Congress slams Modi government, says unemployment rate much higher than global average

Congress on Thursday made a strong attack on Modi government saying that unemployment rate was much higher than the global average, more than a crore youth unemployed and India's demographic dividend was being turned into a "demographic disaster".

Addressing a press conference here, Congress Communications Incharge Randeep Singh Surjewala referred to two reports released on Thursday and said they presented a dismal picture.

"The two reports released today have come out with shocking figures on the state of education and state of employment in India," he said.

Surjewala said the report 'Unemployment in India, a statistical profile' released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), has stated that unemployment rate was 7.03 per cent in May this year.

"In August, it has increased to 8.19 per cent. In India, unemployment is 100 per cent more than that in the world. In males, it is six per cent and in females, it is 17 per cent. These statistics expose the reality of "Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' government," he said.

"If you are graduate or have studied more the unemployment rate is 15 per cent which is thrice the average in the world. Today, more than 1 crore youth are unemployed," he said.

Referring to 'All India Survey on Higher Education', a report brought out by the Human Resource Development Ministry, Surjewala said the situation is "even worse" in the field of education.

"Around 74 per cent of the population between 18 and 23 years of age does not get enrolled in college. Only 2.5 per cent colleges in the country are able to give PhD degrees. Only 0.5 per cent of students enrolled in higher education are able to pursue PhD," he said.

"Thirty-five per cent colleges are running single programmes and 83 per cent are privately managed. Only 8.5 per cent teachers belong to scheduled castes," he said.

The Congress leader alleged that the "abysmal representation" of SCs in the teaching field was "a telling tale on the systematic discrimination perpetuated by this government against Scheduled Castes".

"BJP has demolished the educational edifice, the employment apparatus and opportunities in India. BJP and the present government have turned the present demographic dividend of India into a demographic disaster by their lopsided policies," he said.

Referring to 'Howdy Modi' event in the US, the Congress leader said it was time for Prime Minister to go back from "event management and stage-managed Howdy programmes to addressing 'howdy education' and 'howdy unemployment'.