The 2019 Indian General elections are to be held from 11th April 2019 to 19th May 2019 to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha. The results will be announced on 23rd of May and the entire nation is eagerly waiting for this day to come, to know about the next promising government going to govern the country. Along with the eagerness in knowing the next government there are also high expectations from the entire nation.
The nation’s strength and tomorrow’s leaders, the youth of our country has high expectation from the upcoming government. They expect the leaders to give them a chance to build a bright and successful future. When asked most of the youths about their expectations on upcoming elections and leaders, they wanted most of it to be better than the last government.
Last time during elections the government in stand today had promised of more than two crore job opportunities to the youth. But the official data puts the country’s unemployment situation at a 45-year high of 6.1% in 2017-18. This is the highest unemployment rate since 1972-73. In 2011-12, during UPA’s rule, the unemployment rare was 2.2%, which is lesser than the unemployment rate during NDA-led Modi government. Many youth who were planning to set up their future with job promises by the Modi government are still found to be unemployed. They expect they don’t again fall into the trap of such false promises. Apart from broken expectations of youth in getting a stable and standard job, many running small scale businesses and jobs had to quit and look for jobs not fitting their qualification in these past four and half years. This was because of the high increment in the taxes. A moderate family which could run with around Rs.150 per day earlier is now finding it difficult to run the family even with double the amount.
Unemployment has increased even among the educated people. Normally it is seen that the educated people find lucrative and regular forms of employment. The unemployment rate for the educated women in rural areas has risen to 17.3% in 2017-18, while it was 9.7- 15.2% during 2004-05 and 2011-12. For the educated men in rural areas, the unemployment stood at 10.5% in 2017-’18 compared to 3.5% to 4.4% during 2004-05 to 2011-12. People having qualification like engineering, nursing, etc. are also still unemployed. There are many job opportunities and vacancies under government sector itself. But they do not appoint the qualified people because of not having means to pay their salaries. This is why most of the job vacancies are still found to be empty increasing the chance of unemployment among the youth.
In terms of education also the youth has high expectations in getting their basic fundamental right to education in a genuine manner from the upcoming government. There are many examples in the country where many talented and skilful youths have to take up jobs not up to their qualification or in which they cannot use their skills. This is just because they have no other means other than take up a normal job to run their family. Youths coming from financially poor background families have to take up jobs whatever they get to keep their family alive. Their dreams of learning and using of their talents and skills at work are staying to be just dreams. Sucheta De, National President of AISA (All India Students Association) wishes that the upcoming government spends more on education so that students coming from a poor family background can go for higher study which is one of their basic rights. She also wish that the new government can focus more on bringing in new universities to increase the chance of higher education for students.
Apart from studies for just job sake, youth expect a change in the educational system in India. Making education more practical and removing commercialization of education can be very helpful for students to focus on their talents and work on it. “The next PM should be educated so that he/she has a wider perspective and horizon about everything” says Shaiqa Jannat Ahamed, a student of marketing communications from Kolkata.
Padmini Boro from Amguri Village, Assam says that she is worried about her children’s education as there is no facility to study after 12th in her village. In villages like hers there might be very few parents who may be concerned of their child’s education and will be ready to send them out to cities of other states for educational purpose. This is also a very rare chance in case of boys here girls have no choice other than stay back at home and get going with house hold works. She expects the government can give more educational facilities to girls and boys and also financial assistance along with it. “Or else poor people may not be able to dream big nor pursue a big career” she mentions.
Recruiting of qualified and well trained teachers is also a must to improve the literacy level and bring in more output from the students. The facilities at schools and colleges have a very great impact on the learning of students. Lack of research labs in universities was one of the facility issues when it came to education. This must be considered as a genuine issue as this can get India lagging behind the developed world.
Another very big and genuine expectation on the upcoming government is that they hope no student in any university or college be “institutionally murdered” or “enforced disappeared”. The case of Rohith Vemula and Najeeb Ahmed, in particular, and several other cases of harassment and discrimination from the university officials in general, are grave concerns. N Sai Balaji (President, JNUSU) says that government investigators have time to look onto unnecessary cases but could not find where is Najeeb, He also adds that Modi Ji who has always mentioned about his support towards youth and education has done nothing for them in his past four and half years rule. He also mentions about the percentage of seats available for the dalit and other backward class students are not given properly.
The youth in India is looking for a revolution to happen after 2019 elections. The main issue the youth facing today as mentioned above is unemployed beyond their educational qualifications. Surprisingly, the youth is not only concerned about making money. They expect India to be a country where there is value for talent and high scopes of research, science and technology.
