Notwithstanding the scraping of Article 370, 35A and bifurcation of the Jammu and Kashmir state, unemployment remains the main issue in the newly created union territories.
The evidence of unemployment came to lime light when seventy thousand highly qualified aspirants applied for just twenty two posts of Assistant Registrar ( 7 ) and Junior Assistant ( 15) lying vacant in the Kashmir University last week. This has not only raised eye brows in the valley but also left the aspirants in a dilemma after going through the procedure. This has also generated whooping four crore revenue approximately to the University of Kashmir as aspirants were asked to deposit Rs 500 and Rs 700 as demand draft along with the form.
The successive governments in Jammu and Kashmir failed to create jobs for unemployment youth even as the former coalition government of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in their Common Minimum programme had promised to raise fifty thousand jobs for the youth during their tenure. But it remained a mere promise as the government could not even regularize thousands of contractual and daily wagers of Power Development Department (PDD), Public Health Engineering (PHE), Rehbar-e-Taleem (ReT) and Rehbar-e-Ziraat (ReZ). Finally the government crumbled like cards and all became history. However, some influential candidates get jobs in various departments overtly and covertly.
The former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Sharma revealed during a lecture that around 500 highly qualified and deserving youth who were selected in the Jammu and Kashmir Bank under various categories were dropped and back door entrants were provided jobs which triggered a rift between the administration and bank authorities. However, he (The Governor) said they were given jobs after his intervention. According to a report the literacy rate is higher in Jammu and Kashmir in comparison to other northern states. But corruption is much higher in Jammu and Kashmir than these other states.
A feeling in a section of people is that the unrest in Jammu and Kashmir is a reason of unemployment and high corruption that disillusioned the qualified and deserving youth of the valley to resort to other means of life. The governments even promised better living and job creation for the youth of the valley but failed on all fronts which resulted in total disaster. However, thousands of youth were inducted in Army, Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP). But it was never enough to end unemployment. Many highly qualified youth undertook sales representative jobs for various local companies and on shops to eke out a simple living. But that too went in vain due to the constant strikes and repeated disturbances in the Kashmir valley.
Thousands of youth including engineers and doctors prefer to go to other states and outside country including gulf for doing preferable jobs which brain drains the cream of society that could have been utilized in the state. It will always have an adverse effect on the society in the long run.
There are no big industries in Jammu and Kashmir like in other metropolitan states of the country where the deserving youth could have been induced. Tourism was a big industry which provided jobs to thousands of people in the valley. But uncertain situation snatched that too as tourist flow is fast declining in the valley with each passing day.
Even after the Jammu and Kashmir was given a new shape by scraping article 370, 35A and a new Union Territory of Ladakh was carved out of it by the central government with a promise of development in all sectors and to look after all aspects of the people including to provide jobs with a new beginning. The analysts however, believe that the unemployment will remain a challenge for the new government for a long time unless a broad based strategy is drawn to overcome this epidemic.