By R.N.Bhaskar

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As of 1998, there were almost 4 crore people registered as unemployed with the various exchanges in India. Thus, the total number of registered unemployed persons virtually equals the total number of graduates in the country.

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If you are an Indian, and happen to be reading this column, have you ever thought about how privileged you are?  Not because it is a column on education, or written by this author. You are privileged because chances are that you are a graduate. And you therefore belong to the top 4% segment of the Indian population.

Yes, that’s right. Graduates comprise just 4% of the Indian population. They appear to be much more than that because of the sheer numeric count and the high visibility of such people. It is often overlooked that  4% of India’s population amounts to 4 crore (or 40 million) people,  in a population that has crossed the 1 billion mark This is shameful for India for three very simple reasons.

First, a country that was once the seat of learning has witnessed its graduates to comprise just 4% of the population.  This is nothing short of a failure of governance and planning.

That problem would not be so serious if India boasted of a good percentage of literates.  Unfortunately, there are no reliable statistics to depend upon here.  This is because all the figures quoted by the government to show the percentage of literates in India are based on a peculiar parameter – that the person should be able to read and write his name. If he or she can do that, the person is literate. It does not even matter that the person may not know how to recognize the other alphabets in the language. It points to a very disturbing practice of fudging figures in India for the past 55 years!

There is a third reason why the educational scene is nothing short of shameful for India. And the clue for this can be found in the government’s own statistics gleaned from the Government run Unemployment Exchange. Take a look at them and you will begin to realize why the situation is quite embarrassing, if not positively frightening.

As of 1998, there were almost 4 crore people registered as unemployed with the various exchanges in India. Thus, the total number of registered unemployed persons virtually equals the total number of graduates in the country. Since the minimum qualification for getting a job is a school certificate, all those registered as unemployed are holders of SSC, HSC and graduation certificates. While the breakup of these categories is not available, it is safe to assume that at least two thirds of these unemployed are graduates, as the 945 employment exchanges are located only in cities (in a country which boasts of 4,600 towns and cities defined as “urban agglomerates” in the country’s census data).

And remember that not all those who are employed register their names with unemployment exchanges.  None of this author’s friends have ever registered, even though some of them have been unemployed for over three to six months continually.  Thus the total number of unemployed could be easily three times larger than the number of these exchanges. 

This is extremely shameful.

But what has that to do with education? A great deal. Try out this experiment. Give an advertisement – or find out a person who has advertised – for a secretary. You will find that he must have received at least 1,000 applications from people who want that job. Ask each of them to appear for a written examination in any language (preferably English as it is the global business language) and in Mathematics.  You will find that most of them – in excess of 60% -- will fail these tests. But they have their SSC certificates and their graduation certificates saying that they passed their examinations. Then what happened?

  The reason is obvious.  The marks certificates do not tell all. They have their certificates without having the skills. The methods adopted in evaluating their skills in three of the most critical subjects (Math, Science and English) were all wonky.  No wonder, most managers sit and draft or redraft letters themselves, instead on spending their time on matters that would have led to more value-addition.  That is why many people agree that the problem with India is unemployability, not unemployment.  If they had the skills, someone would have found a way to employ them.  But without the skills, they have become unemployable.  A sad story for the small 4% slice of India’s population comprising graduates in India!

And that is why policy makers do not draft their policies well, leading to more disputes on the way certain words should be interpreted.  And that is further complicated by mistakes in drafting orders that many members of the judiciary are guilty of.  This only leads to further litigation on how the words are to be interpreted. That also partly explains the poor drafting of chargesheets by the police and the other enforcement authorities. 

And that explains why, despite a good administrative machinery being left behind by the British, the entire administrative framework is crumbling and decaying. Something needs to be done.  But how?