Youth Parliament in Delhi Demand ‘Jobs, Not Communal Mobs!
Hundreds of Youth from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Maharashtra, West Bengal and other states joined the Youth Parliament organised by Revolutionary Youth Association (RYA) on 1 August at Jantar Mantar with the slogan ‘Youth Demand Jobs not Mobs! and ‘No More Empty Promises, No More Diversion, No More Communal Polarisation!.
When communal and ethnic hatred looms large under Modi Governance, and unemployment rates are highest in last 45 years, more than 37 lakh posts are vacant in railways, corruption and paper leak have become norm in recruitment exams, all public sectors are being sold out resulting in diminishing employment opportunities and all labour rights are destroyed under massive informalisation of workforce, the youth gathered at the Parliament Street and passed resolution demanding an Urban Employment Guarantee Act as Bhagat Singh Employment Guarantee Act and called to resist the BJP regime’s hate machinery. They also passed a resolution demanding justice and peace in Manipur.
Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary, CPIML said , "The youth constitute a major part of India today. Denying them opportunities of knowledge, of dignified livelihood is a harm to the nation. Unemployment and hatred have become a model of the Modi regime's governance."
Sandeep Saurav, CPIML MLA from Paliganj, Bihar said, "Today education policy has been changed through NEP to push out students from States like Bihar out of higher education. Programs like FYUP will further destroy Bihar's higher education. Youth with degrees are being told to look for their own as the government will not give them jobs. Can this situation sustain ? We demand the Urban Employment Guarantee Act. We demand Bhagat Singh Employment Guarantee Act for educated youth."
Ajit Kushwaha, CPIML MLA from Dumrao, Bihar said, "Youth of Bihar have been fighting for dignified jobs. When they demand regular employment in railways, they face lathi charge. When they protested against contractualisation of army recruitments through Agnipath, they faced false cases and imprisonment. The present regime is playing with the future of youth and it must be overthrown from power."
Jitendra Meena, faculty of DU and a well known leader of the movement of social justice said, "Today's news tells us one RPF personnel killed one adivasi and three Muslims when he opened fire inside a train. Manipur has been burning for the last two months. Tribals are being targeted so that their land can be captured for commercialisation. The new forest conservation amendment act also is designed to deny Adivasis their right to forest lands. Today's regime is targeting the country's youth and the marginalised."
Banojyotsna Lahiri, social activist said, "The firing by the RPF personnel inside a train is a symptom of the BJP regime. The perpetrator represents those who have been turned into hate machines by the present regime. Modi and Yogi want youth who will kill targeting Muslims and tribals. We must not let them become successful."
Prof. Nandita Narain from Delhi University, RYA national president Aftab Alam, Prof. Ratanlal from Hindu college along with Youth representatives from movements for dignified employment from all over the country spoke at the Youth Parliament.
The Youth parliament passed resolutions demanding
Enactment of urban employment guarantee act.
Enactment of Bhagat Singh Employment Guarantee Act for youth with educational degrees of graduation and more.
Fill up all vacancies in government jobs.
Enact law to make the private sector liable for employment generation.
Fulfil reservation in jobs. Ensure reservation in private sector jobs.
Ensure justice for Manipur. Stop shielding perpetrators of communal violence.
The RYA national general secretary Niraj Kumar said that the country is right now going through a phase of unprecedented unemployment. This fact has been reiterated time and again through various surveys and reports. India’s unemployment rate is the highest in 45 years which presently is 8.11% as of April 2023 according to data released by CMIE. While the youth was promised 2 crore jobs per year before the 2014 elections, what was seen after the election was a justification of denial of all job opportunities via the PM's infamous proposal to the country's youth to get self-employed by engaging in ‘Pakoda’ selling. What we saw subsequently was massive corruption in all major recruitments from SSC to UPPSC. When aspirants of these recruitment exams protested against the corruption, they were dealt with lathi-charge and crackdown.
Millions of posts are lying vacant in major job generating sectors in the country. The railways which have been the largest provider of central government jobs has more than 3.12 lakh non-gazetted posts lying vacant. Regular recruitments in railways have been systematically destroyed in the last few years. To add to it, additional exams are being conducted for recruitment in Group D to further exacerbate delay in recruitments. The job loss in railways is nothing but a manifestation of the central government’s plan to sell out railways in private hands. Thousands of youth have consistently protested in different parts of the country to demand regular recruitment processes to take place facing police action and violent crackdown.
The crisis in the banking sector generated by corporate led NPA is being dealt with mergers of banks directly resulting in massive job loss in the country. The country remembers the mass upsurge against the BJP government’s Agnipath scheme that has been brought in to introduce rampant contractualisation in recruitment in the army.
Tarique Anwar, RYA leader from Bihar who was put behind bars for months for leading a protest against Agnipath scheme also participated in the parliament.
