Moa Jamir
In March, a total of 46,059 students in Nagaland sat for their High School Leaving Certificates (HSLC) and High Secondary School Leaving Certificate (HSSLC) Examinations 2022 conducted by the Nagaland Board of School Education (NBSE).
As per results declared on May 31 by the NBSE, a total of 32,710 qualified in the examinations—18,721 in HSLC and 13,989 in HSSLC. The number is inclusive of regular as well as repeaters. In 2021, a total of 35,995—23,608 in Class 10 and 12,387 in Class 12 cleared their board examinations. While it is a joyful moment for the students and parents as well as the institutions; however, passing out of students in huge numbers each year is also a challenge.
Leaving aside those clearing their HSLC, a total of 26,376 students have cleared their HSSLC examinations in 2021 and 2022. Accordingly, it implies that many of them would be joining, if not already, the scarce State’s job market in two years or so, adding growing to the list of “educated unemployed.”
Officially, while applicants remaining on the live register of employment exchanges in Nagaland showed a declining trend in recent years, other data indicated persistent unemployment in the State.
For instance, as per the official data, applicants in the employment exchanges fell from 90,584 on December 31, 2019 to 85,397 on December 31, 2020. This further decreased to 77,746 on December 31, 2021, as per the latest Nagaland Economic Survey 2021-22 published by the Department of Economics & Statistics.
While many seldom register in the employment exchanges, the 2021 data comprised 23,621 graduates and 6,303 postgraduates. In other words, one can safely assume that a total of over 50,000 graduates would be in the labour market in Nagaland, at a given time.
On the other end, Nagaland's ability to generate employment over the years, at best, had been below average, if one goes by national data available.
Take the case of the annual Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) being conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation since 2017.
In the first report released in 2019, Nagaland had the highest unemployment rate in India at 21.4% as against the national average of 6.0%. In the second report released in June 2020 with 2018-19 as the reference period, the State’s unemployment rate of 17.4% was second only to the Union Territory of Lakshadweep at 31.6%.
As per the last PLFS for 2019-20 released last year, Nagaland regained the highest unemployment rate among the labour force aged 15 years and above at 24.7%, beating the previous high of 21.4%. During the same period, the All-India unemployment rate declined from 5.8% in 2018-19 to 4.8% in 2020.
More concerningly, the PLFS 2019-20 indicated that the percentage of unemployment rate according to usual status (ps+ss) for Nagaland in the age group 15-29 years was an astonishing 70.1% in Nagaland, against the All-India rate is shown to be 28.7%.
As reported by The Morung Express, even among those counted as employed, nearly two-third or 66.8% gave their work status as “self-employed” in Nagaland against the national average of 53.5%. Again, as both short-term and long-term economic activities are included usual status, the PLFS might have missed the enormity of the problem, including chronic unemployment, and disguised unemployment.
Accordingly, the government of the day must keep two related data in context while framing policies, as it strives to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, just 8 results away from 2022.
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