‘Less than 20% Youths in State Competitive’ says Founder of Northeast-IAS Keshav C Das

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: “Presently, there are more than 1.5 million educated unemployed youths in Assam. Moreover, Assam produces approximately 2,17,652 graduates each year while at the secondary education and higher secondary level, the numbers of passing out youths in a year is approximately, 140,000, which adds up to 400,000 educated youths,” said Founder of Northeast-IAS Keshav C Das. He said this while moderating the monthly intellectual debate, Manthan organised by North East Institute of Advanced Studies (Northeast-IAS) on Friday in Guwahati.

Dwelling at length, Das further underlined that out of these 400,000 educated youths, only 4% youth appear in UPSC level examinations and approximately 23,000 of students appear in bank PO examination from Assam each year, followed by another 7-10% of youth in other competitive examinations such as Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Reserve Bank of India -Grade-2, NDA, CDS and so on. He stressed the fact that the total share of this ‘competitive youth’ is less than 20% of the total number of ‘demographic dividends’.

Attending the debate, former Chairman of the Board of Secondary Education, Assam (SEBA) Shantikam Hazarika opined that the youths of Assam are less competitive and the phenomenon is an age-old problem. “By overcoming it, we need a breed of Assamese bureaucrats, clerks and technical staff, who could emphatically understand the problems of Assam and find solutions,’’ he said. In the meantime, Basanta Deka, founder of Axom Jatiya Vidalaya Movement, appealed to the youths of Assam to take up agri-entrepreneur options as a mainstream employment avenue.