
And due to lack of the critical thinking and right decision making skill, many people choose negative options to satisfy or suppress their emotions .They wish to fulfill their needs and desires by hook and crook.
These options may include drug abuse, violence, antisocial activities like gambling, kidnapping, murder, theft, terror activities, smuggling, trafficking, cyber crime/frauds etc.
The above areas are one way traffic. Once entered, very difficult to look back and return. Gradually they enter into the trap drastically.
Results are in the form of family disturbance, loosing social status, anxiety, exclusion and ultimately the tendency of self harm or suicide attempt.
Recent data and various research sources show that unemployment, drug abuse and family disturbance are the chief causes of suicide in India.
Every year the percentage of Graduate and postgraduates are increasing. But their knowledge and skills are not meeting the required criteria of the job market. Job skills are a combination of hard and soft skills.
But in today’s world though in many of the job, works are done by machines and computers, the requirement of soft skill is at a high. Hard skills can be learnt and mastered through classroom training, in a stipulated time period.
Hard skill may vary from job to job. But soft skills are universal in nature. No matter, where you go, what you do but it is required everywhere. The earlier you understand and grasp this, the easier life will be.
WHO prescribed 10 core life skills, which is essential for all age group and it widely covers all the basic skills to lead a normal and easier life. It teaches us how to adopt self in the rapidly changing environment around us, in harmony with self and others.
It develop the competency of the younger mass and help them to get ready for higher studies, jobs and other opportunities where they can earn their livelihood by utilizing their potentialities to the fullest and lead a satisfied life.
It helps an individual to think analytically, decide wisely and act harmonically with empathy as the core principle of life.
Life skill education constitutes all the possibilities to empower an individual. If an individual will be empowered then s/he will contribute towards the empowerment of family, society and the globe at large.
In the society, gaps can be bridged, equality can be enhanced and humanity can be flourished, if Empathy skill can be developed for one another.
The core values of humanity like love, compassion, gratitude, honesty, truthfulness can be developed through Life skills education only. It has the power minimize all discrimination and sufferings.
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References:
YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT IN INDIA AND HOW STEP IS TAKING MEASURE.