By Arpita Mishra
India’s youth crisis is not just about jobs or statistics; it is about how we nurture the minds and spirits of the next generation. If student life is wasted, adulthood becomes a battlefield of compromises. If student life is dedicated to learning, adulthood becomes a journey of contribution and dignity.
Breaking the cycle, therefore, is not only a matter of policy reform — it is also a cultural and personal responsibility. Parents must prioritise education over early income or marriage; teachers must demand rigour; and students must recognise that these years will never return.
Only when the youth of India embrace this duty — to work hard, study deeply, and build intellectual strength before adulthood — can the nation hope to convert its demographic dividend into a true future dividend of prosperity, creativity, and happiness.
What Breaks the Cycle?
Education that matches reality
Degrees must translate into employable skills. The mismatch between education and industry demand is glaring. Under PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana, only 15% of 1.6 crore trained youth found jobs — a stark reminder that quantity is not quality.Creating dignified jobs
Investment in labour-intensive industries like textiles, green manufacturing, and rural enterprises is crucial. Without job creation, skill programmes remain cosmetic.Strengthening families and health systems
Affordable healthcare, childcare, and social protection (pensions, insurance) can reduce the burden on families. This is especially critical for women, who shoulder dual responsibilities of work and caregiving.Breaking stigma
Society must move away from equating success only with salaried jobs. Entrepreneurship, farming, and creative work need dignity and support structures.
• A Life Shaped by Joblessness :-
The youth unemployment rate in India stands at 13.8% (April 2025). Urban youth are hit harder, with nearly one in six unemployed. The scale of the crisis means that even those who secure work often find themselves trapped in the informal economy, which accounts for over 82% of jobs. These jobs rarely provide stability, benefits, or dignity.
But unemployment is not merely about jobs lost; it is about life postponed. The inability to find decent work delays marriage for some, while for others, marriage becomes a forced coping mechanism, transferring the economic burden from parents to spouses.
• The Role of Family and Parental Responsibilities :-
In Indian households, parents invest heavily in their children’s education, often beyond their means. Families take loans, sell land, or cut back on essentials to ensure their children get a degree. Yet, when jobs do not materialise, disappointment sets in. Parents carry guilt, while young adults feel the weight of failed expectations.
For those who marry early, responsibilities multiply. Young men often become sole breadwinners; young women balance unpaid domestic care with low-paid informal work.
The intergenerational cycle deepens — parents support their unemployed children, and in turn, children feel obliged to support aging parents without resources of their own.
• Health, Happiness, and the Pressure of Survival :-
Joblessness takes a toll on both mental and physical health. A 2023 survey by the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy found higher depression rates among unemployed youth. With low incomes, diets worsen, healthcare becomes unaffordable, and stress escalates.
India’s position in the World Happiness Index reflects these realities. Ranked 126th out of 143 countries in 2024, India’s youth are caught between rising aspirations and fragile livelihoods. The constant comparison with peers — on social media, in extended families, and in society — further deepens feelings of inadequacy.
For many young couples, the pursuit of happiness gets replaced by the burden of survival: How to pay rent, manage children’s school fees, or cover medical costs without insurance?
• Marriage, Children, and the Vicious Cycle :-
Marriage, once a milestone of stability, often intensifies economic pressures. Young couples find themselves juggling childcare, elderly care, and unstable incomes. Women frequently drop out of the workforce after marriage, reducing household earning capacity. Men migrate for work, leaving behind “left-behind wives” and children in villages.
Children, in turn, grow up in the same cycle. They see parents struggling in informal work, with limited resources for quality education or healthcare. For many, childhood means
contributing to household income — working in fields, shops, or as domestic helpers. Thus, poverty becomes intergenerational, reproducing itself in new forms.
• The Destructive Paths: Drugs, Smoking, Falling Out :-
Once student life is disrupted — either because of economic necessity, lack of support, or despair — many young people turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms. Substance abuse, smoking, and other risky behaviours become more accessible: alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs as a way to escape stress and uncertainty.
These paths further close doors: addictions lead to health problems, loss of time (that could have been used for study or work), stigma, even legal trouble, and breaking family relationships.
Also, lacking savings or resources, a single illness or accident can trap families in debt, further reducing the possibility of investing in education. Consumerism (mobile phones, social media, lifestyle expectations) can create pressures to spend on “appearances,” adding to debt or misprioritisation of expenditures, while savings continue to be negligible among the poorest.
• The Trap of informal work :-
Informal jobs — from gig delivery to construction to small shop work — dominate the Indian landscape. They offer no health insurance, pensions, maternity benefits, or legal protection.
The Indian Express reported in 2024 that the informal sector lost 16.45 lakh jobs over seven years, making conditions even harsher.
Youth enter these jobs not out of choice, but because there is no alternative. Once inside, upward mobility is rare. The cycle is harsh: low wages mean no savings; no savings mean dependence on loans; loans push families into deeper poverty.
