A survey released by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) on Thursday showed that unemployment rate among Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and minorities have gone up during fiscal year 2018-19, despite drop in the overall rate in India.  This report includes data collected between July, 2018 and July, 2019.

According to the data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), unemployment rate in India declined to 5.8 per cent in FY19 as against 6.1 per cent in FY18.

While the unemployment rate among Scheduled Castes rose marginally to 6.4 per cent from 6.3 per cent in financial year 2017-18, the rate among Scheduled Tribes inched up to 4.5 per cent against 4.3 per cent reported in the previous year.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate among Other Backward Classes (OBCs) dropped to 5.9 per cent from 6 per cent earlier. For other castes, the rate came down to 5.9 per cent from 6.7 per cent.

More worryingly, the unemployment rate among educated youth in the age group of 15-29 years stood at 17.3 per cent in FY19. Adding to the woes, the unemployment rates among urban youths and urban females in the same age group were at 20.7 per cent and 25.7 per cent, respectively, in FY19.

In urban areas, one in four females was unemployed, as compared to one in five youths in FY19.

Among persons with secondary and above level education, unemployment rate was at 11 per cent as against 11.4 per cent in FY18. While unemployment among citizens identified as illiterate fell from 1.1 per cent to 1.2 per cent, the rate for literate and those with up to primary education rose to 2.4 per cent from 2.7 per cent. For middle school graduates, unemployment fell to 5.5 per cent to 4.8 per cent in FY19.

The data also showed that 69.5 per cent of regular wage/salaried employees in the non-agriculture sector had no written job contracts, rendering them ineligible for social security benefits. This condition was observed among males at 70.3 per cent while the same was 66.5 per cent among females.

Among the regular wage/salaried employees in the non-agriculture sector, 51.9 per cent were not eligible for any social security benefit. Of this, 51.2 per cent were male and 54.4 per cent were female, who were deprived of social welfare.

Religion-wise, unemployment rate among Muslims rose from 6.8 per cent to 7.3 per cent in the same period. For Sikhs, the rate climbed to 7.2 per cent from 6.9 per cent in FY18. For Hindus, the unemployment rate dropped from 5.8 per cent to 5.6 per cent and for Christians fell to 7.2 per cent from 8.7 per cent in the previous year.

By Chitranjan Kumar