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hen the newly elected government in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) announced in late October that it had hundreds of openings for lecturers in the School Education Department, many took it as a right step toward addressing the Indian Union Territory (UT)’s unemployment crisis.
But the ruling National Conference (NC) party itself knows that it has to do a lot more to fulfill one of its major campaign promises that helped it win in J&K’s recent assembly elections.
“Over the last couple of years, job vacancies have piled up, and we are deeply concerned,” NC state spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar told Asia Democracy Chronicles (ADC). “We have promised to create one lakh (100,000) jobs, and we will fulfill that.”
“However,” he added, “since government jobs alone can’t solve the unemployment problem, we are also planning initiatives to support youth through skill-training programs, various schemes, and financial assistance.”
In fact, the new lecturer slots number just 575. More recently, it was reported that 304 new jobs will be available at the Agriculture Department. The UT’s unemployed run in the millions, which means that even the NC’s goal of 100,000 new jobs will fall far short of the number of people looking for work.
Warned economist Dr. Masroor Ahmad Tantray: “If the rate of unemployment keeps increasing day by day, it will become a serious problem for the government to handle.”
For now, J&K residents are trying to handle the lack of jobs in the best way they can. Tantray himself managed to work as a contractual university lecturer for over a decade before he was let go in 2022. The 43-year-old now sells dried fruits on the streets.
“It becomes shameful when your students and colleagues see you running a cart on the roadside,” he admitted. But then Tantray can still count himself lucky that at least he is able to bring home some income.
The making of a crisis
Endless job searches aren’t only experienced by J&K residents, of course. Elsewhere in India, millions more pound the streets and pound on keyboards every day, looking for work.
And while many of them probably feel disappointed with the central government, which has repeatedly promised to keep unemployment rates down, the people of J&K are feeling particularly betrayed.
After all, when the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi unilaterally revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status in 2019, it had justified its actions by arguing that Article 370 and 35A, which had granted the region special status, were impediments to economic growth and investment.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assured J&K, as well as Ladakh, that the region’s integration with India would bring development and economic prosperity through national and international investments.
It highlighted potential investments in education, healthcare, agriculture, tourism, and infrastructure, which it said would boost jobs and improve living standards. The BJP made it a point to stress these especially in Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim area in a country that has a Hindu majority.
Instead, J&K’s economy has suffered a setback since the abrogation of its special status, which in turn has worsened unemployment in the region.
In 2017, J&K’s unemployment rate was 5.4%, decreasing slightly to 5.1% in 2018-19. But by 2019-20, following the political changes, the figure had risen to 6.7%.
In March 2022, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) reported J&K’s unemployment rate as 25% —nearly three times the national average of 7.6%. By April last year, CMIE data showed the UT as having one of the highest unemployment rates in India, at 23.1%.
Young urbanites now have it even bleaker. The latest data (covering July to September 2024) from the Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS) show the UT’s unemployment rate among urbanites between the ages of 15 and 29 at 32%, the highest across the country. Odisha has the second highest urban youth unemployment rate at 30.4%.
The picture is worse for women. The PLFS data reveal an urban female unemployment rate in Jammu & Kashmir of 53.6% — again the highest in the nation. Nationally, the overall female unemployment rate stands at 21%, indicating a considerable gap between Jammu & Kashmir and the rest of the country.
Economic backslide
“The abrogation of special status was never about development or integration,” journalist and peace advocate Anuradha Bhasin told ADC. Rather, she said, the move was deeply rooted in the BJP’s Hindutva ideology, aimed at disempowering people of the only Muslim-majority region in India.
Said Bhasin: “BJP’s economic policies lack a coherent strategy for employment generation, leaving millions in Kashmir with few opportunities.”
“BJP is justifying the decision of revocation of special status with the rhetoric of development,” commented Kashmir-based political scientist Rouf Ahmad. But he said that the data show the opposite result: “Kashmir is grappling with its worst unemployment crisis and widespread economic distress.”
