Rawesh Kumar has been looking for a job for eight years.
In 2015, the 25-year-old moved from his village to Patna - the capital of Bihar, India’s third-largest state by population - with a dream of securing a government job in a year.
“But the government did not announce any vacancies for the next four years,” he said. “When they finally announced new jobs in 2018. I tried but failed to qualify.”
It wasn’t until four years later that Rawesh had another chance. But he again failed to make the cut.
“Sometimes, I really feel like drowning myself in the Ganges,” he said. “But then I think of my mother or my elder brother’s face and I stop. Now I am waiting for the government to announce the next vacancies.”
Rawesh shares a closet-sized room with a roommate. Every week he squeezes into crowded classrooms, studying to qualify for a low-ranking job as a driver on India’s train railway network - a highly sought-after career path.
“When I first came here, I was surprised by how crowded it was,” Rawesh says. “I made a small video and posted it on WhatsApp. A friend messaged to ask if I was at some kind of political rally.”
“I told him “No, this is not a rally. It’s a classroom. In fact, it’s a rally of the unemployed.”
With more than 1.4 billion people, India , having overtaken China. Bihar is home to over 120 million people. Over the next decade, one third of India’s population increase will be driven by just two states, Bihar and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, home to an estimated 241 million people and India’s most populous state.
Source: SBS / Caroline Huang
Youth unemployment in India
India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. But it can’t keep up with the number of young and educated people entering the workforce every year.
More than 40 per cent of India’s population is younger than 25. And nearly a quarter of Indian youth are unemployed, according to the World Bank.
Every year, tens of thousands of young people come to Patna in the hope of landing jobs. But with each passing year, the pool of applicants is getting larger, and the competition for a limited number of jobs is getting harder.
Public sector jobs, such as with Indian Railways, are highly sought after for their security and benefits and receive millions of applications for a few dozen thousand openings.
Tens of thousands of students come to Patna every year. But competition for a limited number of jobs is so high that even having a degree doesn't guarantee employment. Source: Al Jazeera
Rawesh’s two brothers had to move out of Bihar to find jobs as labourers at a steel plant in South India.
Many Indians are also seeking employment abroad, in countries such as Australia.
The Indian diaspora is already the second-largest in Australia after the UK, and is expected to reach 1.07 million people by 2035.
Fertility rates dropping in India
Since 1950, India’s population has grown by more than one billion people, and this year it surpassed China as the most populous country in the world with an estimated 1.45 billion people, according to the United Nations.
The exact size of India’s population is unknown as the government postponed its census due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But it’s projected to surpass two billion people by 2068, according to the US-based Pew Research Center.
Source: SBS
“This has been on the cards for some time that India will overtake China, mainly because China instituted a very strong fertility policy, which slowed down the population growth very drastically,” he told SBS Dateline.
It’s a classroom. In fact, it’s a rally of the unemployed.Rawesh Kumar
While Beijing is now trying to reverse the impact of its one-child policy and to have more children, there are calls in India for China-like population control policies.
The country’s minister for rural development, Giriraj Singh, has proposed a law that would penalise those who have more than two children by excluding them from various state subsidies and government jobs.
“It will be a strict law, people would lose their voting rights, violators will be disqualified from public welfare schemes,” he said.
India's minister for rural development, Giriraj Singh, is a proponent of a China-like population control policy to discourage families from having more than two children. Source: Al Jazeera
“A law cannot be passed like that, it has to go through parliament and all that, so there’ll be huge opposition,” he said.
Indian women are having fewer children: nationwide fertility rate now stands at an average of two. But this number is much higher in low-income states such as Bihar where healthcare workers are educating women about contraception options. Female sterilisation remains the most prevalent form of birth control in the country.
In the last five years, contraceptive use has doubled in Bihar, although it remains low by national standards.
Why getting a government job is important
Much of Rawesh’s future depends on him getting a government job.
In Bihar, having one is viewed with respect and can impact marriage prospects and dowries - money paid by the bride’s family to the groom’s family.
“[People with government jobs] never have any problems finding a good match for marriage,” said Rawesh’s mother, Anita Davi.
“Those who have private jobs can’t even get a dowry, but if you have a government job you can get a big dowry.”
Having raised three sons alone after the death of her husband, Anita had high hopes for them. And she is disappointed with the lack of Rawesh’s progress and blames it on a lack of diligence.
Rawesh’s mother, Anita Davi, can't hide her disappointment with him for not being able to land a government job and get married. Source: Al Jazeera
Rawesh is willing to work hard and support his family. But he feels a lot of things are out of his control, such as when the next recruitment round might come up.
He also feels that his family doesn’t understand his difficulties.
“My mother expects a lot from me. She often tells me to get married whether I have a job or not,” he said. “But how can I get married? Right now, my brothers pay for all my expenses. What will I tell them tomorrow? Please, pay my wife’s phone bills too? That’s why I will continue to feel ashamed of myself until I can get a job.”
