NOT ALL the youths, who received the unemployment dole from Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav on June 16, are unemployed.
At least in Sitapur, quite a few of them, especially females, are either employed at some private nursery and primary schools or are working in junior high schools. Only fresh graduates were found to be actually unemployed.
This came to light when this correspondent interacted with some of the beneficiaries at the Employment Exchange and other places.
There are about 8175 youths who have received the allowance. Of them, about 2,128 are women. At least 70 per cent of the women beneficiaries are employed with schools, or self-employed. Most of them earn Rs 2,000 per month.
Many of the young men are employed with private entrepreneurs, or shops.
Some of them are working for private companies in Lucknow and its adjoining districts. Many B.Sc graduates are teachers in local schools. They are paid Rs 1000 to Rs 2000 monthly.Proof of all this comes from the beneficiaries themselves.
Sunita Kumari (21) says she is employed with a school in Vijay Laxaminagar and earns Rs 1,300 as salary and Rs 1,000 from tuitions. She is happy to have received the allowance from the government. Now, her elder sister and brother plan to follow in her footsteps.
The story of Shabana Ansari is no different. She is employed with a school in Khairabad and gets a salary of Rs 900. Delighted to have received the allowance, she has persuaded four friends of hers to follow suit. Kuljeet Kaur, a postgraduate in History, is a teacher at a junior high school. Javed Ansari earns Rs 2,200 from a carpet-manufacturing unit in Khairabad. Talking to HT, he says, “It is due to the grace of god that I have got Rs 500 from the government.
{{/usCountry}}The story of Shabana Ansari is no different. She is employed with a school in Khairabad and gets a salary of Rs 900. Delighted to have received the allowance, she has persuaded four friends of hers to follow suit. Kuljeet Kaur, a postgraduate in History, is a teacher at a junior high school. Javed Ansari earns Rs 2,200 from a carpet-manufacturing unit in Khairabad. Talking to HT, he says, “It is due to the grace of god that I have got Rs 500 from the government.
{{/usCountry}}This will help my younger brother, who is a brilliant student.” Commerce graduate Subhash Chander works as an accountant for about a dozen shopkeepers and earns Rs 3,000 a month. Another commerce graduate Shailesh Kumar is an assistant to a chartered accountant and earns Rs 2,600 per month. He, too, has been paid unemployment allowance. Most of the youths are happy as they are getting ‘pocket money’ from the government for buying recharge cards for their mobile phones and spending on tobacco and fast food.
However, there are some graduates who are actually unemployed. They are either seeking admission to postgraduate courses, or undergoing computer training.
Advocate Rashid Jameel says the government should introduce a social security scheme for senior citizens, but not dole out ‘pocket money’ to the youth. He says the youth should be made to work if they are paid.