Showkat Ahmad
Right from the day Omar Abdullah took over as chief minister of the state he has been making announcements of tackling the state’s pathetic employment scenario. The state government launched the Sher-e-Kashmir Employment and Welfare Policy for Youth (SKEWPY) with much fanfare. It took almost a year to rectify the lacunas in it. Even then it is yet to take off. The problem with Jammu and Kashmir is the decimal scene of investments and absence of a robust private sector especially in Kashmir. Kashmir has huge number of unemployed and most of the people in Kashmir are underemployed, who are working in positions much lower than their abilities and qualification.
The government always blames the salary bill of its huge workforce for the financial ill health of the state. Realistically speaking, the government is right. More than 40 rupees out of every hundred the state spends are devoured by the establishment (read employees). It puts a lot of money in the pockets of a few lakh families (the state has more than 3 lakh employees), leaving little for development or schemes targeted at people other than government employees. However, the state is also to be blamed for the mess. It has employed around one lakh people in the police (a non-productive workforce) leading to a police public ratio, eight times the national average.
Apart from police, which by national standards is heavily overstaffed, all other departments in the state are understaffed. The much touted emphasis on education does not lead to sufficient recruitments in the education department. Very few teacher posts have been added to the department, if centrally sponsored Sarva Siksha Abhyan is taken out from the equation. Healthcare sector is also under tremendous pressure and was only bailed out to some extent through the National Rural Health Mission initiative. The doctors appointed through a “contract” are paid a paltry sum of 12000 rupees, which is almost equal to the pay of a regular class 4 (lowest rung) employee in the government. If Rahber-e-Taleem, Rehbar-e-Ziraat, the rehber-e-almost everything and police SPOs are not underpaid and exploited, then who is? Working on a salary of Rs 1500 to 3000 a month (which translates into less than one and a half dollars a day), they are promised regular jobs within five to seven years. However the regularization is not guaranteed even then.
Keeping the people underemployed and dependent (and exploiting them) has almost become a norm in Kashmir and the democratically elected government doesn’t see anything wrong in it. Well somewhere something is called a dignified life and dignified livelihood. May be in Alice’s wonderland.
The government last week announced plans to engage (let’s not call it employ) 43000 people as casual and seasonal labourers, who will be paid 110 rupees a day for the days they are called to work. And it never will be 30 days a month. The continuation of economic deprivation through Cabinet orders of the elected government do explain the amount of dignity, or lack of it, available to the people of J&K, at least on the basic livelihood front. And they say we are progressing!
