Essay on “Unemployment” Complete Essay, Paragraph, Speech for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Unemployment

The health of a community depends on the manner and variety of its people’s occupations. In an ideal community, the entire population is engaged in one occupation or another; all of which contribute to making the community self-sufficient and self-sustaining. Employment is so important a factor in society that, if all its people are usefully and gainfully employed, society will be strong enough to solve all its problems; while on the other hand, if the people are not satisfactorily employed, society will never be free of problems.

However, despite the best efforts of governments and societies, unemployment continues to be a worldwide phenomenon. Though many methods have been adopted to solve the problem, they have at best succeeded only in reducing unemployment, not in eliminating it entirely.

In India, a near billion-strong population is generally considered the main cause for unemployment, but as in the case of poverty, over-population is only partly responsible for unemployment. Reducing population, therefore, will not have much effect on unemployment. More than its size, it is the manner in which a population is managed that decides its utility and productivity. Moreover, though harnessing of populations is easier in less-populated countries, it is not impossible in heavily populated ones. If India recognizes these facts, it will have made its first vital step towards solving its unemployment problem.

An improper and inadequate education system is an important cause for unemployment in India. The tendency in India is more towards acquiring bookish knowledge than towards developing practical skills that enable useful employment. Moreover, the standard of most professional and vocational training institutions available is so unsatisfactory that, workmanship and productivity of labor trained by them is hopelessly incompetent.

Like many other countries, India also chose the path of industrialization to solve its unemployment problem. But, since neither satisfactory economic growth, nor reduction in unemployment has been possible, India’s industrial policies cannot be considered successful. This lack of success is, despite having started the development process by rightly focusing attention on infrastructure creation and on key activities, like steel and cement production. The importance given to power generation, improvement of transportation, agriculture and irrigation in the early stages of development, was obviously not consolidated upon in later years.

A general cause for the failure of India’s development policies is the discouragement of private initiative in nation-building. In its zeal to uphold socialism, the government involved itself in almost all social activities from running buses to managing schools much more than what it could usefully concentrate on. The insensitivity of the government to the true needs of the people made not only its planning arbitrary in nature, but also its programmes of little use to the people. It was unwise of the government to expect that, in a vast country, it could by itself, with its limited resources and abilities, ensure meaningful development. The government also failed to realize, rather unfortunately, that in a controlled economy, only a small fraction of the creative forces is at work, the remainder being largely unproductive and dormant. Owing to its wrong perspective, the government, instead of creating wealth and improving the welfare of the people, ended up distributing misery and frustration among them.

The governments’ approach towards the problem of unemployment is as flawed as their policies for general development. They hoped to eliminate unemployment by establishing labour-intensive industries and even by packing industries with more employees than necessary. Much of the labour in such situations became lazy and unproductive as there was often not much work to do. It would have been better if the different governments, instead of establishing a few labour-intensive industries, had encouraged a variety of industries, each of which employed just the number of people it needed. Poor productivity may be tolerable for some time, but not forever.

Ideally, a government should function with full knowledge of its limitations. However representative a government claims to be, it cannot relate itself properly to the true aspirations of the people unless the people are encouraged to contribute their might to the development process. More than actively involved in development, governments should concentrate on creating a favorable atmosphere for it. In other words, the role of governments should be that of catalysts, not that of reagents. It may be remembered in this context that a government that governs the least, governs best.

Fortunately, the governments in recent times seem to have realized their mistakes and are attempting to correct them. The encouragement to private participation in the development process will hopefully solve the problems of unemployment and declining economic growth. Support for private initiative will also ensure that opportunities for self-employment are increased. We Indians do not lack either ideas or skills necessary to be successful. We are creative and resourceful enough to take care of ourselves, provided we are free to do so. That we have not succeeded is owing to the restrictions governments have imposed on us. The success of Indians living abroad, in diverse fields like business, technology, medicine and management is ample proof of our inborn talents.

Though it is not yet time to judge the success of the new policies, it is a fact that they have not failed so far. If a few years ago, making a telephone call meant a visit to a government-owned PCO, and a long wait in the queue, it now means a short walk to the nearest privately-owned telephone booth, with the assurance of prompt service. The large number of such booths that have come up all over the country means that roughly twice-as many people have found gainful employment, with hardly any strain on the government. The prevalence and success of private courier agencies illustrate further how private enterprise can help the government fulfil the needs in the service sector. It may be hoped that more imaginative policies in other sectors like trade and industry will ensure the creation of similar opportunities for employment in these Sectors also.

Private enterprise, besides increasing employment opportunities, also improves the quality and efficiency of the work force. As accountability is demanded by private employers, employees are likely to be more sincere and dedicated in their work. However: unregulated growth of private enterprise may be harmful. If the private sector is not accountable to the society in which it operates, it will create more problems than it will solve. The government, on its part, can prevent such an eventuality by ensuring that the natural competition in the private sector does not become too intense or too unfair, to cause trouble in society. With a healthy and sincere private sector as its partner, the government has a fair chance of overcoming the numerous social challenges it faces, including unemployment; which even though may not be totally eliminated, will hopefully be minimized to the extent possible.