Bihar and Jharkhand: The Quest for Employment Among Youth Continues with Young Women Being the Hardest Hit of Unemployment Crisis.

Unemployment is likely to be a major issue in forthcoming assembly elections in Bihar, the third most populous state of India, but strangely nobody really talks about unemployment of female youth.

It is a known fact that gender inequality is widespread in employment across all states of India, according to January-April 2020 data of CMIE (Centre for Monitoring of India Economy), the Labour Participation Rate among women was at 9.86 percent whereas for men it stood at 68.70 percent. Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh are among ten states having highest unemployment the data reflected.

The population of twin states Bihar and Jharkhand is among the youngest in India. The proportion of youth i.e. people under the age group 15–29 years is 25 percent in Bihar and 27 percent in Jharkhand as per census 2011.

Despite having demographic opportunities, Bihar and Jharkhand are also among the states having high youth unemployment, women being the hardest hit.

According to Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) survey 2017–18, Unemployment Rate of individuals of age group 15–29 was 22.8 percent in Bihar and 20.4 percent in Jharkhand. The all India average for the same stood at 17.8 per cent. The rate was better for age group 15 years and above for both Bihar (7 percent) and Jharkhand (7.5 percent).

The unemployment rate for females under the age group 15–29 was 15.7 percent and 23 percent for males in Bihar. The trend was similar in Jharkhand (15.5 percent for females and 21.3 percent for males) and other state economies.

As per data from National Career Service (NCS), a Ministry of Labour and Employment promoted online job platform, as on August 2020, Jharkhand and Bihar account for about 13 percent job-seekers looking for employment opportunities. Majority of job-seekers have declared themselves as unemployed — Bihar (80 percent) and Jharkhand (63 percent) — and a majority are below the age group of 35 years in both Bihar and Jharkhand.

However, the number of job seekers registrations are much higher in Bihar with over 90,000 registrations in the capital city Patna itself. About 25 percent of job seekers in Bihar are women the latest NCS data says.

The NCS data reflect that over 50 percent of job-seekers in both the states are matriculate and above reflecting that educated job-seekers are turning to job market but not finding employment opportunities.

More Registered Job Seekers are from Urbanised Centres:

A close look of district figures from data sourced from NCS indicate that higher number of job-seekers are from relatively urbanized districts with maximum registrations from state capital Patna and Ranchi.

The actual unemployment among youth may be much higher as NCS portal provides status of registered jobseekers only. Moreover, awareness about the said portal is limited among youth, those who aware are not sure if it can be of help in finding employment.

Further, the Covid-19 pandemic has made market conditions worse across India. Bihar and Jharkhand, both labour supplier states, witnessed high reverse migration during the lockdown period. Over six months after the first nationwide lockdown, the economy is giving signals of improving but It will take a long time for the state economy to recover from pandemic job losses and create new economic opportunities for the growing young work force.

A majority of young women are not becoming part of the workforce in Bihar and Jharkhand:

Women constitute nearly half of total state population in Bihar (48 percent) and Jharkhand (49 percent) but their contribution at work is far behind that of men.

The worker population ratio according to usual status among 15–29-year age group for females in Bihar stood at 1.4 per cent whereas for males it was 33.3 per cent. The ratio was better in Jharkhand for the same age group, 10 percent for females and 44.9 percent for males. All India average for females was 13.5 percent and males 48.3 for males.

The female registrations at NCS portal is limited to only 21 percent in Bihar and 33 percent in Jharkhand to overall job-seeker’s registration at the state. The graph below on gender wise active job-seeker registration in Bihar clearly depict gender difference in male and female across all districts including state capital Patna.

The wide gap in female participation among youth clearly indicate that a higher proportion of females stay away from economic engagement in the state. Despite increased school enrollments and improved literacy outcomes, women are not entering into the state workforce meaning they will continue to remain underrepresented in occupations. The status of women at work is likely to degrade further due to economic and social impacts of Covid-19.

Bihar and Jharkhand both being young state cannot reap the benefits of demographic dividend without gender mainstreaming. Improving gender participation in employment will boost economic growth so should be kept as a priority by both the state governments.

Both the states need to take concrete steps to ensure participation of women in the labour market not just limiting to provisions of cash assistance on completion of intermediate and graduation. It requires creating an enabling environment for female youth by way of infrastructure development; enhancing access to market and finances; improving safety and security in jobs and mobility.

The world of work is changing rapidly. Opportunities for employment for young women can be increased through new-age technical education and up-skilling. It requires both government and private sector investment. By pooling incorporates, industry interface along with job oriented skilling with placement can be facilitated for young women.

With infrastructure development and policy interventions, young women may be offered with opportunities for economic engagement. Given the limited size of the job market in the state and at national level too, youth entrepreneurship can be promoted right from higher secondary level. Interested women candidates may be provided with know-how to initiate and run a business enterprise. Business mentor-ship, seed funding and relaxed credit norms can be considered for promoting self-employment among female youth.

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The National Youth Policy initially (in 2003) defined the youth as in the age group 13–35. However, National Youth Policy, 2014 modified it and defined ‘youth’ as persons in the age group of 15–29 years.

The Write-up was earlier published under opinion section in Morning India Newspaper on October 12th 2020.