Essays

In order to lead a life,-a person has to acquire food, clothing and shelter. In order to acquire these basic necessities, one has to find means and ways to earn his livelihood- In simple words, one has to find some work or a job through which he can earn and make his life comfortable, A man thus spends about l/3rd of his life performing this idle of earning his livelihood. He does so because his earning also determines his status, One has to earn to support his family, fulfil his social obligations, achieve power and position in the society But there are instances found in the society when a person does not get an opportunity to earn his livelihood. Then arises the problem of unemployment.

An unemployed person is the one who has the potential and ability to earn and is also willing to work but finds no remunerative work, Naba Gopal Das defines unemployment as a "condition of involuntary idleness". There are three elements of unemployment - firstly, a person should be capable of working. Secondly, he should be willing to work and finally he should make an effort to find work. Thus, according to the above mentioned elements a person who is physically or mentally challenged, is chronically ill, a hermit or a sadhu, d beggar who does not want to work cannot be included in the category of unemployed. A society that has full or total employment thus will have four elements - an individual will take little time to find a suitably paying work as per his capabilities and qualifications, he would be always sure of finding remunerative work, the number of vacant jobs in the society will exceed the number of people lookinq for jobs and lastly, the work will always pay adequate remuneration. For instance, the Planning Commission of India describes a person as 'marginally unemployed' when he remains without work for a period of six months.

Since country's independence, there has been a continuous rise in the number of unemployed people in the country. According to a survey by the Labour Bureau of the Government of India conducted in 28 States/UTs spread across the country, 40 million are unemployed in India with an unemployment rate of 9.4% in 2009-10 fiscal year. This means out of every 1000 persons, 94 persons are unemployed. Out of 424 million work force, around 384 million constitutes working population, which leaves behind 40 odd million who are willing and capable to work but are unable to find work.

The present unemployment rate has even surpassed India's average unemployment rate of 7.20 percent from the year 1983 until 2000. The overall unemployment rate of 9.4% is split out as 10.1% in rural areas, and 7,3% in urban areas. This reveals a few trends like the rate of unemployment is higher in rural areas compared to urban areas. Also, the rate of unemployed women is higher than men; for males, the unemployment rate is 8%, whereas for females the unemployment rate is 14.6%.

Unemployment may be classified as—rural, urban, seasonal, cyclical or technological. Seasonal unemployment is found mostly in the agricultural sector and manufacturing units like sugar or ice factories. When the landholdings of a farmer is so small to be unable to satisfy the needs of their own family members, then it is called agricultural unemployment. Cyclical unemployment is caused due to the ups and downs in trade. When the entrepreneurs compensate their loss by cutting down on their workers, it is termed as cyclical unemployment. As the term itself suggests, technological unemployment occurs when introduction of technology displaces manpower, other kinds of unemployment are—rural, urban, industrial and educational.

Factors like lack of capital, lack of investment, low production, decline in business cycle, dislocation of industries, deflation, use of technology etc are the basic causes of unemployment. Besides these economic causes, unemployment can be caused due to various social factors too, like geographical immobility, rapid growth of population, defective system of education, lack of experience, lack of vocational training, illness or disability. Another very important social factor is the demand for certain white collar jobs and the attitude of the society to look down upon certain jobs such as teaching or salesmanship, which also causes unemployment. The desire for social acceptance through made-up social status too causes unemployment. It always sounds better to say that one is preparing for IAS or MBA which may be beyond one's capability, than to say that one is doing a clerical job.

Unemployment, thus causes disillusionment, frustration and dissatisfaction. This gives rise to cynicism and dissipates the energy of the youth in destructive directions. Thus they resort to crime, violence, anti-social activities or worse try to take a short-cut to achieve the much sought after social-status. This explains the number of bank-robberies, youth-bandit teams etc. Even suicidal tendencies are on a rise due to social humiliation and deprivation.

 In 1999-2000, the government merged the various self-employment schemes in rural sector (IRDF; DWCRA, TRYSEM, SITRA, MWS and GKY) into a single all- inclusive scheme called Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY). The main objectives of this Yojana are to provide opportunity of employment to surplus labour, give them food security and establish large number of small enterprises. National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) came into force through an Act in 2005 which recognises the right to work and provides a legal guarantee of at least 100 days of employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult member volunteers to do unskilled manual work.

However, till date, unemployment has been reduced to an election commodity to gain votes. All the efforts made by various governments have gone down the drain due to lack of resources, rise in illiteracy and the growing population. The country needs to take a serious look at all its present scenario and think of some serious remedial measures to face the mammoth problem of unemployment. To combat this problem, one also needs to combat problems like illiteracy, population explosion, migration from rural to urban areas etc. The society has to change its outlook on white collar and blue collar jobs, along with a change in the educational system, and needs to create more opportunities of self-employment. Stress on vocational training is needed urgently. Then only can we overcome the growing problem of unemployment in the country.