Unemployment shatters Kashmir

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News Kashmir Exclusive

 

Unemployment occurs when people are without work and actively seeking work. The problem of unemployment is continuously ruining  the future of Kashmiri youth. Unemployment is characterized by chronic under-employment or disguised unemployment. Ground realities and  surveys suggest that the menace of unemployment among the educated youth in Jammu and Kashmir has touched new heights with lakhs of candidates applying for a few thousand posts advertised by recruitment agencies. There are many more frustrations of the unemployed, who daily face the task of competing with thousands of other people.

 

As per the last Economic Survey, when it comes to overall unemployment, Punjab (4.5 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (2.8 per cent), Delhi (2.7 per cent) and Haryana (2.6 per cent) are much better placed than Jammu and Kashmir. All-India figures for unemployment rate stand at only 2.6 per cent only.

Official figures have further revealed that unemployment rate for males in J&K was 3.6 per cent whereas that of females was 17.1 per cent which is far too high when compared to the neighboring states Punjab 11.7 per cent, Haryana 2.8 per cent, Delhi 2.8 per cent and Himachal Pradesh 2.5 per cent.

“The problem of unemployment amongst females is predominant in Jammu and Kashmir based on Usual Principal Status (UPS) as the gap between unemployment rate of females in J&K (17.1 per cent) and that of all India level (3.6 per cent) is huge”, says the report.

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Unfortunately, despite being the greatest vice, the suicide rate has increased alarmingly over the past few years in the Kashmir Valley and many see growing unemployment behind it  . Just a few decades back, Kashmir was among few places across the globe with very low suicide rates. Ironically, over the past two decades the graph of suicides has run north.

Critics maintain that successive governments have failed to tackle the alarming problem of unemployment while youth continues to be in dilemma. This sorry state of the affairs is the main cause of drug abuse, which drug-traffickers cash.

 

Essar Ahmad, an unemployed youth states – ” Despite high qualification unemployment has become fortune of majority as Government after Government has failed to create ample number of jobs to suffice the aspirations of job seekers.We also have a weak private and industrial scenario that makes getting job a hectic task and this adds to frustration and agony of unemployed youth like me.New Government had promised lot of jobs but so far very little has been offered .Meaningful job avenues should be created so that bane of unemployment does not mar us.”

One of the leading reasons behind soaring unemployment rate in the state of Jammu& Kashmir is the weak performance of public sector in our part of the world. Currently, the public sector of the state is in quiet   unhealthy shape. sometime back , out of the leading seventeen state corporations in Jammu and Kashmir, ten were running on total losses of Rs 1,876.72 crore, while seven were showing profit, according to the latest official figures. Ironically the PSUs of the Jammu & Kashmir state have properties worth billions of rupees at prime locations but still they are penniless and are not able to harness their rich potential so as to provide employment opportunities to youth.

 

The lack of quality vocational courses in the premier educational institutions of the Kashmir Valley is also adding to the unemployment problem of Kashmir. Even the top level universities of Kashmir lack proper vocational courses. The infrastructure related to vocational courses in the educational institutes of valley is also unimpressive.

 

 

Unemployment tackling demands holistic vision and it is the need of hour.

 

USA behind Sectarian Wars in Middle East- Zafarul Islam Khan

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A prominent Indian intellectual ,Muslim author and journalist based in New Delhi Zafarul Islam Khan is a personality of dynamic caliber  . He is currently editor and publisher of The Milli Gazette fortnightly focusing on issues concerning the Muslim community, which is a minority in India. He is also the founder and chairman of Charity Alliance, an organisation involved in relief and welfare work in India. He is author and translator of over 40 books in Arabic, English and Urdu including Hijrah in Islam (Delhi, 1996) and Palestine Documents (New Delhi 1998). He has contributed eight articles to the Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden) on Indo-Muslim themes. He is a regular commentator on Islamic and South Asian issues on radio and TV channels, including Al Jazeera and BBC Arabic and his writings appear in Arabic newspapers and magazines.

In an Exclusive interview with The News Kashmir, Zafarul Islam Khan talks to Rameez Makhdoomi

What is your take on the present condition of Indian Muslims?

 

This reality should be envisaged from two basic paradigms- What Indian Muslims are doing themselves for their own betterment and secondly what the government is doing for them. Over the years Muslims of India have awakened a lot and have started to invest a lot out of their own resources in education and healthcare sector.  Now a lot of Universities have been set up by Indian Muslims and the awareness and thirst for knowledge is ever growing.

