Economists and politicians have started calling out the Indian government for the country's jobs crisis that has yet to be addressed. Engineers are the latest victims in the country's widespread unemployment problem.
Last week, multiple outlets reported that new engineers have been struggling to secure jobs. Reuters UK reported that India's education system continues to offer huge loans for students but few job provisions for fresh graduates.
Analysts attributed this problem to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's failure to push for his "Make in India" initiative. Modi said after taking office in 2014 that his initiative will provide millions of jobs through a boost in manufacturing.
In his entry for The Hindu, politician Praveen Chakravarty, who is Chairman of the Data Analytics department, said the government is refusing to acknowledge and address India's ballooning jobs crisis. "India's jobs crisis is an economic issue, not a political one," he wrote.
Chakravarty noted that unemployment issues need to be acknowledged first before a plan is drafted to ensure that the problem will be addressed. The Congress party member said the problem has been misdiagnosed and incorrectly viewed as a wages issue.
For Chakravarty, who is behind the Congress party's SHAKTI organization, India needs to create more jobs. For this to happen, the Indian government needs to acknowledge that the country is going through a rough patch in the employment sect. "Calling this a wages crisis and not a jobs crisis is neither helpful nor sensible," he stressed.
Economic analyst Vivek Kaul said in his entry for Business Insider India that the jobs crisis is affecting women more than men. The labor force participation rate among women in February 2019 stood at only 10.97 percent - a figure that's roughly six percent lower than the numbers in January 2016.
Kaul said Indian women "have been forced out of the Indian job market as unemployment spikes." Furthermore, employees who lost their jobs over the past two years still find it difficult to land a new job, decreasing the figures as the month's pass.
Amid the increasing lack of jobs and crumbling faith in Modi, India's main opposition has promised more jobs for female workers. According to Channel News Asia, president of the Congress party, Rahul Gandhi said if he wins, he will dedicate a third of federal government jobs for women in the workforce.
Gandhi also vowed to push Congress to pass the Women's Reservation Bill this year. The bill, if passed, will allow for 33 percent of seats in various state and national assemblies to be given to women. The bill has been put on hold for over 20 years.
