By Biswa Bhushan Mahapatra
Bhubaneswar, Mar 5 (IANS): The Odisha government is claiming that the unemployment rate in the state is the lowest in the country. Still, the state has nearly 9 lakh young people searching for employment.
Recently, the chief minister's office, in a tweet said, "With effective policy decisions & successful implementation of schemes, Odisha is ranked 1st in unemployment rate in the country with a score of 0.9%, as per the report by CMIE."
As per information given by Odisha Skill Development and Technical Education Minister Pritiranjan Gharai in the Assembly during the ongoing budget session, the state has a total of 8,98,717 unemployed youth who have registered themselves with different employment exchanges in the state, till last December.
Of them, 1,96,000 are graduates, 15,335 are post-graduate degree holders and 72,516 are trained teachers, 32,628 are diploma pass and 32,213 are ITI pass.
Also, 16,700 of them have not completed matriculation (under matric) and 1,72,534 youths have done their matriculation (Class X). The unemployed youths comprised 3,13,051 intermediates and 47,740 others with different qualifications.
Altogether, 12,532 engineering graduates and 4147 post graduate engineering pass students have registered themselves with employment exchanges.
Ironically, 801 medical graduate students and 29 post graduates in medical sciences are also in search of job in Odisha.
As per the Odisha Economic Survey 2022-23, the employment rate in Odisha remained 5.3 per cent in 2020-21. The rate of unemployment among persons above 15 years of age in rural and urban areas stood at 4.9 percent and 7.8 percent respectively as per PLFS 2020-21.
Unlike states like Gujarat, youths in Odisha prefer to do jobs rather than business after their studies, which is why the demand for jobs in Odisha is much higher than many other states.
According to government job aspirants, the exact unemployment figure will be much more than the 9 lakh youths registered in the employment exchanges.
"Many like me have not registered with employment exchanges but are trying to get a government job. So, the exact unemployment figure must be higher," said Satya Mohapatra, a job seeker.
Though the private sector is also growing nowadays in Odisha, but due to the government's apathy the local youths are ignored, he said.
Unemployment is there in Odisha, but no political party is raising it in a big way either inside or outside the assembly, said a political observer.
The principal opposition BJP has not raised the issue because it may boomerang on them as the Central government has failed to fulfil its promise of employment. The Congress has also failed to make it an issue politically, he said.