But as far as the Government is concerned not much is being done despite the Sachar Committee report and successive governments admitting from time to time backwardness of Muslims in terms of development. The present Government is totally indifferent to Muslims and even the old schemes are limited to paper only.

Critics say that Muslim parties in India especially the new entrants are more   of an emotional rhetoric than substance. Your take?

We need to bear in mind that Muslims strong pockets are few but parties are many. To add to chaos about 35 parliamentary constituencies of Muslims have been reserved for Schedule Castes which is grave  injustice. The major parties play ugly politics as all of them come with mostly incompetent candidates in Muslim dominated constituencies   as a result the deserving candidate does not win.

Only in places like Malabar Kerala were Muslim League has established stronghold, Assam were UDF has strongholds and MIM in old Hyderabad to some extent Muslim vote-bank has been consolidated  otherwise Muslim parties unknowingly and knowingly add in polarization politics due to lack of wisdom.

Sectarian Wars in Middle East does they possess any threat on Sunni-Shia unity of India?

It is true that due to larger conspiracy  many countries in Middle East are falling to sectarian wars but let me thrust with full surety that in India Sunni and Shia Muslims have the desired wisdom and are clever enough to thwart designs of enemy. Be it Sunni dominated or shia dominated pockets Muslims of India are living in complete harmony and situation of Middle East won’t have any adverse impact on Indian Muslims.

Why have Muslims especially Shia and Sunni in many countries become suddenly enemies of one another and lost tolerance for one another and are engaging in bloodshed ?

All this has not happened suddenly. This is the result of years of game-plan of USA and its intelligence agencies. When Sunnis and Shias jointly resisted the USA occupation of Iraq it via its dirty game-plan bombed Shia and Sunni places of Worship and especially after 2006 it accelerated such tactics. As a result of this wicked tricks the Sunnis and Shias fell prey and sectarian warfare started.

Your take on rise of ISIS?

ISIS Changed its name thrice- First it was named just  Islamic State of Iraq than the name changed to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and now it is just Islamic State. We have in our series of stories in Milli Gazette  proven that ISIS is an American creation as proven by the documents of CIA too that we published. Even via  Sykes–Picot 1916 agreement  the middle east was divided  . Basically USA for its own interests wants again to divide bigger countries like Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and is thus indulging in such dirty tactics.

 

All these tactics will only have short term impacts and in long term such dirty policies are bound to fail and USA is beginning to understand it  and Iran nuclear agreement was forced upon USA by time.

So you think Iran Nuclear deal is good for global peace?

The question of good and bad does not exist. Iran despite decades of sanctions has thrived in all fields and even built rockets. The nuclear deal is forced by facts upon those who tried to suppress Iran.

 

 

Beef Ban

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A few days back acting on a public interest litigation brought by a  lawyer, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court instructed law enforcement officials to “strictly enforce” an 1862 ban on slaughtering cows, which had been imposed by the then maharaja, a Hindu.

This has lead to wave of  anger in Kashmir. A day after Jammu High Court banned sale of beef in Muslim majority State of Jammu and Kashmir, leaders from mainstream politics, socio-religious organizations, pro-freedom camps and civil society expressing displeasure over the court order saying that it sounds strange to impose the will of some religious fanatics over the vast population of the State.

Muslim scholars and pro-freedom politicians have condemned the decision stating that it not acceptable to them adding that they  will do whatever is possible…calling It is a direct interference in  religious affairs,” and making it clear “beef is halal (prescribed by Muslim law) for Muslims and  will continue to consume it.”

Interestingly the decision to enforce Kashmir’s beef ban comes amid growing public fears that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is imposing the dietary restrictions of some of India’s religious faiths on the entire population — ostensibly out of respect for “religious sentiments”.

Many Kashmiris openly question that   Why no ban on liquor, which is hazardous and proscribed by all the religions, and why ban on beef that is permitted by the religion they follow.

As a matter of fact, Twitter and Facebook users openly reacted over the court decision, terming the direction ‘politically motivated’ and irrelevant. Prominent civil Society member, Sakeel Qalandar, said that the ruling of the court will not stand firm in the Muslim majority State. “The Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir gives freedom to the people and nobody can suggest or dictate them what what they should wear or eat,” he said that the ban will be ineffective.

Beef Ban order has definitely raised tempers in Kashmir.