UP: Ground Reality Doesn't Match State Govt's Claims on Providing Employment to Youth

Lucknow: Shivangi Sharma, since the past month, could not get the data (internet) pack for her mobile phone due to the acute financial crisis in her family. This is despite India having one of the cheapest mobile internet plans in the world. The 21-year-old native of Jaunpur district in Uttar Pradesh (UP) was working as a sweeper on an ad-hoc basis but lost her job in June last year, with two months of remuneration still due.

Sharma comes from an economically distressed family. The loss of ad-hoc employment has shattered her dream of becoming a teacher.

"I was happy when the government employed us in December 2020. There were 43 vacancies at different posts during the first wave of COVID-19. We were hailed as COVID warriors, but now we do not have jobs."

"The notification was issued in December 2020, and then our services were taken for three months. We were told that our services were not required in April, but then on May 3, we were called again. Little did we know that the job was only for 12 days as, on May 30, all 43 people who were selected for the ad-hoc jobs of different grades were relieved," she tells NewsClick.

The teacher aspirant who tries to help her barber father run the house has a loan of Rs 21,000 that she had taken to get admitted in the Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) course. Sharma says she took the loan only after getting the job and was sure that she would settle the loan soon through the wages she was getting from the job, but now her dreams are shattered.

Sujeet Kumar Saroj, 32, was also appointed in the same notification of the Jaunpur medical department on the post of X-ray technician and was then laid off in a similar manner.

These 43 candidates protested against the move and had written over a dozen letters to different state officials requesting them to reinstate and start taking their services.

"I have studied paramedical by spending so much of my father's hard-earned money. It is very shameful that we do not have jobs. My father is a farmer, and we know his struggles to provide us with quality education. I am a literate man, and I cannot go and take the MGNREGA job. Still, people getting the daily waging jobs are better than us because they have a sure source of income. They do not have a fear of getting laid off every couple of months," he says, adding, "The district chief medical officer assured us that we would get back our jobs soon, but nothing has been done yet."

"I live in a Kutcha house. I have a wife, elderly parents to take care of and a sister who is now at the marriage age. I do not have a job. I request the chief minister (CM) to give us a stable job that can assure us of a regular income. I was being paid Rs 16,000/month, and today I am ready to work even at Rs 14,000/month, but the work should be stable, and we should have job security," the ex-X Ray operator says.

It is to be pointed out that the UP government has claimed of providing jobs to 4.5 lakh youths in the last five years. In a public address in November 2021, CM Yogi Adityanath said that through a transparent recruitment process, the government gave over 4.5 lakh jobs to youths in UP.

Despite the UP government's claims, the unemployed youths have protested with the demand for recruitment in different state departments. During such protests, they have been facing the batons of police in harsh winters. In Prayagraj of eastern UP, the unemployed youths were irked by the delay in the recruitment notification process. They took out a Berozgrar rally to protest against the government.

According to a NewsClick report, for young men and women between 25-29 years of age, the unemployment rate has nearly doubled – from 8.8% to 15.9% - over the past four and a half years of the much-celebrated double engine government. In the other age group of 20-24 years, joblessness has increased from an already unconscionable 23.1% to a jaw-dropping 31.5% in the same period.

Women appear to have borne the brunt of the misguided economic policies of the double engine government. The unemployment rate among those women who are without jobs and willing to work rose steadily from mid-2018 (32%) to a mind-boggling 71% in the last months of 2020 when the state was reeling under the catastrophic second wave of the pandemic and finally reaching 48% in May-August 2021, as per Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data.

Ratan Mani Lal, a veteran journalist based in the state capital of Lucknow, says that unemployment in UP is the least talked about issue amongst the political parties in their respective campaigns.

"The issue of unemployment is huge, and it can cost Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or help the major opposition. The most surprising part is that none of the political parties is seriously working on this. The state's youths are highly irked with the current unemployment situation, paper leaks and notification of jobs getting delayed," he said.

According to the CMIE, the unemployment rate in December rose to 7.9% compared to November, when it was 7%. The think tank, in its report, also said that the urban unemployment rate rose to 9.3% in December, which was 8.2% in November, while the rural unemployment rate rose to 7.3% from 6.4%.