Bhopal: Unemployed youth in Madhya Pradesh will now be referred to as “aspirational youth” as the labour department in the BJP-ruled state dropped the previous term that was creating a negative image, even as the move sparked debate, with several job seekers and political opponents calling it an eyewash aimed at masking the ongoing job crisis.
The labour department has changed the term on the state government’s employment portal as well as employment offices across Madhya Pradesh. The employment portal provides a platform to youth to create their profiles to find jobs based on their qualifications. As on Friday, more than 2.93 million unemployed youth, or aspirational youth, are registered with 53 employment offices and the employment portal, according to official figures.
Defending the department’s move, state’s labour minister Gautam Tetwal said people should not do politics on this issue. “There is a reason behind changing the term as many of the registered youth are employed or doing businesses but they are looking for upliftment through government jobs so they can’t be called unemployed. The word ‘Akankshi’ (aspirational) is a positive term to help the youth in getting jobs according to their qualification.”
A senior official in the department said that a few years ago, the government had made it mandatory for the youth seeking jobs in public sector to register at MP Employment Portal, which also provides career and vocational guidance.
“Many youngsters who are doing private jobs and running their family business have registered at the portal. They are not real unemployed youth but are those seeking better jobs or government jobs. But the numbers are definitely creating troubles and bringing infamy so the decision was taken to call them job seekers or aspirational youth,” the official said, requesting anonymity.
However, several job seekers criticised the move, claiming that instead of taking concrete steps to reduce unemployment, the state government was busy in changing names to suppress the issue.
“I have been applying for the job for the past six years after completing my post-graduation. I have registered myself as unemployed but in between I have started going to a shop to earn some money to at least bear the expenses of different recruitment examination forms so how can they call me aspirational youth,” Mayank Yadav, a resident of Bhopal, said.
Ranjeet Kisanvanshi, a member of National Educated Youth Union, said he had appeared in the agriculture department recruitment examination conducted by the employment selection board three years ago but it was cancelled due to irregularities. “Since then, we didn’t get any employment opportunity to appear in the exam. Unemployment has become a major issue in Madhya Pradesh but the state government is busy in earning money from the youth through fees of recruitment exam and changing the term,” he said.
He was apparently referring to huge sums of money the Madhya Pradesh Employment Selection Board (ESB) earned through the sale of recruitment exam forms. Recently, the state government informed the assembly that in the past eight years, more than 10 million youth applied for 112 recruitment exams by filling the forms of ₹500 to ₹800. “The board earned ₹538 crores and half of which spent to distribute laptop and scooty under different schemes of MP government,” it added.
State youth Congress spokesperson Vivek Tripathi said the BJP knows how to “fool” people fool. “In just one second, they decreased the number of the unemployed youth to zero. In the past 20 years, BJP-led state government has just ignored the issue of unemployment. They promised to create millions of jobs, but they failed to do so. Now, they have changed the term by giving fake reason,” he added.
Chief minister Mohan Yadav has said that unemployment cannot be eradicated solely through government jobs.
“In a country like India, with a population of 1.45 billion, the proportion of government jobs is not more than 1%. Even the country’s largest employer, the Armed Forces—including the Army, Navy, and Air Force—employs only 1.35 million personnel. To address this, the state is making efforts to connect aspirational youth with employment through self-reliance and entrepreneurship. From now on, unemployed youth in the state will be referred to as ‘Aspirational-Youth (Akankshi Yuva),” he said while speaking at a programme.