Indeed, in a report released on the fifth anniversary of the abrogation of the region’s special status, the Forum for Human Rights in Jammu and Kashmir (TFHRJK) noted, “Jammu and Kashmir’s economy is yet to recover to its pre-2019 level.”
According to the report, the region’s net state domestic product (NSDP) – a key indicator of economic health – grew annually at 13.28% between 2015 and 2019. After 2019, this dropped to 8.73%. Similarly, the per capita NSDP growth rate fell from 12.31% pre-2019 to 8.41% post-2019.
“Beautifying roads and installing streetlights in the capital city Srinagar cannot be called development,” remarked Ahmad, referring to the penchant of officials from New Delhi to show off infrastructure projects, whether done or still in blueprint. “They constructed these roads just to showcase them to the outside world and claim that the BJP has brought development to Kashmir.”
Real development, Ahmad said, lies in boosting sectors that support the local economy and in generating employment.
Agriculture remains the backbone of J&K’s economy, playing a critical role in supporting nearly 70% of the region’s population, either directly or indirectly. It continues to serve as a primary source of income and employment, especially in rural areas.
The apple industry in particular holds national importance, producing more than 75% of India’s apples and serving as a key driver of the local economy.
But Ahmad said that the region’s agriculture and horticulture are facing serious challenges. “The apple industry, a vital component of Kashmir’s economy, has encountered significant hurdles in recent years,” he said, pointing to the influx of cheaper apples from foreign countries flooding the Indian market. Additionally, climate change has exacerbated the situation by reducing agricultural productivity in the valley.
There is, though, the growth in the tourism sector, which the Modi government considers as one of its key achievements in the region. Just last July, the Minister of State for Home Affairs informed Parliament that the sector has witnessed an average annual growth rate of 15.13% over the last three years.
More than 10 million tourists are said to have visited Jammu and Kashmir in the first half of this year alone. Ahmad argued, however, “The surge in tourism has little impact on the local economy, as it contributes only 7-8% to the region’s GDP.”
State as major employer
With J&K’s private sector underdeveloped, the government has become the primary employer in the UT. In July 2023, the Ministry of Home Affairs reported to Parliament the government’s initiatives to combat unemployment in Jammu & Kashmir, including self-employment schemes, subsidized loans, and recruitment drives.
Government jobs for locals were among the highlights of its report: “Since the abrogation of Article 370, 29,295 vacancies were filled, 7,924 posts were advertised, and exams for 2,504 positions were conducted.”
Under the new J&K administration, the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Recruitment Board (JKSSRB) continues to oversee recruitment for various non-gazette roles and departmental services in the UT, and manages vacancies across several crucial sectors.
According to the Board’s chairperson, 22,624 candidates have been selected to fill state posts since 2019, with an additional 874 cases currently being processed. Exams for 4,921 posts are set to take place, she added, while another 3,299 positions are pending due to unresolved clarifications or legal matters. The vacancies span key departments, including the Home Department (1,336 posts), Health and Medical Education (415), Jal Shakti (314), and Power Development (292).
Competition for these posts are fierce. The recently held constable examination for 4,000 positions, for instance, attracted 550,000 applicants.
Complicating matters now for Kashmiri jobseekers is a new policy allocating 70% of government jobs to reserved categories, leaving only the remainder for open merit. The policy, introduced by the lieutenant governor-led administration before the assembly elections, amended the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act of 2004 to include the Pahari community and additional castes under the “Other Backward Class (OBC)” category, sparking widespread protests.
Opposition legislative assembly member Waheed-ur-Rehman Para has demanded an immediate end to the policy. “The newly formed government should have scrapped the reservation policy first,” he said. “It compromises the quality and competence of our institutions and goes against many constitutional rights of the youth.”
Para also said, “The government doesn’t have the avenues to create jobs, and the private sector hasn’t flourished in Kashmir. Now, the new government has promised one lakh jobs – let’s see what they will do.”
NC spokesperson Dar said that among other things, the new administration is committed to strengthening the key sectors that drive the local economy. He did not elaborate on how it will do that, however. As for the reservation policy, he said that “obviously, there is a problem” with it.
“We are working on it,” Dar said. ◉