•Declining Indicators, Rising Pressure :-
Though India is improving in many human development metrics, several indicators show that many of its youth are still suffering. The Happiness Index is low: India was 126th out of 143 in the latest World Happiness Report, indicating that material gains are not sufficient to ensure life satisfaction.
Hunger and malnutrition remain severe. India’s rank in the Global Hunger Index has been poor, with large numbers of children under-five suffering from wasting or stunting.
Meanwhile, even though education years are increasing, many students graduate without sufficient employable skills. Despite more schooling, the link between education index improvements and job market outcomes remains weak. The poor often attend schools with fewer resources, less guidance, or are forced to drop out due to family responsibilities or child labour.
Inequality worsens the burden: rising income and wealth gaps mean that many youth do not benefit from per capita income growth.
• Index Trends for India
At 27, Sunita from Bihar balances multiple worlds. She graduated in history , completed a government-sponsored tailoring course, and dreamt of a teaching job. Today, she stitches clothes at home while caring for her two-year-old daughter. Her husband, a migrant worker in Delhi, earns erratic daily wages. Together, they live in constant anxiety — of bills, health expenses, and the uncertain future of their child.
Ravi, a 24-year-old graduate from a government college in Uttar Pradesh, spends his days shuttling between online job portals and odd delivery shifts in his town. With a bachelor’s degree in commerce, he had imagined a stable office job. Instead, he earns less than ₹9,000 a month in gig work, with no social security or career growth. His story is not unique — it mirrors the plight of millions of young Indians who stand at the crossroads of aspiration and despair.
Sunita and Ravis’ story is emblematic of millions of young Indians. Beneath the numbers and reports lies a lived reality where aspirations collide with economic insecurity, where the weight of family responsibilities overwhelms youthful dreams, and where the “demographic dividend” risks turning into a demographic despair.
•A Call for Urgency:-
India has often celebrated its “youth bulge” as a demographic advantage. But without urgent action, this bulge could become a ticking time bomb. Every year, millions of young people like Sunita and Ravi fall through the cracks — educated but unemployed, skilled but underpaid, married but burdened, parenting but impoverished.
The question is not just economic but existential: What happens to a generation whose aspirations are constantly deferred? A nation’s future cannot rest on the fragile shoulders of youth denied stability, dignity, and hope.
The answer lies in seeing unemployment not as a statistic, but as a human crisis — one that shapes lifestyles, happiness, health, and generations to come. Breaking the cycle requires not just policies, but compassion, urgency, and a re-imagining of what it means to give India’s youth a real future.
•Breaking the Cycle: The Power of Student Life :-
If India is to break this cycle of unemployment, informality, and generational poverty, the change must begin much earlier — during student life. The years between 15 and 24, when most young people complete higher secondary and graduation, are decisive. Once a young person marries, takes up work, or assumes family responsibilities, the space for self-development, re-skilling, and deep study shrinks dramatically.
In India’s socio-economic reality, a youth in their mid-20s often becomes the backbone of their family — responsible for parents, siblings, spouse, and eventually children. At that stage, their hours are spent in service and survival; very few can return to systematic learning. Thus, the discipline, intellectual capacity, and habits cultivated during student life determine the trajectory of an entire lifetime.
This places a duty not only on the education system, but also on students themselves. Parents and society can provide resources, but the real responsibility rests with the student: to treat those years as sacred, to work hard, to cultivate habits of reading, questioning, and perseverance. A young person who builds energy, intellect, and curiosity before the age of 21 or 24 will carry those strengths into every phase of life.
In other words, the only real way to break the cycle of poor education leading to poor jobs is by making student life a time of uncompromising effort. That is the period when the human mind is most capable of absorbing knowledge, building discipline, and shaping character. The failure to invest in this phase condemns many to lifelong struggle.
References:
India’s youth unemployment (ages 15–29) was ~19% in July 2025.
Source: Reuters, Aug 2025
Overall unemployment rate (15+ years) was 5.1% in August 2025.
Source: PIB, Aug 2025
Female Labour Force Participation Rate (FLFPR) rose from 27.8% in 2022-23 to 31.7% in 2023-24, still among the lowest globally.
Source: Reuters, July 2025
Informal economy dominance: About 90% of India’s workforce is informally employed (no contracts, no social security).
Source: WIEGO Statistical Brief, 2020
Rural women workforce increase: Female LFPR (15+) rose from 23.3% in 2017-18 to 32.8% in 2021-22; rural female LFPR increased from 24.6% to 36.6%.
Source: DGE, Govt of India, 2023
Unorganised sector employment: Around 83% of India’s workforce is in the unorganised sector.
Source: IMF Paper, 2019
India Employment Report 2024 (IHD & ILO): Finds mismatch between education and labour market demand, with skill gaps limiting youth employment.
Source: ILO, 2024
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