I don't judge it a humane tendency to expose any real unemployed youth to present my point of view. So, to be a representative voice makes me compelled to shoulder the burden of exposing myself so that others are spared of this humiliation which otherwise might raise my honor. Sometime I recall the days of my struggle and my heart beats and head throbs for those who are struggling at present. At the same time I go back in the stream of consciousness like situation when used to talk to myself having no one to listen to me. When I indulged in monologues and a silent listener would listen to my wailings and worries. I reflect upon the frustration that would overcome my mind when I received the feedback from people about my bad luck. When I heard people gossiping about my inability and when my neighbors exhibited their scare -crow like mercy on me. When I asked for relationship and was rejected. When I asked for daily needed things and I was denied saying that you would not return. At present, thank God, a govt. organization has accepted me as a teacher, but the burns I have received on my heart while scrounging for rags, have not healed yet and seem to be healing never.
A report in Daily Excelsior Jammu on 9 February 2026 reads: the unemployment rate in J&K stands at 6.7 per cent, significantly higher than the national average of 3.5 per cent, the Government informed the Legislative Assembly today. In a written reply to questions raised by MLA Mubarik Gul, the Government said unemployment levels in the Union Territory have fluctuated over the past few years. According to data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, J&K’s unemployment rate stood at 6.1 per cent in 2023-24, 4.4 per cent in 2022-23, 5.2 per cent in 2021-22, 5.9 per cent in 2020-21, and 6.7 per cent in 2019-20.The Government further revealed that an extensive survey conducted in January 2025 by the Employment Department, in collaboration with district administrations under Mission YUVA, found that 4.73 lakh individuals in the 18-60 age group reported being “not working but willing to work” out of a total surveyed population of 64.8 lakh.
To be unemployed that too in a state where least opportunities prevail and systematic disorder reigns over the time, where there is no private sector to accommodate unemployed fellows, where being educated has become a burden of disgrace and where people value your worth in terms of money, but not you’re potential. Where relationship is tied with string of a govt job, where your family and friends taunt you at the evening, where your relatives ignore you, where decision making is snatched from you, where you are kept in the margin and above all where people show unreal pity on your condition- it is really very tough and like a thumb on your windpipe that doesn't allow you to take a breath. Altogether it is a hell like situation where man lives, but experiences death in which the faith on a system is shattered, the relations become meaningless, the degrees become useless papers and knowledge becomes burden over mind.
Human agency was supposed to substitute God to take the other fellow beings out of trouble, but the beastly behavior of innocent- criminals has troubled them more. I think only angels are left to help this humanity out of this dark ditch that it has fallen into and seems to be never coming out. I just recall a verse by Dr Iqbal (r.a):
Dhard-e-dil key wastey paida kiya insaan ko,
Warna taa-ath key liye kuch kum na thay qarobiyaan.
And in the same way Samuel Tailor Coleridge says:
They prayeth best who loveth best,
All things both great and small.-Rhyme of Ancient Mariner
But in my home land the case is reverse. Here the people show a false sympathy with the unemployed youth. Lamenting on his condition, but at same being happy inside. None is ready to help and assist an educated one who is in pursuit of employment. Social organizations like Auqaaf committees, Trusts, NGOs, Local Bodies etc are all indifferent towards the youth that constitutes the future of ours. No doubt our present is happy, but our future is surely to be very bad. In far flung areas where the common households have meager income these youngsters suffer financially and hence are impeded by the poverty to continue their studies. The absence of private sector employment, except the private schools that only exploit the educated youth as there is no accountability for them, they face very tough time after leaving schools and colleges hence their dreams turn into nightmares. Although the private schools collect lakhs or corers from parents, they pay in hundreds to teachers that further aggravate their condition. Consequently they remain busy while doing nothing. The tragedy of the situation lies in the way the parent community tends to show their irresponsibility towards the teaching community. For the time being they feel happy, but when their children pass out from same schools and colleges they weep over their fate for finding their children as jobless.
The state government’s rigid approach and commercial attitude is also responsible for the tragedy that the educated and unemployed youth are undergoing. Despite granting any allowance to unemployed youth they charge the application fee for a post in thousands. JKSSB and JKPSC have become major sources of income for the government. They advertise posts in 10s and lakhs apply for these posts. Hence it seems that the government is creating employment out of unemployment or paying employees out of the funds raised from unemployed ones. The irony of the situation is that the govt. has to recruit 10 persons and collect fee from thousands and the amount goes to govt tragedy that is paid to those already in service. To which direction we are leading our nations God knows better.
Corruption and scams in recruitment agencies is another tragedy that our youth is facing. Notifications come, exams are conducted and then exams are scrapped when challenged by aspirants. The result is that the precious time of youth is wasted and consequently they are depression; indulge in drugs and other immoral activities. Every day we come across the news that police has apprehended drug peddlers. Where do they come from? The agencies are active in promoting drug culture and who is target of those agencies that is the unemployed youth that is unseen and unheard. Awareness camps are organized by the govt. agencies, posters are pasted on walls, columnists and writers spend their energy writing on the menace, but there is no positive result because the roots of drug peddling are watered by govt. herself.
Social life of our youth is totally miserable. Marriages have become more difficult and affairs have become the order of the day. Both boys and girls are involved are involved in illegitimated affairs that further put them under frustration because when it comes to realizing those relations they fail utterly when seen from realistic perspective. For the youth works here with emotions and parents work on material grounds. Consequently there are elopements and suicides and family feuds.
Recent reports have revealed that the enrolment of colleges and universities is declining day by day. Although I find various causes behind it, the crucial one being that uncertainty about employment after pursuing graduation, post graduation or PhD etc. So the majorities of these young buds takes a reverse step and leave education for the sake of online/ offline work. What we are going to see in future is that our colleges and universities will be empty and then the govt. will think of closing colleges and universities. Is that the progress that we want to do?
So,if we are really serious about saving our future generations, we shall have take several constructive steps to give this disappointed youth a new direction. At social level we must set up online/offline libraries, reading rooms in our villages so that our youth doesn’t feel helpless when it comes to preparing for competitive exams for coaching centers being so costly and expensive that everyone can not afford. We shall have to set up donation centers in the form of Baitul-Maal that would collect funds from general public and will invest on youth’s educational development plus provide marriage assistance to poor and backward families. We shall have to organize career counseling sessions for those who in career struggle. Motivational speakers must be invited to deliver on the issue so that the youth gets mentally and emotionally balanced. We shall have to raise our voice against exam scams and corruption that has been devastating the career of thousands. And we must impress upon our bureaucrats, politicians and legislators that our youth is spared from this havoc. And only then we can expect that our future will be bright. And obviously the future of our nation is our youth and when the youth is saved future stands automatically saved.

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