New Delhi, Jan 30 (IANS): The National Students Union of India (NSUI) on Saturday launched the 'Naukri Do Ya Degree Wapas Lo' (Give employment or take back degrees) campaign against the Central government.

The campaign was launched by NSUI national president Neeraj Kundan at the Congress headquarters here.

Addressing the media, Kundan said that the main motive behind NSUI's campaign is to point out the reality to a government that has no interest in giving jobs to the youth.

He said, "We would be collecting five lakh degrees of unemployed students. By this, abundant evidence will be provided to the government which will bring out the reality of the central government for hiding the actual data of unemployed people from the youth of this country."

NSUI General Secretary Nagesh Kariyappa also said that youth empowerment and employment-generation should be the foremost duty of government.

"Considering the facts, a big challenge in India is the absence of decent work in the organised sector for the generation of youth. As whatever the government is presenting in front of the public is not the truth, there is an indispensable need to look into the fallen characteristics of youth employment," he said.

"The most shocking part is that the unemployment rate in the country is at the highest in 45 years," Kariyappa added.

The NSUI also highlighted that in 2014, the BJP had promised to generate more than two crore employment opportunities every year and now, this sums up to 12 crores and failed to provide the same.

"They betrayed the youth of the nation. According to the report of the National Sample Survey Office, the rate of unemployment rose to 6.1 per cent in 2017-18, which was 2.2 per cent in 2011-12," the NSUI chief added.