Young people have been taking to the streets across India, demanding governments act to provide more jobs. In the northern state of Bihar, large numbers protested on February at delays in filling public sector vacancies. Some of them had passed the required examinations but waited several years for their job to commence.
In July and early August, hundreds of young people walked more than 900km from Nagpur in central India to Delhi, again focusing on the problem of government posts lying vacant.
Behind these headlines is one of India’s most pressing problems: widespread, entrenched unemployment. Youth unemployment rose sharply from about 6% in 2011-12 to more than 17% in 2018-19. By then, nearly 40% of young graduates were unemployed.
