Signifying the alarming situation of unemployment in Jammuand Kashmir, in just 15 days more than 1.5 lakh youth possessing postgraduation or higher educational degrees have registered themselves with the stategovernment as unemployed.

In a first-of-its kind exercise carried out by theGovernor’s Administration, the Directorate of Employment had asked theunemployed youth having post graduation, MPHIL or PHD degrees to registerthemselves with district employee exchanges in their respective districts.

Talking to reporters Joint Director, Central, Directorate ofEmployment and Counseling, Shahid Mehmood said that over 1.5 lakhpost-graduates have registered themselves with Directorate of Employment. Thelast date for registering as unemployed has come to an end, but in future weare planning to open registration again for post graduates for few more days inorder to come up with the exact number of jobless post-graduates in J&K.Thisis first-of-its-kind exercise in the state to have an “exact database of highlyqualified persons, including postgraduate, MPhil and PhD degree holders”, asthe previous regimes who ruled J&K had never compiled the specific data of unemployedpostgraduate men and women.

The problem of unemployment is not new phenomena in J&K,in absence of outside investment the youth in J&K state are finding hard toeke their livelihood. Prior to the survey being conducted by the Governor’sAdministration to find out exact number of unemployed youth, there were variousreports which pinpointed the alarming situation vis-a-vis bulging unemploymentnumber.

In 2017, the data compiled by the Stock Exchange Centre forMonitoring Indian Economy in collaboration with Bombay had revealed thatJ&K had the highest unemployment rate in India at 12.13 percent.

State’s own Economic Survey Report of 2016 mentions thatunemployment rate in Jammu and Kashmir is higher than average Nationalunemployment rate, with JK’s having 24.6 percent population in the age of(18-29 years) unemployed which is far more than All India unemployment rate of13.2 percent.

J&K which is already facing the brunt of turmoilresulting in negligible investments with business marred by uncertainties, theunemployment rate indicates the problems which educated youth in Kashmir gothrough.  “In JK, unemployment rate is24.6 percent using Usual Principal Status (UPS) approach, while as the personsin the age of 18-29 years had UR 13.2 percent at the All India Level using UPSapproach,” states the Economic Survey Report 2016.

Last time, the government had held voluntary registration ofunemployed youth in 2009. Thereafter, the then National Conference-ledcoalition government, headed by former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, hadstarted the much-hyped state policy on employment — Sher-e-Kashmir Employmentand Welfare Policy for Youth — with an aim to provide jobs to the unemployed educatedyouth of the state.