THE PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT

        Among the problems facing India today unemployment is a major problem. There are millions on the live registers of employment exchanges throughout the country. And every year, lakhs of highly qualified and trained people join them with no hope of finding jobs suiting their skills and talents. The situation is equally grim in the rural areas where there is under-employment as well.

         One of the reasons of growing unemployment is that opportunities for higher education are available to one and all. Most students follow the herd mentality in choosing their careers. After medicine and engineering, the present trend is towards management and information technology. This will soon reach a saturation point with lakhs of similarly educated young men and women without jobs. This can be prevented when students are given options suiting their skills and aptitude after the plus-two examination. Fortunately, a beginning has been made in this direction recently and now a wide variety of career options are available to the school- leavers.

         Population is another cause for growing unemployment in the country. The available resources and employment opportunities have not been able to keep pace with the growing numbers. As a result, population control is essential to tackle the problem of unemployment.

        The youth in the countryside are under-employed because of the seasonal nature of jobs in agriculture. Another reason is their liking for white-collar jobs. They do not like to do any manual work. For this, they must be taught the dignity of labor and they must learn that no job is below them. The rural youth must learn the traditional handicrafts and take pride in cottage industries to keep themselves gainfully employed throughout the year. If small-scale industries are set up in the countryside, the youth will have no reason to migrate in large numbers to the cities in search of white- collar or other jobs. They would like to remain close to their native place if they are suitably employed there.

        The problem of unemployment gives rise to social unrest and violence. When the youth fail to get employment, they take to the streets and hold protests and demonstrations. Such protests and demonstrations often turn violent and disturb the normal life of other citizens. This can be avoided by imparting vocational education to our students in schools and colleges so that they act as responsible citizens when they pass out. Vocational education will go a long way in solving the problem of unemployment in the country.