India’s unemployment rate reached 8.3% in December 2023, its highest level in 45 years. Particularly high unemployment among young people under 25, since 45% of them do not have a job.
This week of Monday April 10, India officially becomes the most populous country in the world, with 1,428,000,000 inhabitants. The country is therefore now ahead of China, and the challenge for Delhi will be to transform this demographic force into growth and economic force. For this, it will be necessary to give work to all and especially to young people. Because today, half of Indians are under 25 and it shows very quickly when you set foot in Delhi.
>> In India, part of the country’s history erased from school books
What is striking in the Indian capital is this chaotic traffic where taxis, buses, rickshaws and pedestrians brush against each other. There is also this swarm of scooters that weave their way through the streets of Delhi and which allow hundreds of millions of Indians, like Santander, to live. In front of a restaurant, a red polo shirt with the “Zomato” logo, the Indian meal delivery giant, and a helmet screwed on his head, he is waiting for his next order. He has been a courier for three years. “During confinement, there was no work so I had to choose this job”he confides. “Sometimes it’s too hot, or it rains, sometimes the bike breaks down… That’s how it is! But the advantage is that I’m free to work as I want.”
The weight of the informal economy
Courier, delivery man, tea seller, street hairdresser, in India, 80% of the country’s economy is in fact informal. These jobs are precarious, without any security or status. If Santader, the courier, seems to be satisfied with it, this is not the case for Gory Sankar. “I do painting, repair work, plasterexplains this father and daily worker. I don’t work every day, it’s not a permanent job. I try to make do with what I earn, but I have no choice. There is not enough work, not enough money. It worries me 24 hours a day. I don’t have a diploma… I do everything to ensure that my children are educated, that they have skills, but it will be difficult, because the population is increasing and work is decreasing.”
The unemployment rate in India reached 8.3% last December, it has never been so high for 45 years. The private sector does not offer enough opportunities and companies complain that they cannot find competent employees. To find work, many therefore turn to public service competitions, but these are very selective. In 2018, for example, 23 million Indians took the railway competition for only 100,000 jobs.
/2023/04/10/phpEXmRXo.jpg)
On the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, sitting on a bench in front of the library, Raj takes a break. On his phone, he looks feverishly at a digital clock. “It’s the countdown: I have 50 days, 400 hours, 26 minutes and 31 seconds left… Ah no, 21!” Because the student is preparing for a competition to work in diplomacy. Like him, millions of Indians today covet a job in the public sector with each time a colossal number of candidates for few elected. “It’s security, that’s for sure”enthuses Raj. “You become a civil servant and then it’s hard to fire you!”
One can live decently with state salaries, socially also you become more influential. I have a friend who passed the competition, and thanks to that his father became the head of the village council… There is a domino effect.
Raj, studentfranceinfo
His friend Payl, 24, is also preparing for a competition to enter the administration. “I come from Rajasthan. If you go to one of its districts to attend a meeting and say that you are from the private sector, people will not give any importance to your word, he says. But if you’re a civil servant, they’ll say, ‘Okay, this person has caliber, an opinion.’ My society therefore places a higher value on public service. And that’s why I want to achieve that prestige.” Payl also wishes not to be part of the statistics: today, 45% of young people under 25 are unemployed in the country.
Getting women back into the job market
But in India, the employment challenge is also to bring women back into the job market, because their employment rate is one of the lowest in the world. Only 20% of Indian women are working or looking for a job. Many are graduates, but they withdraw from the market, because in this patriarchal society, it is an honor for a man to support his family alone. Louania, 25, has a degree in business management. She worked for a few months then she had to stop after the wedding. “My in-laws criticized me for not spending enough time on household chores and too much on my job.she says. Today I get up, prepare breakfast for them, clean up, then lunch, dinner for them. I am at their service.”
I regret marrying someone with a closed mind… But what can I do about it now? The government should value women.
Louania, housewifefranceinfo
/2023/04/10/phpqmbyMW.jpg)
On her side, Anouska is preparing for her future by taking French lessons. “I’m learning French because I want to work in Paris”, she said in French. The student prefers to leave India, because she feels that the country will not be able to meet the challenge of employment. “There are no job opportunities here”she regrets. “Maybe in the very distant future, but in the next five years, I don’t think so.” Because it will take work for all and immediately. According to the Indian government, the working-age population will rise to over one billion in the next decade. It will therefore be necessary to create a million jobs per month at the risk of wasting this demographic windfall.