As Assembly elections draw near, the poll bugles have been sounded by both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
The 230-member state Assembly goes to polls on 17 November while the results will be announced on 3 December. The Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government has ruled the state for 16 years since 2008, except for the period from December 2018 to March 2020, when the Congress came to power with party veteran Kamal Nath as the chief minister.
This time too, the state is witnessing a keen contest. On 17 October, the Congress released its poll manifesto with a promise of Rs 25-lakh health insurance, a caste census, 27 percent quota for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in government jobs and an Indian Premier League (IPL) for the state.
Party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, while kickstarting the poll campaign from Jabalpur in June this year, attacked the BJP government for alleged corruption and rampant unemployment in the state.
"In the last three years, only 21 government jobs were provided in the state by the BJP government. When this figure was brought to my notice, I got it checked three times from my office and found it is a fact," Gandhi had said then, as per Hindustan Times.
Chouhan, meanwhile, during a rally in the state’s tribal-dominated Alirajpur district on 30 September, promised one job to each family in the state.
"I will remove difficulties from the lives (of the people of the state). If elected to power again, one person from every family will be given employment so that they do not have to migrate. Be it through self-help groups, Udyam Kranti Yojana or government jobs, one person from every family will be given a job," said Chauhan, who will be contesting for the fifth term this year, as reported by The Hindu.
As voting day approaches and accusations grow shriller, we take a look at the issue of unemployment in Madhya Pradesh.
21 Youths Provided Jobs in Last 3 Years
According to the unemployment figures presented in the Monsoon session of the state Assembly last year, there were over 25.8 lakh registered unemployed youths till April 1, 2022. The figure jumped to 38,92,949 on 1 January 2023.
This means, around one lakh people found themselves jobless in Madhya Pradesh every month.
However, of these nearly 39 lakh individuals, only 21 have been provided a jobs by the state government in the last three years. This shocking figure came to light as the government responded to Congress MLA Mevaram Jatav in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on 1 March this year.
To add to that, an estimate of Rs 16.74 crore has been spent to run 52 employment offices across the state since 1 April 2020, according to a report by NDTV. This means that nearly Rs 80 lakh was spent per person on providing these jobs.
During a press conference at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi on 15 October, Congress leader Shobha Oza claimed that “all the government jobs were lost to scams.”
She said:
“In 2022, about 40 lakh children and youth were registered in the Employment Exchange and it is shameful that out of them, the government was able to provide jobs to only 21 people.”
Oza attributed the lack of jobs to alleged scams in the state, such as the nursing recruitment scam, police constable recruiting scam, teacher recruitment scam and patwari recruitment scam.
She added that there have not been any nursing jobs through examinations in the last three years and promised that Congress will provide good education and employment to the state if voted to power this time.
How Does MP Fare Compared to Other States?
On 22 September, Chouhan said that one lakh people have been recruited for different government jobs, and that upcoming medium and cottage industries in the state promise to give a job to thousands.
As per data from the state economic survey, unemployment in Madhya Pradesh has seen a steady rise; except in 2022, when the number of jobless youth in the state fell by nearly five lakh.
As compared to other states in 2022, Madhya Pradesh saw an unemployment rate of 3.2, which is comparable to Chhattisgarh at 3.4, and Telangana at 4.5.
Meanwhile, Haryana had the highest unemployment rate of 37.4, followed by Rajasthan at 28.5.
According to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the country’s overall joblessness rate as of July 2023 is 7.95 percent. The unemployment rate peaked during the pandemic in 2020 and has been witnessing a fall ever since.
Most OBC Youth Unemployed in Madhya Pradesh
According to the data tabled by the state government in reply to Congress MLA Pratap Grewal during the Monsoon session of the Assembly, the state had 25.81 lakh registered unemployed youths till April 1, 2022. Of these unemployed youth, most of them belonged to the OBC communities.
Of these, 30 percent (7.72 lakh) of the registered unemployed persons belong to the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) categories, which together make up for nearly 36 percent of MP’s total population, according to a report by NewsClick.
The remaining 70% of the unemployed people belong to OBC and general categories.
The data further shows that over 8.25 lakh people were given offer letters through job fairs between 2011 to 2021: 2.89 lakh OBCs, 2.69 lakh unreserved, 1.54 lakh SCs, and 1.11 lakh STs.
An analysis of the data by NewsClick reveals that Gwalior has the highest unemployment with 1.55 lakh registered jobless youth, followed by Bhopal at 1.31 lakh, 1. 09 lakh in Rewa, and 1.02 lakh in Morena.
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