Only jobs to Kashmiri youth can heal wounds in the valley | Analysis

Home minister Amit Shah did not speak on the matter of jobs during the debate in the parliament that concluded in the abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35 A.

Updated on: Jun 11, 2020, 21:33:53 IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By Chetan Chauhan

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After the effective scrapping of Article 35 (A), the key question confronting unemployed young people in the newly formed Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Ladakh will be whether they get to keep the right to government jobs the constitutional provision had offered them. Unemployment is a major concern in the Kashmir Valley and has been cited by experts in the past as one of the reasons for young men taking up arms against the State.

The key question confronting unemployed young people in the newly formed Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Ladakh will be whether they get to keep the right to government jobs the constitutional provision had offered them. (Reuters Photo)

Home minister Amit Shah was silent on the matter of jobs in the parliamentary debate that concluded on Tuesday in the nullification of Articles 370, which gave special status to the state of J&K, and Article 35 A, which reserved benefits such as government jobs and property ownership for people deemed to be permanent residents of the erstwhile state of J&K.

Also watch: ‘Will embrace Kashmiris:’ Amit Shah as LS passes bifurcation bill, scraps 370

The nullification of Article 35 A could effectively mean that all government jobs in the new union territories would be up for grabs for all citizens of India unless special safeguards are provided by the Centre in subsequent rules to be issued in the next few months.

As of now, the youth in the state will not have the first claim over government jobs in the state, which had been the practice since 1954 when Article 35 A came into force. This is happening at a time when several state governments are invoking regionalism by ensuring locals get preference in government and private jobs.

On July 24, the Andhra Pradesh assembly passed a law reserving 75% of jobs in the southern state for local candidates in factories, industrial units, joint ventures and private projects taken up in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. In mid-July, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath told the state assembly that he would bring a law to reserve for locals 70% of jobs in the private sector in return for incentives that have been offered by the state government to the employers.

Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant went a step further, promising 80% of private-sector job for Goans; 60% of these jobs would be permanent in nature.

In November 2017, the Karnataka government brought in a policy reserving 70% of the jobs in the private sectors for locals. The Maharashtra government in November 2008 reserved 80% of the jobs in micro and small scale industries for Maharashtrians.

Several states have introduced measures in the past decades to ensure locals get jobs in the government sector.

Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, and Odisha have a mandatory test in the state language to apparently minimize the possibility of outsiders getting government jobs. Hindi-speaking states such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Haryana provide age relaxation for state residents in the state service commission examinations.

Although Kashmir’s special status now stands gone, some other states will continue to enjoy special status under Article 371 of the Constitution. This article provides special land and job rights to natives in Sikkim, Nagaland and Mizoram, it also limits the powers of Parliament to enact any law that interferes with tribal religious laws, customs, and their judicial system. Article 371 prohibits the buying of agricultural land in Himachal Pradesh.

A look at the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019, which now defines the nature of the Union territory of J&K and Lakakh, does not have any provision for safeguarding interests of residents. Issues involving services that include regulating jobs in the government sector will be the prerogative of the Lieutenant Governor. The Jammu and Kashmir police, the biggest employer of local young men, would now be under direct control of the central government via the Lieutenant Governor.

Jobs have long been considered a crucial aspect in mainstreaming young people in the region, perhaps more vulnerable to pro-militancy propaganda in the changed circumstances.

Both the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) governments at the Centre have run schemes to coach young candidates for taking up government and private sector jobs. They did have a positive impact, with the unemployment rate in Jammu and Kashmir being lower than other northern states, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey done by the National Sample Survey Office for the period 2017-18.

The state ranked 11 among 21 states ranked by the JustJobs Index of quality jobs, compiled by the Azim Premji University. Moreover, government data shows that Jammu and Kashmir is not as under-developed as perceived by mainland India.

Even so, young Kashmiris need to be assured that, despite the effective revocation of Articles 370 and 35A, skill development and employment creation schemes will continue and many more jobs will be generated in which the locals receive preference. This could serve as a balm for young people tormented by uncertainty over their future.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More