The saga of unemployed youth

Visakhapatnam: Satish at 24 is working as a barber at Simhachalam Devasthanam Kesa Kandanasala where devotees offer their hair to the deity. He completed his B Tech at Raghu Engineering College last year and yet to find a suitable job.

Highlights:

• Satish, who completed B Tech, is working as a barber, while Suresh is working as a helper to a chef
• As per official records, the number of unemployed youth as on May 31 this year is 1, 10, 791, including clerical and technical. Of them 21,217 belong to SC, 67,220 BC and 28,352 women. Of the total 1.5 lakh unemployed, only 139 found jobs, according to district employment officer Ch Subbi Reddy
• CM fails to fulfil his promise to youthSimilarly, Suresh did his engineering at Avanthi Engineering College and now working as a helper to a chef in the city. Pasili Bharath Kumar, who scored over 80 per cent in civil engineering, and now looking after a small grocery shop at Chintapalle in Visakha Agency.

The saga of unemployed engineers is endless. Some are working as taxi drivers a few as autorickshaw drivers and other odd jobs. They are still hoping that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will fulfil his promise and find them jobs.

On the eve of elections, N Chandrababu Naidu had promised that there will be one job in every family in the state if he came to power.

Now more than one lakh is waiting to get jobs and the next elections are just two years away.As per official records, the number of unemployed youth as on May 31 this year is 1, 10, 791, including clerical and technical. Of them 21,217 belong to SC, 67,220 BC and 28,352 women.

Of the total 1.5 lakh unemployed, only 139 found jobs, according to district employment officer Ch Subbi Reddy.As there are no openings in the major establishments like industries, IT companies and even in the MSME sector, every year, the number of the jobless youth is doubling. The state government's tall claim that Rs 10 lakh crore investments would be flooded in the state with lion’s share in Visakhapatnam region, there is no such atmosphere and situation prevailing in the region.

After the bifurcation of the state, Visakhapatnam has emerged as the city of destiny for job seekers. There are over 350 major educational institutions, including universities, engineering, professional colleges and polytechnic and ITIs in the district.

Meanwhile, after the demonetisation, the investments have been stopped in the small and medium range industries in the district and there are very few new units grounded in the past three years. The existing public and private sector units have already good number of employees. Similarly, IT sector is also facing tough times.

To create employment to the youth, the state government has given a huge extent of lands at a very cheaper rate to the private sector giants. However, there is no strict enforcement on the private establishments to ensure their assured placements. Except giving a notice to those MoU violators, the government is not taking any action against such companies.

However, the officials are saying that according to the statistics a huge number of job seekers in the district have been secured jobs in other states, abroad and got employment locally also, but records are not updated.

"The government has giving public assets in the name creation of jobs to the private parties. But, the ground reality is mismatching. Thousands of unemployed youth with a deep dissent wasting their time which is not healthy to the society.

The government should take a serious action against the companies which have been taken government lands in the name of employment creation. For instance, the government has given 1,000 acres of land by vacating a village completely. The company assured the government that they will provide 60,000 jobs in a span of five years.

However, even after a decade the company showing over 15,000 jobs (cumulative), but no official or minister review the status," pointed out president, Forum for Legal Professionals Kuppili Muralidhar.

There are 100 IT companies in the district, including small and medium range players, and a total of 20,000 employees approximately working. "All the companies have been registering Rs 1,800 crore turnover per year. However, after the state bifurcation, the IT business has drastically come down.

For the last three years all the companies might have recruited 1,000. Due to the poor infrastructure, tourism development and entertainment, the IT professionals are not coming to Vizag. The other cities, including Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru, registering excellent IT growth," lamented noted IT company Symbiosis Technologies CEO O Naresh Kumar.

By Jatlee Dontala