Expectations Vs Reality: Expectations of the Indian Youth from the Union Budget 2022
Written By : Aashish Vashistha
Here is what you need to know about the expectations of the Indian youth from the Union Budget 2022!
Budget 2022 is being presented on Tuesday, February 1, 2022 by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. It is one of the biggest financial events of the country where every sector is eagerly waiting to know what budget will bring for them.
2021 was a very challenging year for every sector of the country. But it majorly affected the education, healthcare system and also hampered a lot of employment opportunities in the country. Youths of the nation were negatively affected by the lockdown and so many government restrictions which lede to decline in their growth and risen job insecurity among youngsters and students. So the youths of India have a lot of positive expectations from Union Budget 2022.
While addressing the Union Budget 2022, Nirmala Sitharaman in her beginning, emphasized that this budget will help in creating more jobs. Post Covid-19 era has already impacted the economy and job opportunities of many youngsters. The focus is now on creating more jobs and growth opportunities for the youth. Under this programme, the government’s agenda is to create about 60 lakh new jobs for people of this country.
Pic Credit: Sansad TV (FM Nirmla Sitharaman while presenting the Budget)
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also elaborated this policy of creating more job opportunities for youth and said that the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for achieving Aatmanirbhar Bharat has received an excellent response so far. Hence, this scheme has the potential to create 60 lakh new jobs and further additional production of 30 lakh crore in the upcoming next 5 years as they will be very important.
As per Nirmala Sitharaman, Budget 2022 will further focus more on developing skill programs. There were so many existing skill oriented programs which will be reoriented and more focus would be placed on giving online training. Further, plans would be formulated for designing and introducing required courses for developing skills of the youngsters.
UP Assembly Elections and how Union Budget might impact them:
Almost every opposition party in Uttar Pradesh including Samajwadi Party (SP), Congress and BSP are trying to attack the ruling party BJP over the raging issue of unemployment and job insecurity among the youth. Priyanka Gandhi and BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra have also targeted the ruling party in centre and also in Uttar Pradesh for not creating enough jobs as they have earlier promised.
Akhilesh Yadav, Samajwadi Party Leader, has always mentioned ‘unemployment’ among youths as one of his major issue in elections. In his address and rallies, he has promised “best quality” laptops to the youth and students of Uttar Pradesh if his party comes in power in 2022 UP Assembly Elections. Let’s see if all these promises come true after the results of the elections.
Real Issues in front of “Youngsters” of India:
Government might have promised to create more job opportunities and over 60 lakh new jobs but the present deplorable situation of youngsters is not hidden by anyone. In Union Budget 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman emphasized on developing skill programs and promoting online training programs but the reality is that so many rural students do not have any access to smart phones, laptops to carry forward their education.
The Global Risks Report 2022 released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) stated that there is unequal access to digital networks and technology and it is due to unequal investment capabilities, lack of necessary skills in the workforce, insufficient purchasing power, and also due to government restrictions. According to a report by The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) released the unemployment status report of India for December 2021. This report stated that the unemployment rate grew from 7% in November to 7.91% in December. This only shows the level of unemployment among youths in our country.
Recently, there are thousands of students who took to the streets of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to protest against alleged irregularities in the Railway Recruitment Board’s examination (RRB) procedure. But the thing which should be noticed is that over 1.25 crore people applied for 35,281 Indian Railway Jobs. It means 354 applicants per job. Even after shortlisting 7 lakhs candidates, there is only 1 job out of 20 people. This indicates the danger of job insecurity among youngsters in government sectors and as well as in private sectors.
These sectors need to create more jobs so that the fear of job insecurity among youngsters can be resolved.
No doubt, what our Finance Minister has promised in the Union Budget 2022 which includes creation of over 60 lakh new jobs and focusing more on developing skills by online training programs, needs to be cherished but it should be executed on ground level in reality. So that we can resolve this growing fear, agitation and insecurity of jobs and employment opportunities among youths of India before it takes a toll on their future.
Government should also try to provide access to smartphones to the rural youngsters so that they can learn skills by online training and other programs. In other words, “commitment is what transforms a promise into reality”.