What do Indian Youth need?

International Youth Day is observed annually on August 12

Metro India News | Hyderabad 

India holds the global top spot for youth demographic having 38 crore youth aged between 15 and 29 years. This is 25% of total Indian population and more than entire US population.  Of total Indians, 61.6 crore people aged 15 years and above are employed. Of this, 41.6 crore are men and 20.0 crore are women. 67% are in rural and 33% are in urban. About 2.15 crore persons i.e., 3.5% are in central or state government jobs. 13.5% are in formal private jobs, and 83% are employed in unorganized sector.  

 Out of the 38 cr youth, 15.3 crores are employed with 43% in agriculture, 28% in services, and 29% in secondary sector, Female youth unemployment is higher between 25% to 35%. There are 25% voluntary unemployment youth not taking work waiting for a secure formal job with better pay. Currently government is spending Rs. 12 lakh crores on youth. This is 13% of Rs. 92 lakh cr, which is sum of budgets of central and state governments and 4% of Indian GDP. The 7% budget expenditure as a percentage of high GDP on small pool of youth in the developed nations translates to higher per capita youth expenditure. The 4% of GDP spent by India on its bigger youth pool translates to much lower per capita youth expenditure.

Adding to all these, about 50 lakh plus university graduates are coming out every year whereas only half of them find some or the other employment. Higher the education up to post-graduation, higher are the joblessness risks. As per World Bank assessment, 85% of Indian students do not have the required basic skills. 80% of domestic employers find huge gap of structural skills in the graduates and 44% of all the university graduates remain functionally unemployable. Lacking sufficient critical thinking, practical approach, competencies, hardworking, patience, and subordination are the outcomes of schooling and graduating without learning.

Only 50% of Indian youth meet physical activity benchmarks. Chronic health markers such as migraine, high cholesterol, obesity, thyroid, blood pressure, fatty lever, sight deficiency, hair fall, and nervous weakness became common among youth. In mental wellbeing quotient, Indian youth ranked almost at the bottom. Strayed youth are falling into the trap of serial borrowings, unsustainable gig works, vanity projects, bling startups, unlawful activities, or cashing out. Youth should be guided against superfluous-fashions, false-prestige, extreme-entertainments, reckless-borrowings, and lazy habits.

Obsolete curriculum should be replaced with vocational, polytechnic and employment courses. All courses should have mandatory apprenticeship or training during the tenure rather than towards the end.  Manufacturing and industrial hubs should be promoted in a decentralized manner to provide jobs at various multiple locations. Imports substituting industries and local materials dependent industries should be prioritized and promoted. Agriculture should be mechanized to increase productivity to effectively engage the workforce. MSMEs must be given more thrust. Self-employments should be encouraged. Incentives to industries for creating employment should be considerably increased.

- Dr. Kishore Nuthalapati

(The author is the Regional Director of PRMIA, US for Hyderabad Chapter. He is serving as the CFO of BEKEM Infra Projects Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad. )