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Young people in India, even those with multiple degrees, are unemployed1
India's educated young people are demanding suitable jobs, but they don't exist. Plus, wages are declining. This came to a head with riots in some of the poorest districts of northern India.
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
Teachers have long had to deal with challenges. The pandemic seemed to push them to new heights, though. In the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor3 Statistics, there are 567,000 fewer educators in public schools today than there were before the pandemic. And a recent new study revealed more than half of all teachers in this country want to quit. In India, though, the opposite is true. Some are waiting years to get a chance to teach. In fact, some of the most educated young people there are unemployed. Raksha Kumar reports from Uttar Pradesh.
SHIKHA PAL4: (Speaking Hindi).
RAKSHA KUMAR, BYLINE5: Last year, Shikha Pal did something surprising. She shows me a video...
PAL: (Speaking Hindi).
KUMAR: ...Of herself climbing to the top of a giant 60-foot municipal water tank in her hometown of Lucknow. She camped out there for seven months...
PAL: (Speaking Hindi).
KUMAR: ...Surviving on biscuits. She had to climb down and walk a mile and a half every time she needed to use the toilet. She did this, she says...
PAL: I'm doing a long protest, approx seven-month protest.
KUMAR: A protest about unemployment. Seven years ago, Shikha quit her job at a local bank. She wanted a higher salary and benefits, so she got a teaching certification. But for five years, she still hasn't gotten a placement in a public school.
SANDEEP PANDEY: No, it shows the desperation of the youth.
KUMAR: Labor activist6 Sandeep Pandey says Shikha is not alone. Thousands of qualified7 teachers are waiting for jobs in her one city alone.
PANDEY: She was the only one on the top of the tank. The rest of them were protesting on the ground, and the government was just not listening to them.
KUMAR: Unemployment is hard to measure in India because most people work informally in agriculture or manual labor. But as the country gets richer, there are more college graduates with higher expectations. Reetika Khera is an economist8.
REETIKA KHERA: At one end of the spectrum9, people have job security, and they also have world-class benefits. They even have pensions when they retire. But this is available only to less than 10% of people in the workforce10.
KUMAR: If you're in a second-tier city and you don't speak English, even if you have those multiple master's degrees, jobs with those kind of benefits just don't exist, Khera says. That's why 1 in 5 college graduates in India is unemployed. Some of them are angry.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A heavy contingent11 of police fail to control the protesters who squatted12 on railway tracks, vandalized property...
KUMAR: Riots broke out in January in northern India after 12 million people applied13 for just 35,000 job openings at the state railway company. Most of the protesters had college degrees. They set fire to train carriages. I traveled to where it happened, calling ahead to a student club to tell them I was coming.
I'm walking into a rather broken-down door. A bunch of students with multiple degrees and no jobs are sitting inside the room waiting to talk to me.
SUMIT GAUTAM: (Speaking Hindi).
KUMAR: Sumit Gautam rattles14 off a long list of degrees - three bachelor's degrees and a law degree but no job.
GAUTAM: (Speaking Hindi).
KUMAR: Why did I study so hard if the only job I can get is selling snacks on the street, he asks. The Indian government says it's creating more jobs for educated graduates, but it's not happening fast enough for people like Shikha, who spent seven months atop that water tank. Nowadays, Shikha makes tea for her mother in the apartment they share. She is still unemployed, still waiting for a teaching job to open.
PAL: (Speaking Hindi).
KUMAR: But, she says, she's determined15 to find meaningful employment that matches her qualifications.
For NPR News, I'm Raksha Kumar in Lucknow, India.
(SOUNDBITE OF ROBOHANDS' "STRANGE TIMES")
![收听单词发音](/images/play.gif)
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unemployed
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adj.失业的,没有工作的;未动用的,闲置的 | |
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transcript
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n.抄本,誊本,副本,肄业证书 | |
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3
labor
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n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦 | |
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4
pal
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n.朋友,伙伴,同志;vi.结为友 | |
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byline
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n.署名;v.署名 | |
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activist
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n.活动分子,积极分子 | |
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qualified
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adj.合格的,有资格的,胜任的,有限制的 | |
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economist
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n.经济学家,经济专家,节俭的人 | |
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spectrum
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n.谱,光谱,频谱;范围,幅度,系列 | |
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workforce
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n.劳动大军,劳动力 | |
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contingent
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adj.视条件而定的;n.一组,代表团,分遣队 | |
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squatted
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v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 );非法擅自占用(土地或房屋);为获得其所有权;而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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applied
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adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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rattles
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(使)发出格格的响声, (使)作嘎嘎声( rattle的第三人称单数 ); 喋喋不休地说话; 迅速而嘎嘎作响地移动,堕下或走动; 使紧张,使恐惧 | |
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determined
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adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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