White collar delusions

Debashish Goswami

(BSL, LLb, MSc., PMP, ITIL)

''Sir, my son needs a sitting job." "Dada, I am educated, why should I do menial work?"

"What will people say?"

These are the questions often raised in every request for help, meaning job applications that landed on my desk in the past 2 years. Rather they are answers when I suggest entrepreneurial activities, to stand on their own feet. For an engineering graduate from an unknown college to basic arts graduates, we have spawned a generation of youth who think menial labour is beneath their self-perceived class/status. According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017-18, Assam has an unemployment rate of 8.1%, which is higher than the all-India unemployment rate of 6.1%. The female unemployment rate in Assam is 13.9%, which is much higher than the all-India female unemployment rate of 5.7%.

The same survey reports that Agriculture, Industry, and Services are estimated to contribute 17%, 39%, and 44%, respectively to the economy in 2019-20. The industry and services sectors have seen a decline in growth in recent years, while the agriculture sector continues to grow at a low rate.

Barely a few kilometres from Kokrajhar starting from Kachugaon and beyond till Srirampur are a few villages where the average person is barely literate, and some are still "Angootha-Chaap". But what is surprising is that the per capita income is perhaps more than that of the average Guwahatian with some earning as much as Rs 45 to 50K a month. Most of this income is unreported and emanates from untrained technical and semi-technical skilled workforce of plumbers, electricians, plumbers, carpenters and the like.

This dichotomy begs a question about education and a young workforce's perception.

Are there enough "sitting jobs" available in an economy like ours?

Assam has allocated 19.2% of its expenditure on education in 2020-21. This is significantly higher than the average budget allocation (15.9%) for education by states (using 2019-20 Budget Estimate). The question will then devolve to priorities we place on this education expenditure. What is then our vision for employment within the State in the near-future?

At my local wine-shop, two young boys have opened a mobile food stall and do hectic business (in the pre-lockdown and even in the interim gap) every evening. The interesting

thing to note in this Laurel & Hardy pair (the chubby one handles his pans with elan, while his skinny friend takes orders at super-speed) is that both converse in rapid English & Assamese while rap music blares from a Bluetooth speaker system. Both are engineering graduates from AEC and running a rather successful take-away business in the evening, while preparing for their UPSC exams in the morning. What's their turnover last year? Enough to buy themselves 2 fancy motorcycles parked in my compound.

More to follow…

1 https://prsindia.org/budgets/states/assam-budget-analysis-2020-21.