Prof Hari Om
JAMMU: Kashmir-based Political parties had been claiming day-in and day-out that the problem of unemployment in Kashmir had assumed alarming proportions and the result was frustration among the Kashmiri youths. The Congress also had been expressing a similar view. Only on August 23, 2022, in-charge of J&K and RS MP, Rajini Patil, and the newly-appointed JKPCC chief, Vikar Rasool Wani, and Working president, Raman Bhalla, discussed the issue of unemployment in J&K with former AICC president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi. “The delegation discussed with Rahul Gandhi the problem of unemployment in the wake of inadequate job opportunities in J&K, while highlighting agony of frustrated youth,” a report to this affect emanated from New Delhi that day.
However, it was none other than J&K LG Manoj Sinha who set the record straight during an interview to BBC on August 19. Clearing all the cobwebs of confusion, he, among other things, told BBC that “there are five lakh Government employees and one lakh daily wagers” in J&K and that “Bihar has population of 13-14 crore but the number of the government employees is less there as compared to J&K”. LG Sinha was absolutely correct.
The population of J&K is one crore 36 lakh. As for Kashmir, the population is around 65 lakh but they hold almost four lakh positions in the government and semi-government departments, including Civil Secretariat. Besides, there are around 60,000 daily-wagers in Kashmir. As far as the share of the people of Jammu is concerned, they occupy nearly one lakh positions in the government and semi-government establishments and the number of daily-wagers in Jammu province is not more than 40,000. It needs to be noted that while the unemployment rate in Jammu province is over 69%, it’s less than 30% in Kashmir.
What about Bihar? The population of Bihar as per the “Aadhar Statistics in 2021/2022 is 119.46 million” (11 crore 94 lakh). Believe it or not but it is a fact that the total number of government employees in Bihar is just “3.10 lakh” – 90,000 less than Kashmir.
That the powers-that-be have given a very special and preferential treatment to the Kashmiri youths as far as the vital service sector is concerned can also be seen from the employment statistics relating to Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, to mention only a few.
The population of UP is 23.7 crore and the number of government employees 16 lakh. Maharashtra houses 12 crore 49 lakh people and the number of government employees is 17 lakh. The population of MP is 8 crore 23 lakh and the number of government employees 7.5 lakh. As for Punjab, its population is 3.06 crore and the number of government employees 2.85 lakh. In addition, Punjab has 70,000 contractual employees and 60,000 outsourced employees. And, as far as Rajasthan is concerned, its population is 07 crore and 08 lakh and the number of government employees is three lakh.
What does all this show? It shows two things. One is that Kashmir is far more superior in terms of employment opportunities in the government and semi-government establishments. The other is that it is the Jammu province where the unemployment problem is very acute, notwithstanding the fact that the population of Jammu province is equal to Kashmir, if not more. In fact, the insiders say that “the population of Jammu province is more than Kashmir and that J&K is one state where census operations and delimitation exercises were fundamentally Kashmir-centric”. So much so, late J&K BJP presidents and members of Lok Sabha, Vaid Vaishno Dutt and Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, had repeatedly raised these issues in the parliament but with no result. Ikkjutt Jammu, too, has been working hard to convince the authorities that the population of Jammu province is more than Kashmir and that Jammu province will get at least 50 out of 90 seats in the assembly if delimitation is done on the basis of a fair census operation.
Now that J&K LG Manoj Sinha has called the bluff and put things in perspective, it would be only in the fitness of things if the authorities in the state, which are directly under the Union Home Ministry, come out with a white paper so that the nation in general and the discriminated against people of Jammu province come to know what is the share of Kashmir and Jammu province in the crucial job sector. It is hoped that the authorities would do the needful to expose the vested interests wherever they are and whosoever they are.
