25 Lakh Unemployed Graduates Are Asking The Telangana Govt: Where Are Our Jobs?

Orkut was our past, Facebook is our present and unemployment is our future! This is the plight of unemployed youth in India. The problem of unemployment among educated youth is a grave condition which is mounting at an alarming rate. The severity of unemployment also has a widespread impact on the social and economic status of the country.

As far as Telangana is concerned, the situation is much dire than many other states. The acute condition of unemployment has caused social distress among youth in Telangana. According to ‘Unemployment in India – A statistical profile’ prepared by the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), Telangana had the third highest rate of unemployment among graduates in India. Given the prevailing problem, on December 4, Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) organized a public meeting ‘Koluvulakai Kotlata’ (struggle for jobs) on the failure of government’s commitment to provide jobs to unemployed youth. The meeting has demanded that the state government fulfil its promises.

Employment was a driving force that gathered widespread support from students while demanding statehood for Telangana. The accomplishment of statehood was intended to not just achieve a physical Telangana. Rather, it was about uplifting the weaker sections of society and generating more opportunities for the youth. In this way, it needs to reflect the aspirations of the youth in the state. But it seems the government failed in boosting the morale of unemployed youth.

Over the span of four years, hardly 25,000 vacancies which have been filled. Among these, the majority of the posts belong to police recruitment at 10,499, Telangana state public service commission has 5,932 seats, power corporation has 2,681 seats, Singareni collieries have 6,453 seats and some other jobs are yet to get final clearances by the high court. As per the official statement of the Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) in the state assembly, 1.12 lakh vacancies in the government sector are expected to be filled by 2018. However, the opposition claims more than 2 lakh jobs vacancies are yet to be filled. Thus, the inability of the government falls short of the youth’s expectations to address the severity of unemployment in the state.

The government is paying more attention to regularizing contractual and outsourced jobs since they were included in the TRS party election manifesto. The KCR-led government consolidated the existing permanent and contract-based employees. The youth staunchly opposed the regularization move by organizing dharnas, strikes, and protests. For instance, on the occasion of Osmania University’s centenary celebrations, which the then President of India Mr Pranab Mukharjee attended, KCR had to call off his speech because of youth protests at the venue. Eventually, the severity of unemployment has become like a bone of contention between the youth and government of Telangana.

At present, the government is prioritising things like international summits and meetings/conferences to divert the public attention from essential issues like joblessness, farmer suicides, and inclusive development. Post-bifurcation, the unemployed youth have high desires and want work opportunities that suit their skill set. So far, the state government has failed to come up with a legitimate vision to solve this issue. There is distress among the youth due to lack of employment opportunities, and on the other hand, the government is pushing for options in the private sector without providing alternative sources of employment.

In recent times, the government eagerly announced that Telangana got the first rank in ‘ease of doing businesses’ in the country and commended its accomplishment with a lot of publicity. Despite the first rank, the private sector has also fallen short in creating additional employment opportunities, which has further disappointed the youth. It is vital to know the purpose of such results. There is a general perception that the government is dilly-dallying the recruitment process to get political expediency at the time of general elections in 2019. If it is so, the government is just disregarding the unemployed youth, who are just one step short of losing faith in their administration. After all, it is the responsibility of the state to ensure job prospects and take measures to create opportunities for self-employment. Otherwise, the vast mass of unemployed youth will probably cause social unrest in the state.