India is alarmingly lagging behind in the creation of jobs and all South Asian neighbors are ahead of India. According to a UN report two out of five young Indians are jobless in India. They constitute a category of people called NEET.
This puts the country behind Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka. The UN report The World Economic Situation and Prospects 2020 released on Friday said over 40 per cent of Indian youth aged between 20 and 34 were not in Education, Employment or Training for the period between 2010 and 2018.
This situation which represents young people not in employment, education, and training, is called NEET. NEET category includes those engaged in domestic work and even home-making.
This can be defined as the share of youth Not in Education, Employment or Training to the population of the corresponding age group.
Talking on the findings of the report, Nagesh Kumar, head, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, said India needs to focus more education to bring these young people into the workforce.
The report highlights the point that the rate of unemployment has increased to a very high level because of the lack of job creation in India. This is the reason for the higher NEET.
According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey released recently by the Centre the unemployment rate in India is 6.1 percent in 2017-18, the highest since 1972-73. Interestingly the world average unemployment rate has declined in the same period. The rate of women’s participation in the workforce is higher in Bangladesh than that of India.