Youth Struggling with Unemployment in Technology Sector

Youth Struggling with Unemployment in Technology Sector

Mains Exam: General Studies Paper 3

(Indian Economy: Unemployment)

Foreword:

  • Even after reaching the highest peak in population growth, the country is happy to think that by 2050, India will have the third largest youth population in the world. Economists predict that with the help of this young workforce, India will emerge as the world's largest economy. With the help of this, the youth of the country are being shown dreams of getting involved in the process of becoming a developing country.
  • Contrary to the process of making future with the help of statistics, the current employment conditions of the youth in the country are not good. On the basis of population, every year 1.25 crore youth in the country need jobs. But even twenty five lakh jobs are not available every year. Unemployed youth are in anxiety and depression.

Employment Status in India:

  • There has been a decrease in employment in the country as compared to previous years. Apart from having more than 50 percent reservation in government jobs, now contract recruitment has started.
  • New dimensions of corruption have been established in the government selection process in the states. Rising inflation, debt and the trend of AI technology spreading in the world has created a job crisis all over the world.
  • According to the World Economic Forum's 'Future of Employment Report 2023', 83 million traditional jobs are at risk of ending by 2027 in the world.
  • It is estimated that by 2025, 22 lakh jobs in the IT sector will end in India.
  • 16% of jobs have been lost in India's big cities in a span of one year. 50 percent jobs are decreasing in the IT sector of India. Rapidly growing Indian new enterprises, which were employing technically trained youths on higher pay scales, in the current year, 102 such new enterprises have laid off their forty thousand employees by giving one month's extra salary.
  • 35 percent of new ventures have been closed in the recession of the last one year.

Causes for low employment:

  • Due to increasing use of artificial intelligence AI technology and shrinking business, employing units are reducing employee salary expenditure.
  • The biggest danger with the arrival of AI technology in India is the reduction of human-driven employment in industrial units and information technology companies.
  • Indian youth are more attracted to information technology jobs considering them as white collar jobs. But AI technology has reduced the job opportunities in the IT sector.
  • Every fourth employee related to technology technology has a future employment crisis.
  • If the Indian youth fail to learn the changing new technology according to the times, then a major part of the country's youth power will face a crisis of livelihood.
  • There is a crisis of global recession on IT companies established in the country. Due to the expansion of AI technology, there is a huge decrease in foreign projects received by IT companies.
  • Due to this, employee retrenchment has started in companies. More than thirty-five percent of the companies operating in the country are using AI technology in employee recruitment. In this way, human sensibilities have also ended in the selection process.

Impact of Employment Insecurity on Youth:

  • 'A Global Workforce View Report-2023' based on a survey of workers working in 77 countries, according to which 47 percent of young workers in India are most concerned about their job security. The worry of losing employment is affecting the efficiency of Indian youth and is also harming their health.
  • By showing the fear of job insecurity, the job provider companies are not only taking more work from their personnel than the fixed standard, but have also started treating the employees like bonded laborers.
  • Governments across the country are relaxing compliance regulations with all facilities to new technology service units to attract more and more foreign investment. The units taking advantage of the concessions have started making the employees a victim of harassment because of India's cheap labor and flexible labor laws.
  • Units offering huge vacancies in the initial phase are beginning to suffer from periodic retrenchment, pay cut, uncertainty of working hours and curtailment of employee leave. With the post-Covid work-from-home system now being overloaded with work on young workers, cuts are being made in their salaries and other basic facilities.
  • The youth working in the offices of foreign units in India are being forced to work from late night till early morning, due to which the time of that country is being imposed. At this time, depression is being seen in the routine of irregularly working personnel, their social behavior along with meal time.
  • Recently, an Indian youth serving on a high salary in a multinational company wrote that he feels lonely in life even after getting a huge annual package. Social concerns have ended due to work overload and operating from home. This has been revealed in a study conducted in thirty-four countries by Stanbard University and German venture WFH on youth working from home after the Covid epidemic.
  • The 'work from home' methodology is not only affecting the mindset of the employees, but is also reducing the quality and productivity of work. An Indian IT company has also admitted that the skills and productivity of workers working from home have declined by 19 percent compared to office workers, despite taking longer working hours.

Conclusions:

  • Playing with the health of the youth of the country for the benefit of the companies and the GDP of the country is not good for the future of the country. Due to depression, youth have also started taking suicidal steps. Employee rights are being trampled with human rights violations. The Indian Monitoring Department, responsible for protecting the interests of the employees, is proving to be unsuccessful in protecting the interests of the employees.
  • The common Indian employee does not consider the system and the judicial system to be quick and reliable. The Indian Factories Act does not allow an employee to work for more than 48 hours in a week and more than 9 hours in a day. At the same time, it also prohibits taking work for more than five hours continuously. For the extra hours worked, the employee is entitled to double the wages of his fixed wages.
  • The Labor Act in India brings the employing organizations under regular scrutiny to protect the interests of the employees and prevent human rights abuses. Under labor laws, it is the duty of the labor officer to carry out continuous inspection of private companies to prevent exploitation of supervisory and middle management personnel, physical and mental exploitation of employees.
  • • But the Labor Department of the country itself is facing the problem of shortage of departmental employees and vacant posts. In these circumstances, the security of employment and rights of Indian youth workers is a burning issue. Its solution needs to be found in time. Social and financial security has been underlined on the issue of inequality in technical human labor in the recently held meeting of G-20 countries in Indore. But the question should be of protection of human labor rights more than consent.

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Mains Exam Question

At present, due to what reasons the risk of employment insecurity has increased among the youth associated with the technology sector? Discuss.