The ongoing student protests started over irregularities in conduct of India’s medical college entrance exam, but the widespread response shows that they have struck a chord in a much wider group of students and youth who are anxious over their education and employment prospects. This calls for a larger understanding of these concerns. This two-part data journalism series will do exactly that, borrowing from India’s official data and the research around it. The first part will pinpoint the in-built labour
Another brick in the wall – why is the educated youth angry Education as a promised harbinger of upward mobility has a cross-class appeal
On Wednesday, these pages showed how a large share of India’s younger population does not enter the labour force – population working or looking for work – because it wants to study further. The idea is simple: younger people see a promise of upward mobility via better jobs in pursuing education. Unit level analysis of Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data, India’s official labour market statistics, shows that postponing labour force entry to pursue education is common across the class divide.
But college educated people also account for the largest share of the unemployed in India
The numbers are absolutely unambiguous. More than half of India’s unemployed persons have an educational qualification of graduate or above, according to the latest PLFS data. Only 19% of these unemployed persons have ever worked before, which means that a large number of them are yet to find even their first jobs. An overwhelming 97% of those who are graduates and unemployed without having ever worked were below the age of 34.
For most educated people, the jobs they get are far removed from their dream jobs
PLFS data shows this very clearly once again. If one looks at the income distribution of salaried workers by their educational qualification, the real discernible premium for the college educated worker, more so in terms of absolute earnings, only shows for the top 25% of the cohort. Half of India’s graduate-and-above salaried workers reported earning up to just ₹30,000 per month. This number was even lower -- ₹22,000 -- for graduate-and-above workers in the 15-34-years age group. If one were to describe a monthly income of ₹1 lakh as an aspirational wage for a college educated salaried worker, only about 4% of India’s graduate-and-above workers made that kind of money. While presenting the 2025-26 Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the new tax slabs would mean no tax payable for salaried income up to ₹12.75 lakh per annum, suggesting that even the government was okay with the idea of not taxing income up to this level. What explains this broken promise of education in India? Why does educational training not translate into better paying jobs in India?
Most of India’s higher education is generalist rather than employment centric
This is one of the biggest problems of India’s higher education system. While enrolment levels have increased steadily, this has mostly happened in generalist courses which do not really enhance the immediate employability prospects for students. It should not be surprising, therefore, that a lot of this college educated workforce tries to get into government jobs through competitive examinations where the probability of selection is very low. To be sure, the latest data on higher education enrolment shows that students are realizing this and pivoting away from generalist courses in higher education. The second part will show why this does not guarantee an improvement.
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