Unemployment Avalanche: Modi's Economic Mirage Crumbles Under Youth Despair

Digital Desk

October 2025's harvest season should herald prosperity in Punjab's golden fields, but instead, it unveils despair: graduate Manoj Singh, 24, joins 500,000 others in migrant caravans to Gulf mirages, fleeing an unemployment rate that's ballooned to 9.2% nationally—12.5% for urban youth. As a labor economist dissecting policy pitfalls for 15 years, I argue this isn't cyclical gloom; it's the toxic harvest of the Modi government's "frivolous" reforms—demonetization's ghost, GST's chokehold, and farm laws' aborted fury.

The numbers scream: CMIE's October 10 flash survey pegs joblessness at a 2025 peak, up from 7.8% in January, with 45 million youth sidelined. "Make in India" promised 100 million jobs by 2022; reality? Manufacturing stagnates at 14% GDP, services bloated but informal. Agnipath's short-term military gigs? A farce, sparking 2024 suicides among recruits. Rural distress peaks: 60% of 1.4 crore new jobs informal, per PLFS 2025, trapping farmers in debt cycles.

Critics, including Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, lambast "poor policies": PLI schemes funneled Rs.2 lakh crore to corporates, yielding peanuts in employment. Inflation at 6.8%, food up 9%, erodes savings. Protests brew—Mumbai's October 8 marches drew 50,000, chanting "Naukri Do!" Echoing 2020's migrant exodus, trains overflow with the dispossessed.

In my view, this crisis demands a U-turn. Scrap Agnipath for permanent forces; revive MGNREGA with urban extensions, budgeting Rs.1 lakh crore. Tax reforms: Plug loopholes letting billionaires hoard while MSMEs gasp. Skill India? Overhaul it—focus on AI, green jobs, not rote training. And politically? Opposition's INDIA bloc must unite on a "Jobs First" manifesto, pressuring budgets.

India's demographic dividend is flipping to bomb. Ignore 300 million youth's fury, and 2029 elections become a reckoning. Modi’s mirage shatters; time for equitable dawn.