Job quota discontent

The ongoing election campaign in J&K has thrown up many public issues for discussion by the political parties but few of them have achieved as much salience as the question of job reservations. J&K has now just 30 percent reservation quota for the open merit category. The reduction followed the government’s decision to raise reservation for Paharis by 10 percent and that of the other tribes and the Other Backward Classes by 8 percent.

The consequent disproportion has generated deep unease among open category candidates which form a majority as anywhere else in the country. More so in Kashmir Valley. The 2011 census data shows that 69 percent of the Valley's population falls under the general category, which includes those not classified under Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes. But while reservations in the rest of the country have been capped at 50 percent, in J&K, they have been fixed at 70 percent.

Now, the legitimate demand of the unemployed youth in the general category -  both in the Valley and Jammu - is that the reservation quotas be made at par with the other states and regions. There is a feeling that the doors to already fewer government jobs have been more or less shut on them. And in the absence of a viable private sector in the UT, lakhs of educated unemployed have been left to fend for themselves. Their ranks are only growing with each passing month:  In the first quarter of 2024 alone, 3.52 lakh youth registered with the J&K Directorate of Employment, with 1.09 lakh of them graduates and post-graduates. They don’t have many options.

In the absence of a government job, the educated youth either remain unemployed, engage in disguised employment, move outside the Valley, or go abroad. These are tough choices.   The challenge needs to be urgently addressed, and should be the first order of business for the new elected government. While acknowledging the need for reservations for the backward castes and communities, the quotas need to be made proportionate to the share of the different communities in the overall population. Leaving the issue unaddressed for long will certainly be a recipe for more social discontent.