Of the many problems facing Jammu and Kashmir, joblessness or lack of meaningful employment is certainly one of the major crises. However, thus far not much is actually being done to tackle it. The unemployment rate in J&K is alarmingly high. In absence of ample job avenues, most of the educated youth look towards the government alone for jobs. However, it is also true that no government, how-much-so-ever it wants to, could provide government jobs to all unemployed people. But it is also a reality that hundreds of posts are lying vacant in different government departments and no step has been taken during past several years to fill these vacancies.
The region’s industrial sector is underdeveloped, leading to limited job opportunities; the private sector in J&K is small and the education system in J&K is not aligned with industry needs, resulting in a mismatch between skills and job requirements. Besides these issues, the UT is mountainous terrain making it difficult to establish industries and connect with the rest of the country. However, with upgrading of existing highways and the train services, the geographical constraints shouldn’t be an issue in coming times.
It is the responsibility of the government to explore ways and means and then also facilitate meaningful and profitable engagement to not only the educated but even uneducated jobless people. As an alternative, the jobless people could and should be encouraged to think of starting their own business ventures so that not only they themselves but other jobless people too get jobs. For this governments have time and again pledged all sorts of support including seed money and soft loans from the banks besides other incentives that appear quite an attractive offer, at least on the paper. Unfortunately, all these promises do not materialize as easily on the ground as they seem in political and official assertions.
Government, for instance, is well within its right to boast about having entered into a deal with the banks to mobilize easy loans for the prospective entrepreneurs. But as the actual situation on the ground is, getting a loan from the bank is not as easy for those seeking this facility. Besides the government’s seed money there are other formalities too that must be fulfilled by clients to convince banks for giving them loans. And mind it, this is no easy task to go through all the formalities. Not that there should be no such prerequisites, but the hassled culture of banks is a major impediment which must be taken care of.
Same is the case with each and every other supporting agency. Right from the stage of registration at the District Employment and Counseling Centres to the formalities an entrepreneur is supposed to go through at SICOP, DIC, and their affiliated wings, to getting No-Objection Certificates (NoCs) from power, water, Pollution Control Board and other agencies, everything is so overly hassled that only the most ardent and sturdy ones are able to pass through. And that too only if they are able to shrug off worst kind of humiliating behaviour they face from the people manning these agencies. No self-employment or any other scheme that promises progress and welfare of the state and its people could succeed unless the supporting agencies are taught to act as facilitators and not the masters.