Today our Labour and Employement minister, Mallikarjun Kharge declared
in Lok Sabha that nearly 2 lakh (200,000) engineers and 1.32 lakh
(132,000) diploma holders were unemployed in 2007. He also said
Government is planning to create 15 million jobs by the end of 11th Plan
in public and private sectors. This year the number of unemployed
engineers and diploma holders is likely to increase heavily due to
current economic recession. In 2003, there were 82,000 unemployed
engineers in India and in 2005 the number rose to 1.12 lakh (112,000)
and due to IT book it fell to
48,000 in 2006. This is really a shocking news for engineers of India.
Also, this figure has put a question mark on the quality of education in
engineering colleges of India.
Let’s discuss one case study of a 16 years old 10th standard student of India.
This is common problem in Indian families. Parents put unnecessary pressure on their kids into studying and getting high careers. They want to make their sons or daughters doctor, lawyer, scientist, engineer so that they will earn high salary
and have a top job in future. Now a day engineering degree has become
the obvious choice of Indian middle class because of ever rising salaries
and comfortable work environment for the engineers but in my opinion,
parents need to see the interest and dreams of their children instead of
forcing them to chase some mad rush of joining IITs, IIMs or NITs to
become eligible for big MNC’s. If we allow our children to go for
studying in which field they like they can do wonders.
There are some other reasons behind 2 lakh unemployed engineers in India.
Let’s discuss one case study of a 16 years old 10th standard student of India.
I’m 16 years old studying in 10th class. My parents are pressuring me to be an Engineer it’s not even funny, lol. I try to reason with them and I really don’t understand why they think engineers are such “god-like” people, lol. I mean, I really love history and arts and can work well with money and finance and I like economics so I’m really interested in careers either in arts or commerce. I tell them all the facts of how I love these subjects, I tell them I love to do it, I’m good at it (I hate physics, chemistry. They don’t interest me), and I’ll be a lot better at something I enjoy. My parents say that getting an engineering degree will make my future secure. What the fuck?
This is common problem in Indian families. Parents put unnecessary pressure on their kids into studying and getting high careers. They want to make their sons or daughters doctor, lawyer, scientist, engineer so that they will earn high salary
and have a top job in future. Now a day engineering degree has become
the obvious choice of Indian middle class because of ever rising salaries
and comfortable work environment for the engineers but in my opinion,
parents need to see the interest and dreams of their children instead of
forcing them to chase some mad rush of joining IITs, IIMs or NITs to
become eligible for big MNC’s. If we allow our children to go for
studying in which field they like they can do wonders.There are some other reasons behind 2 lakh unemployed engineers in India.
- Poor Quality of Engineering Education in private colleges and old Government Colleges — According to latest report only 25 % engineering graudates in India are employable, this means they can work in the industry and utilise their engineering knowledge. This is because of poor quality of education in engineering colleges. Government should take some steps to improve the quality of education in Indian colleges. Also the syllabus should be made par to the industry standards.
- Entrance tests for Engineering colleges — Most of the students who join private engineering colleges have around 50 to 60% marks in their 12th standard. They also need not to face any entrance test due to plenty of private engineering colleges in Inida. Such students lack basic knowledge of English and Mathematics & Science. What should we expect from these students? Believe me more than 75 % engineers are not fit for industry. But we should not completely blame this 75 % engineers. Most of these students are forced by their parents to pursue career in Engineering.
