Unemployment among educated youth on the rise: Govt reports

One report boasts of a 50% increase in no of varsities, another shows a steady hike in unemployment rate from 7.03% in May to 8.19% in Aug

The All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2018-19 report released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development last week and the ‘Unemployment in India — A Statistical Profile’ report for MayAugust 2019 released by the Centre for Monitoring India Economy paint a grim picture of the demand and supply situation in the country if read together. While AISHE boasts of 993 universities in the country marking a 50 per cent increase since 2011-12, the CMIE report shows a steady increase in the unemployment rate from 7.03 per cent in May to 8.19 per cent at the end of August. As per the AISHE report, there are 993 universities, 39,931 colleges and 10,725 standalone institutions listed. Of these 385 universities are privately managed and 394 are located in rural area. Sixteen universities are exclusively for women, three in Rajasthan, two in Tamil Nadu and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. The college density (number of colleges per lakh eligible population i.e. population in the age-group of 18- 23 years) varies from seven in Bihar to 53 in Karnataka as compared to all India average of 28. About 60.53 percent colleges are located in rural area while11.04 percent colleges are exclusively for women. Nearly 49 per cent of students enrolled in higher education are women. Only 2.5 percent colleges run PhD programmes and 34.9 percent colleges run postgraduate-level programmes. There are 34.8 percent colleges, which run only single programme, out of which 83.1 percent are privately managed. These standalone figures might be impressive but when read in relation with the CMIE report it casts a shadow on the future as it points out how unemployment is rising along with increase in education levels. Out of the 10 crore graduates in the country, 6.3 crore are in the labour force (those who are willing and available to work). From this, 5.35 crore are employed, leaving roughly 94 lakh without a job. Women, for whom increasing opportunities of education are being made available and who are increasingly taking up higher education, are also facing double the hopelessness when they enter the job market. As per data, the rate of unemployment among women is 17.6 per cent, which is more than double the rate for men (6.1 per cent).As per data, the rate of unemployment among women is 17.6%, more than double the rate for men

Source: Mumbai Mirror, 27/09/2019