Centre 'penalising' educated youth for having 'real degrees': Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has launched a stinging attack on the Centre on the prevailing issue of unemployment in India. He alleged that the government is "penalising them" for having the required educational qualifications.

Gandhi tweeted, "Educated youth is facing severe joblessness. It seems GOI is penalising them, especially OBC-SC-ST candidates, for having real degrees!" He also shared news reports about the same.

According to one of the news reports shared by Rahul Gandhi, 62 per cent OBC and 63 per cent SC faculty positions were left vacant in IIMs whereas in IGNOU, 41 per cent SC and 67 per cent OBC faculty seats were left vacant. Another report shared by the former Congress president stated that IIMs had the highest percentage of vacancies at 73.7 per cent.

India's unemployment rate peaked to 6.9 per cent in February 2021, according to the latest data by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).

The CMIE report stated despite a rise in the national joblessness figures, unemployment rate in urban areas fell from 8.08 per cent in January 2021 to 6.99 per cent in February 2021. Unemployment rate in rural areas however rose from 5.83 per cent in January 2021 to 6.86 per cent in February.

As per this data, states like Haryana (26.4 per cent), Rajasthan (25.6 per cent) and Goa (21.1 per cent) reported highest unemployment figures in February while unemployment figures fell in states like Assam (1.6 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh (2.1 per cent).

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