Youth and Challenges in Contemporary World of Work in India

India has one of the largest youth populations in the world; her population aged 15–29 years increased from 26.6% of in 1991 to the projected figure of 27.3% in 2021. Although this does offer an opportunity to reap the demographic dividend, it is fast closing and the current ‘youth bulge’ is likely to be available for only a decade or so. Given India’s demographic transition, it hardly needs emphasis that active engagement of ‘youth’ is absolutely critical for any decent development strategy aimed at achieving sustainable and inclusive growth. Yet, even taking a long-term view, not only have the youth unemployment rates remained far above that of the all-India figures, but there have been other persistent disadvantages which severely hinder their transition from school to work. As widely acknowledged in the literature, a large proportion of them end up either un- or underemployed or in working poverty being employed in informal services and working under precarious conditions. These labour market outcomes for the youth, however, need to be placed within the broader macroeconomic architecture and the subsequent long-term structural crisis that has plagued India during much of the neo-liberal regime. In fact, the structural transformation, in particular has been one of a low and even declining employment elasticity of output; a trend which has only intensified in the recent years even prior to the pandemic. From the political economy perspective, this reflects an obvious outcome of contemporary ‘spontaneous capitalism’, which has an inherent tendency of labour repulsion. With low labour absorption on one hand, and a large pool of young people, i.e., the new labour market entrants given the current ‘youth bulge’ in the country, on the other, the issues pertaining to youth employment challenge have become crucial at the present juncture. Their employment question has become even more relevant today, as the youth faced an unequal burden of the COVID-19 induced economic crisis. Against this backdrop, the chapter looks at the various current employment and unemployment challenges confronting the youth (15–29 years) in India. In particular, emphasis has been on highlighting the particular vulnerabilities of the youth in India’s world of work relative to the older age groups (30+). The gender and social-group-based inequities have also been examined in this regard while focusing on select dimensions of participation rates and other rates of labour underutilization, employment distribution, quality of jobs, etc., across rural–urban areas.