Can’t let war become work for Indian youth

Russia-Ukraine War: Service members of Ukrainian Joint Assault Brigade Fury fire a S60 cannon towards Russian troops near the front-line town of Bakhmut.(Reuters) That said, an apple farmer, an out-of-work graduate, and a former airline-catering employee, among several others, rushing for jobs in a conflict zone points to a deeper problem — the lack of jobs that pay competitive salaries. The unemployment rate stood at a high 8% at the end of February, as per data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy. Read against the impressive Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth showing, this raises jobless-growth concerns. Rural wages have stagnated, as farm growth has been anaemic. Such factors are leading to desperate choices, reflected in the willingness to join a war, albeit in supposedly non-combat roles. Spurring job creation needs a clutch of fixes, including the implementation of liberalised labour Codes.