The population of J&K has increased from six million in 1981 to about 10 million in 2001. The number of workers also increased by 39 percent bringing the number to 3.68 million in 2001, of which formal workers constituted 2.53 million and marginal workers constituted 1.15 million.





The state at present is facing a huge unemployment problem and thousands of youths queue outside J&K’s 17 employment exchanges hoping for a job.





The official number of unemployed in 2000 was about 168,000. However, this is the figure of persons who register at employment exchanges; considering the fact that only a minute percentage of persons in point of fact list themselves, the real unemployment figure is much larger; a really shocking situation in a state is already worn to shreds by violence.







The reasons to this situation may be simple; employment generation has simply not kept pace with the increasing population; minimal industrial development is unable to absorb the large pool of school leavers; there is an implicit halt on state government recruitment as the government jobs have reached saturation point. But workers in the state are undergoing hard-hitting epoch, especially the migrant community of the state.





Unemployment has bowed into such grave dilemma for the migrant families that a migrant family in Jammu has been forced by redundancy and scanty pay packet to mortgage their three daughters for petit amount of Rs 3,000 for eight years now.





50-year-old Piar Singh was pioneer to mortgage his three daughters about eight years ago and is even now all set to sell his youngest daughter as well. This family is also among the hundreds of migrants from Reasi in Udampur district.





Piar Singh said

How will I marry my daughters? I don’t have the money, so I have given them away. I won’t get them back; they will marry off my daughters

In this respect Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has as usual fashioned a committee regulated by the local congress MP, and they will have to present a report within 24 hours after finding out facts.





Mr. Minister till now loads of funds already has been allotted for these migrants and similar committees even have been made earlier as well but this is not the real apprehension.





However, I think that the real apprehension is will that money ever reach the needy or even these numerous reports and committees will find out any realistic job creation programmes or be all this will be merely an eyewash to fill books. If the conditions continued like this only it going to be catastrophic in the long run and I think unemployment is one of the main holdup to the lasting peace with more and more frustrated youths turning to violence.