Indians find lack of jobs and growing inflation are the biggest concerns for the nation, a survey reported. A survey by Washington-based Pew Research Centre showed that around 76 per cent adults in India see lack of employment opportunities as a very big problem for the nation, a survey showed. Around 73 per cent respondents believed that the rising prices are another major issue in India.
Apart from joblessness and price rise, Indian also picked corruption, terrorism, crime, economic disparity, poor quality schools, air pollution, health care and communal relations as the major problems in the present day.
In 2018, despite an estimated 3.5 per cent formal unemployment rate, 18.6 million Indians were jobless, the Pew report said. Another 393.7 million worked in poor-quality jobs vulnerable to displacement, it further said.
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Moreover, most of the respondents don't believe that the conditions have improved during the five years of Modi government. Around 67 per cent of the respondents believe that matters have gone worse. This includes 47 per cent who say that the job scenario has gotten much worse. Only 21 per cent Indians responded that job opportunities have grown in the past five years, the survey showed.
On inflation, which emerged as the second most concerning issue in the survey, 65 per cent Indian adults said that prices of goods and services have gotten worse in the past five years. Only 19 per cent opined that prices have gotten better during this period.
Despite the growing concerns over the Indian economy, around 65 per cent Indians responded that the financial situation of the average people in India has improved from what it was 20 years ago. However, the report pointed out signs of unrest.
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"About two-thirds of Indians (66%) believe that today's children will be better off than their parents. But that optimism is down 10 percentage points since 2017. Similarly, a majority of Indians (55%) are happy with the way things are going in their nation today. But that is down 15 points from 70% in 2017 and marks a return to the level of public satisfaction in 2015," the Pew survey said.
Still, Indians' mood remains much higher than in the last two years of the previous government of Manmohan Singh, it further added.