Last Wednesday, two men entered the Lok Sabha and sprayed yellow gas from canisters, while two others stood outside Parliament and shouted slogans and sprayed gas from similar canisters. The intruders told the police that they were protesting against the government’s inability to tackle unemployment.
A detailed news report published in The Hindu stated that all four persons were either not employed or were unhappy about their employment status. D. Manoranjan, who opened a canister inside the Lok Sabha, was helping his father in the sheep-breeding and poultry business after completing a course in Computer Science Engineering. Sagar Sharma, who accompanied Manoranjan, was forced to drop out of school after higher secondary due to his family’s financial difficulties and was driving an autorickshaw, according to his parents. Neelam Verma, who protested outside Parliament, used to talk regularly about unemployment and other issues plaguing the poor. Neelam, who holds an M.Phil in Sanskrit, was a government job aspirant from Haryana. Her mother said, “Neelam would often say it is better to die as she could not find a job despite having studied so much.” Amol Shinde, who was with Neelam, had complained to his parents that the COVID-19 lockdown had killed his chances of getting into the Army. He has been trying to clear the police recruitment exam since then.
Table 1 | The table shows the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), which is the share of the working-age population which was either working or seeking employment.
