The youth of Jammu and Kashmir are not only a disarrayed and disturbed lot but they are also exhausted in terms of their hope for a better future. And the simple reason for their frustrations is that they have always been exploited. They have been exploited by the politics as well as by the situational turbulence. The general developmental lag suffered by the UT too has exacted a heavy toll. What should be the most productive section of the society is today sullen in frustration, as a good majority of them is either with ‘no’ or ‘very little’ income. Their only disqualification is that they are over-qualified to undertake vocational skills and jobs for which the UT now has to import manpower from others states. They have been deliberately programmed for only one kind of job – engagement in government service, which of course is not and cannot be available for all. The enterprising among them, who want to break the jinx and do something new by generating their own employment, don’t have access to the avenues and opportunities for the same – financial institutions and various governmental agencies being big hurdles in their way. This is despite the government’s pronounced invite to the youth to go for self-employment ventures!
Come elections, jobs for the jobless always figures prominently not only in political speeches but in party programmes and manifestos as well. And this year too, every political party, no matter or small, contesting elections was making tall promises about generating jobs for the jobless. That the political parties use the issue of unemployment during elections and make big promises conveys in no-non-sense terms that none of them is serious about the issue because had they been, they would tell people candidly that no government, leave aside a single political leader, can provide government jobs to all the unemployed. It is impossible! However, instead of creating alternative spaces for the unemployed youth in private sector, instead of helping them in generating their own employment avenues, they are allowed to drift away into the world of make-belief. This has been happening in the past and this continues to happen.
Actually, in Jammu and Kashmir the youth have never been involved in making youth-oriented schemes. Earlier it used to be politician and bureaucrats who would decide what is good for youth and now only bureaucrats are the decision makers. The government of the day should engage with the youth, understand their frustrations and come up with youth friendly schemes with potential of job providing. These is huge potential in agriculture and allied sectors for generating employment avenues. Let the public representatives, who were chosen by the people in recently held elections, identify potential areas of their respective constituencies, take the local administration and financial institutions on board and together with the interested youth help launch schemes in these sectors to generate jobs. Mind, this chunk of population (youth) is huge one and it is the future of the UT. The administration should create avenues for them in different sectors so that they get jobs and thus contribute to the welfare of the UT.
