Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday said the the unemployment “imposed by the BJP” was the biggest issue in the Lok Sabha elections, and said the country was staring at a “demographic nightmare”.
In a post on X, Kharge said the Congress’ ‘Pehli Naukri Pakki’ guarantee under ‘Yuva Nyay’ would remove the barriers that separate work and learning, thereby opening fresh avenues for career growth.
“Only 20% of 21 IIMs could complete the summer placements so far. If this is the situation in IITs and IIMs, then one can imagine how the BJP has destroyed the future of our youth across the country,” he wrote.
The rate of youth unemployment under Modi government has tripled since 2014, he said.
“The ILO’s recent India Employment Report showed that each year, India adds around 70-80 lakh youths to the labour force, but between 2012 and 2019, there was almost ZERO growth in employment – just 0.01%!” Kharge said.
Under the Congress’ ‘Pehli Naukri Pakki’ guarantee, any diploma or degree holder below the age of 25, will now have a legal right to demand employment and shall be paid at least Rs 1 lakh a year, Kharge said.
Right to apprenticeship, a legal guarantee on the minimum support price (MSP) for crops, a constitutional amendment to raise the 50 per cent cap on reservations for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBC), a nationwide caste census and scrapping the Agnipath scheme for short-term military recruitment are among the promises made by the Congress in the manifesto.