It was a clumsy way of doing things that for recruiting some police constables the state government invited applications and held interview in a highly congested area of the Srinagar city; a sad commentary on the functioning of the state administration indeed. Hundreds of youth turned up for interview. The number of youth that queued for interview spoke volumes about the magnitude of the problem of unemployed educated youth in the state - particularly in Kashmir valley. The authorities in power instead of having sympathies for these educated jobless youth, who are at the brink of crossing the age limit, shamelessly politicized their miseries.  A pure administrative matter was given such a media hype as if it was a war of ideologies and political outlooks that had been waged and won by men in power. It seems that the administration is yet to learn the lesson that such media hypes for petty publicity have always proved counterproductive.  The number of highly educated youth that had turned up for interview was a grim reminder that the state is besieged with the problem of unemployment and its assuming huge proposition can only have dangerous implications. 
Truth is that despite the state offering one after another best package of incentives during past forty years no major Indian industrial house or multi-national company ever ventured to set up its units in Kashmir. It is history that the state from feudal times had very viable public sector with many success stories to their credit. The popularity of Kashmir silk and woolen in the international market during first half of the twentieth century and even after testify this, but it was for over-politicization, stubborn and a particular mindset bureaucracy that the state lost its public sector and diminished the avenues of employment for Kashmir youth.  There is need to realize a harsh reality that till the time  political uncertainty prevails in the state no major industrial house or multi-national company is going to come forward for setting up its unit in Kashmir and the state will have to explore possibilities of finding jobs for Kashmir youth from its own resources. One option could be reviving production and manufacturing based industrial units and another could be encouraging local entrepreneurship for setting up major industries based on the available raw material. It is not of much consequence that who has been in the office during past thirty six years, all the governments has failed in drafting a comprehensive employment policy on scientific lines.  The state government after 1972 had initiated some moves for providing jobs to youth outside the government. The self-employment then introduced had shown encouraging results but for the corruption in the government and encouraging of subsidy culture by bureaucracy for material benefits the scheme failed.  And thereafter the state government has failed to come up with any comprehensive policy for tackling growing problem of unemployment in the state.
The Congress-National Conference coalition government is now in office for over past two years notwithstanding its promise of tackling the problem of unemployment on war footing it is yet to take baby steps. So far even it has not even implemented its own cabinet decisions regarding regularizing the services of all contractual and ad hoc employees and those working against migrant vacancies for over past twenty one years. It is unfortunate, most of the decisions by the political leadership including the chief executive fail implementation at the bureaucratic tables in the state Finance and Planning departments. The announcement made by Union Home Secretary at a seminar in New Delhi that central government had taken steps for absorbing youth of the state in the corporate augurs well. It will be a leap forward if the central government succeeds in “absorbing 1, 00,000 youths in jobs all over India in the next 12 months”. While one would appreciate the state and central government working in tandem for early implementation of the program there is also need to delink unemployment problem from politics, and looking at it as a social issue.  

Lastupdate on : Mon, 17 Jan 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 18 Jan 2011 00:00:00 IST