We are all aware of the unemployment issue the State is facing today. The CM has also acknowledged the magnitude of the issue, and he has not done it in any hush-hush manner, but declared it at a formal function earlier this month. The CM was reported to have said that of all the issues confronting the State including the law and order situation, the issue that is quite a headache for the government is unemployment. If we consider the limited resource of the government and the figure of unemployment we have today, the Chief Minister could not be more right in calling the issue quite a headache. It certainly is a daunting and baffling problem if there are more than 7 lakh job seekers out of a total population of just about 28 lakhs. Add to this the fact that the government has only about 25,000 vacancies in its various departments, as was claimed during the recent Budget Session of the Manipur Legislative Assembly by minister Irengbam Hemochandra. The exact number according to the minister being only 25,329 vacancies including that of Grade A posts in all departments of the government as on November 30, 2015 against a total of 7,47,402 educated youth registered with the employment exchanges. As is evident from the above stated figures, one can comprehend the impossibility of the work that lay ahead of the government. It is easily understandable that it is impossible to provide government jobs to each and every educated unemployed youth. In such a scenario, it is a quite welcoming to learn from the Chief Minister himself, as was reported, that the government is trying its best to open up more employment avenues by encouraging the private sector and job oriented schemes, despite the lack of funds.
Unemployment has always been a major problem in all developing countries like India. As welcoming as it is to learn of the government’s initiatives, there is also an underlying importance to first understand the root causes for the unprecedented unemployment. Some major causes for unemployment if we look in the State are the government’s failure to develop industries proportionate to the growth of the society, including the population growth, a fledgling private sector and corruption. The mechanised progress witnessed throughout the world including in Manipur today seems to have only aggravated the issue. What was a man’s domain till a few years back has today been captured by the machines. A suitable example being the introduction of computers in offices which has eased the workload of the staff as well as the number of staff required.
When we talk of unemployment, we should not also forget that there is another class of unemployed youth, the labour class who are not educated and as such not registered in the employment exchanges.
In such a scenario as we are witnessing in the State today, it is not much surprising that the top echelon of the educated youth especially those with technical background tend to stray out of the State looking for greener pastures. Considering all the facts and figures available, the issue at hand is quite serious and distressing at the same time; and needs immediate and pragmatic handling before it blows completely out of order. The government could also initiate calculated steps with clear sets of well-defined and outlined objectives. This initiative could have the basic concern of encouraging more private sectors which would eventually help create more job opportunities.
Leader Writer: Wangkheimayum Bhupendra Singh