Youth Unemployment in India-Issues and Challenges

As experienced by many developing countries, India will have a relatively large working-age population (aged between 15 and 59 years), as compared to its dependent population (aged 0–14 and 60+) over the next few decades. This has been termed by some analysts as the ‘youth bulge’. The changing age structure of its population has direct implications for economicgrowth. Analysts consider this period of a ‘youth bulge’ or demographic dividend to be a boom, during which the abundance of human capital can be used to fuel the growth of the country. The country's dependency ratio, that is, the ratio of the non-working age population to the working age population will decline. This implies an increase in the labour force participation rates for both young men and young women. This leads to a discussion on the increasing demand for labour but also focuses on the nature of the labour force and its employability.

Other things remaining the same, this demographic dividend can be optimally used in productive activities leading to overall economic development. However, if the resultant economic growth cannot generate enough productive jobs to employ this large young population then this large mass of frustrated unemployed youth will be a source of potential disaster. Therefore successful planning and strategies to educate, train and employ these unemployed youth have to be undertaken both by the Government and private sectors. This paper examines the prospects and challenges of the impact of demographic dividend in India with special reference to employment.