Dhaar Mehak
‘Kashmir has really a high rate of unemployment’. What actually we mean by unemployment is the number of people in the working population of a country/economy who are willing to work at the current wage rates but are not able to find work. We however seem to have moulded the definitions as per our likings and tastes. Thus for every person back home the definition of unemployment matches his finger-prints and thus no two definitions tally. In this manner, thus our army of the unemployed is the most vibrant one. But the fact to be pondered over is, if ours is the place of abundant resources and road-ways, why then is the complain of unemployment at the top? If literacy rate too, is good and female education has progressed still the unemployment statistics are conflicting, why? All these questions need introspective and objective answers.
The minds are trained in the manner, teaching that the only best form of work and employment is that of the government and thus the ‘Manzimyoors’ (middle-men) value in terms of utility, more the government clerk than an established businessman. This simply, is nothing but an illusionary truth that is stuck on the minds of the local folk. A parent wants his child to earn his ‘Haakh-Bateh’ and if he is doing that, the parents feel shun of worries. And thus is made the point obvious that a clerk at the gap of 30 days gets his Haakh-Bateh for the next 30 days and so on the cyclic process continues. Does this mean that people fear uncertainty? Such kind of fears verily can turn out to be great great tumbling blocks in the way of growth and development.
There is one basic industry in operation, that itself is a product of evolution and thus no element of revolution inspires it; The Tourism Industry! The nature of such a thing is too erratic to exist. The summer tourism and the winter tourism are two completely different aspects. As a result, those engaged in the activities of the summer tourism , a majority of them find themselves no work in the winters and vice-versa. Thus apart from the already existing unemployment , we then are complimented with the seasonal unemployment. When the summer tourist industry has to keep the operations off for six months, the surplus so earned is utilised in regular consumption and till the beginning of the next season the savings either are zero or even worse have already ended up in dis-savings (negative savings;debts). With such a backdrop, the infrastructure of this industry remains under-, rather un-developed and as it continues to operate by the old-school means, the profits decline and productivity decreases. There is no innovation and thus no progress.
Among other industries the medium scale include brick kilns, crushers, queries, cement manufacturers, macdamising plants etc but all these construction industries prefer workers of outside the State as they form the cheap labour. Thus pragmatically this sector does not provide much employment opportunities to the locals. It is seen that a good number of the work-force is employed with the selling or teritiary sector and majority of them with the shopkeepers throughout the State. This unemployment however is unorganised and thus no rules are in application and the workers mainly are dependent on the will and favours of the owners. Then comes the literate lot, the process of thought of the majority from this group is stuck in stagnation at the demand of the white-collar jobs; either the latter or none. If the degrees can’t fetch them a chair from 10:00 AM-5:00 PM, they procrastrate of the degree attaining years as a complete fail and waste and add their parts to the respective fractions to the unemployment data.
What to do of such complex naughts of the thought process that lie in dim? It seems like the damp of those forests whose soil witnesses no sun-light. In such a globalised world why do we lie behind with such a plightful stagnation? It is a pathetic fact that in the 21st century, until a few years ago, there was no authentic research and data about the industrial potential of the State and it was only after the initiative of the JK-EDI that such researches and programmes began to start. Then were started the batches as a means to spread the awareness and benefits of this sector with multiple employment opportunities. And fractional changes have already laid the traces, the journey however just begins!
We need to replace literacy by education and promote sensitivity. Government services can neither be the end of the world nor can the sector be as vast to absorb the whole of the working lot. In fact this sector offers the least of the thrill and innovation . We need to understand the fact that the world is really vast and professions wide. Instead of following the crowd if one can cling to gut and follow his passion, with a guarantee his profession is deemed to shine.
This is the high time to open the eyes and arms wide to the world, be vibrant, act vibrant and thus turn the economy vibrant. All this can help in shifting the economy from primitive to modern, from stagnant to vibrant and from poor to rich!
