Need of a single window system to ensure youth skilling and employment

In the post-COVID era, the issue of unemployment, particularly among the youth, remains severe despite good economic growth. Estimates of the magnitude of youth unemployment vary widely or are nonexistent due to a lack of reliable data at both macro and micro levels. According to the national youth policy (2014), youth are defined as individuals aged 15 to 29, comprising 27.5 percent of India’s population.

The 2011 Census recorded 56.3 crore young people aged 10 to 35, as per the 12th Five Year Plan. The United Nations defines youth as those aged 15 to 24. Both state and central governments have prioritised addressing youth unemployment.

Central government schemes such as the Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) for funding the unfunded, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) for providing vocational education to youth, and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gramin Kaushal Yojana (DDU-GKY) for creating employment opportunities for rural youth have been implemented since 2015. However, the effectiveness and impact of these schemes are not yet known due to a lack of reliable data.

Unemployment among educated

Recently, employment statistics in India revealed conflicting figures. While the government cites payroll data to claim significant job creation, some other studies, such as the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE)’s Consumer Pyramids Household Survey, present a different picture.

According to this survey, the unemployment rate in India stood at 9.2 per cent in June 2024, a sharp increase from 7 per cent in May 2024, which, if true, would be the highest rate in 45 years. The worker-population ratio among youth aged 15-24 has significantly declined either due to enrolment in higher education or lack of employment opportunities, a trend that needs further examination. CMIE’s survey also shows that female unemployment reached 18.5 per cent, up from 15.1 per cent in the same period last year. Meanwhile, male unemployment stood at 7.8 per cent, slightly higher than 7.7 per cent in June 2023. The rural unemployment rate rose to 9.3 per cent in June from 6.3 per cent in May, and the urban unemployment rate climbed from 8.6 per cent to 8.9 per cent.

The unemployment rate among youth stood at 45.4 per cent in 2022–23, an alarming figure six times higher than India’s overall unemployment rate of 7.5 per cent, according to CMIE. Similarly, the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) 2016 report indicates that unemployment is higher among youth in India (13.5 per cent) than among those over 30 years of age (1.5 per cent). According to NSSO, nearly 35 per cent of youth with graduate degrees and above are unemployed, while unemployment is lower among uneducated young workers (6.2 per cent unemployment). Highly educated Indian youth are more than five times as likely to be unemployed as their uneducated counterparts.

A recent Azim Premji University report also paints a grim picture of the working population in India based on the CMIE-CPDX data. Among urban women, graduates make up 10 per cent of the working-age population but 34 per cent of the unemployed. The age group 20-24 years is significantly over-represented among the unemployed. Among urban men, this age group accounts for 13.5 per cent of the working-age population but 60 per cent of the unemployed. The high unemployment among the highly educated likely indicates either a lack of job creation for educated individuals or a mismatch between the skills acquired during education and the jobs offered by the industry and government.

Youth employment conditions

Once employed, youth often work in the informal sector or in poor-quality jobs. Though there are some positive signs, particularly in reducing the extreme poverty rate (i.e., living on less than US$1.90 in PPP terms) for youth—estimated to have more than halved from 34.1 per cent in 2007 to 14.2 per cent in 2017—it remains high compared to other countries.

Increasingly, young workers are found in non-standard employment, such as short-term, casual, and task-based manual contract work, often without written contracts. Poor youth are forced to work under substandard conditions to sustain themselves, while youth from affluent families can afford higher education and skills investment, perpetuating intergenerational inequalities. Nearly half of rural youth are self-employed in low-productivity activities. In recent years, rural-urban gaps have been increasing.

Vulnerable employment

Vulnerable employment is defined as the sum of the employment status groups of own account workers and contributing family workers. These workers are less likely to have formal work arrangements, making them more prone to lacking decent working conditions, adequate social security, and representation through trade unions and similar organizations. This type of employment is often characterised by inadequate earnings, low productivity, and difficult working conditions that undermine workers’ fundamental rights. In India, vulnerable employment is estimated to account for 79.2 per cent of total employment (International Labour Organisation, 2018).

The share of informal employment in total employment was 81.9 percent, while the share of informal employment in non-agricultural employment was 66.1 percent in 2012. The proportion of youth in informal and vulnerable employment is even higher. A key component of the Code on Wages Act 2019 is the establishment of a mandatory national wage floor (minimum wage), which will be binding on the States and beneficial to youth. It aims to set minimum wage standards across industries, including small businesses, which employ nearly 90 per cent of India’s workforce.

Over the last few decades, youth have migrated from rural to urban areas in search of employment, primarily as informal casual laborers. Recent reports from urban employment surveys by NSSO reveal that the unemployment rate among urban youth aged 15-29 was nearly 16 per cent in 2023, down from 23.7 per cent in 2018. High youth unemployment is attributed to poor skills and a lack of quality jobs. Schemes like Skill India, Make in India, and Start-up India should focus on bridging the skill gaps of youth during this transition.

Youth need to be engaged in employment, education, or training. The rate of youth Not in Employment, Education, or Training (NEET) is a composite indicator of youth disempowerment (a high NEET rate indicates more disempowerment). With increased enrolment in higher education, the NEET rate reduced from 12.7 percent to 11.8 per cent between 2002 and 2013. Sustainable Development Goals target 8.6 aims to substantially reduce the proportion of youth in NEET by 2030. In India, the female NEET rate is more than six times the male rate.

Youth Guarantee programme

Globally, there are successful schemes to empower youth, such as the Youth Guarantee (YG) scheme of the European Union, which has been time-tested across many countries. The YG is a commitment by all Member States to ensure that all young people receive a good quality offer of employment, continued education, apprenticeship, and traineeship within four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education. In line with this, the government can coordinate already existing skill development and employment schemes targeted at youth empowerment under a single umbrella at the district level.

This approach can be adopted by the government by opening a single window system at the district level to register youth, train them, and support them until they secure gainful employment or transform into entrepreneurs. All skill development centres and activities of different government departments, as well as private sector activities under CSR, need to be converged under the umbrella of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to achieve this objective under mission mode.

The author is Joint Director, Policy Support Research, Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Email ID amarender.reddy@icar.gov.in. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.