UNEMPLOYED YOUTH IN KASHMIR: SOCIAL POLICY ISSUES REVISITED

Young people today have emerged as a distinctive social category comprising the major chunk of the global population. Their emergence as a distinctive social category can’t be attributed to their numerical preponderance only but also to the fact that they represent an essential component of demographic dividend and must navigate far more of life’s crucial transitions in a short time frame than any other age group apart from their peculiar characteristics, needs, sociopsychological traits and patterns of behaviour. Though, the problems encountered by the youth as a generalized category while negotiating this transition are due to youth of state of Jammu and Kashmir as well, however, youth in Kashmir being a conflict ridden zone assume a special importance given their severe victimization in terms of their lives, career opportunities and subsistence. Turmoil here, has lent a momentum to the ever increasing toll of miseries of youth by blunting the already limited available incentives and, hence, the life chances due to them. This has created a burgeoning problem of unemployment as a result of which educated youth are in dilemma and face multiple problems on socioeconomic front. Based on the primary and secondary inputs, the present paper shall focus on the scenario of youth unemployment in Kashmir, the attendant problems besides evaluating the efficacy of maiden employment policy in vogue in the form of “Sher-e-Kashmir Employment Welfare Programme for the Youth”. Finally, specific recommendations based on the various findings of the study shall be put forth for policy makers in order to curb the burgeoning problem of unemployment in the state apart from various suggestive measures for the improvement of various youth centric policies in vogue