What is Educated Unemployment and reasons for it's prevalence in India?

Last Updated : 02 Aug, 2022

In order to understand why educated unemployment is a particular problem in India, we must know what exactly is unemployment and what exactly is educated unemployment.

Unemployment

Unemployment is basically a situation where people who are willing to do a job at a base pay could not able to find any work. Whenever we discuss unemployment we always target the working class who lies between the age group of 15 to 59 years. People below 15 and above 60 years are not counted in the unemployment population.

In our syllabus there are three types of unemployment we should know about this:-

Disguised Unemployment
Seasonal Unemployment
Educated Unemployment

In the case of India unemployment can differ in different regions. That is one can see Disguised and Seasonal Unemployment in the rural areas, whereas Educated Unemployment in urban areas.

Types of Unemployment

Disguised Unemployment- In disguised unemployment occurs when the number of workers is more than the required work. For example, Ram has a very small piece of land, where only 1-2 workers are enough but his whole family is putting their time and efforts into this field. Thus, the extra workers are disguisedly unemployed. This type of unemployment is very common in India.
Seasonal Unemployment: It is another kind of unemployment that happened in rural areas. This type of unemployment refers to the situation where workers won't able to find a job during some months of the year. This kind o unemployment was faced mainly by the farm laborers or peasants.
Educated Unemployment: It is one of the most common unemployment seen in the urban population. In this type of unemployment, a youth after matriculation, graduation, or sometimes post-graduation could not be able to find any job for them.

Educated Unemployment in India

After looking at the three unemployment in very brief we all understand these types. Now, this article emphasizes why educated unemployment is a peculiar problem in India? Let's find the answer:-

Distribution of manpower

In India, there are some places where it is a surplus of manpower; while there are also places where is a shortage of manpower. In many sectors, there's a huge shortage of labor, while there are other sectors where saturation is reached. In a recent study, it has been found that the E-commerce industry, manufacturing, and logistic industry experiencing a shortage of labor.

Lack of skilled manpower

After, the distribution of manpower the second reason was the lack of skilled force in our country. In India, unemployment is seen among the technically qualified persons too as their technical knowledge is not as per the industry standard. Thus due to the lack of skilled manpower, they are facing unemployment. It is very important that people of the country upgrade their skills as per the industry standard but this is not happening in the country. In a study, it was shown that many graduates do not have proficiency in communication skills, which is one of the basic skills required in the industry. Thus, one can conclude that it is very difficult for any industry to provide jobs to unskilled people.

Poor standards of education

Education is one of the parameters to judge the quality of people in the country. Unfortunately, India is failing in the field of education. Here we are not emphasizing the number or the number of institutions but the quality, which is compromising day by day. More specifically the Outdated curriculum, lack of basic infrastructure in the institutions, and old methodology of teaching are some are the reasons behind the poor standard of the education institutes. The students are not getting the training as per the industry standards. Recent studies show that unemployment among graduates and postgraduates is more than that of matriculates. This shows how much the education system gets diluted, thus one needs to improve the quality of the education system.

Gender Gap

According to 2021, Gender Gap Report India is ranked 140 out of 156 countries, this clearly shows the status of the gender gap in the country. Women have always been in the discussion whenever we discussed unemployment. Studies show that female unemployment in India is more than male unemployment. The reasons are again discrimination faced by women in the workplace. Apart from that, there are many social stereotypes that act as barriers in their careers, which led to quitting their job.

Population

In terms of the youth population and youth unemployment, according to a study, every year, India witnesses an 8-9% increase in enrolment at the higher education level. Globally, India is among the top 5 countries in the world to have the highest number of students going to higher institutions. So the main problem is the demand and supply, there is no equivalent rise of opportunities as per the demand.

Consequences of Unemployment

Unemployment is directly proportional to the depressed economy, thus if unemployment increase it will severely affect the economy of the country.
It will lead to the wastage of workforce resources.
It will automatically increase economic overload as the unemployed population depends on the working population.
It will also cause tension and social unrest in the country.

Question 1: What are the different types of unemployment that can be seen in rural populations?

Answer:

In rural populations one can commonly see two types of unemployment: 1) Disguised, 2) Seasonal

Disguised Unemployment: In disguised unemployment occurs when the number of workers is more than the required work. For example, Ram has a very small piece of land, where only 1-2 workers are enough but his whole family putting their time and efforts into this field. Thus, the extra workers are disguisedly unemployed. This type of unemployment is very common in India.
Seasonal Unemployment: It is another kind of unemployment that happened in rural areas. This type of unemployment refers to the situation where workers won't able to find a job during some months of the year. This kind o unemployment is mostly faced by farm laborers or peasants.

Question 2: What are the consequences of unemployment that a country can witness?