The timing of the National Education Policy 2020 aligned with the country’s broader realization of the fact that it might be experiencing a demographic dividend! 65% of Indian population will remain in the working age category up to 2030. This number will slightly decline to 62%, by 2050. When a country experiences a situation like this, it is faced by several challenges. Broadly, two things can happen. One, the country is able to harness its big working age population as a productive resource, generate and harness its human capital and develop in a speedy manner. Or two, a country misses this bus and is unable to skill and train its population. In both cases, people populating the working-age category graduate to old-age/non-working category in the next two to three decades.

Currently, 1001.7 million Indians fall in the working-age group. Of this, around 10 million are the residents of Jammu and Kashmir. The official unemployment rate of J&K has been calculated at 06.7%. 473000 (and increasing) working age people from J&K are actively looking for work but continue being unemployed. Around 16% workforce of J&K is employed in the government sector. Roughly 04% work in non-government formal sector. Rest 80% are employed in semi-formal or informal sectors respectively. Of these 80%, more than half are self-employed. Casual labors again form a considerable fraction of this very group.

In the last two years, overall college enrollments in J&K have dropped by 26%!The National Education Policy 2020, came as the central government’s response to the youth bulge of the country! Given the fact that India currently homes the largest population of the world, this populace in essence and spirit needs........

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