Youth Congress launches campaign for National Register of Unemployed, says joblessness India’s biggest concern

NEW DELHI: To counter the Modi government on its push for CAA-NRC-NPR, the Indian Youth Congress on Thursday launched a nationwide campaign demanding that the Modi government create a National Register of Unemployed (NRU) to address the problem of joblessness, a bigger concern for Indian youth in light of the economic slowdown.


The demand for an NRU, IYC office bearers said, is in response to the swelling rate of unemployment in India, which touched a 45-year high in 2019. Congress said unemployed persons can support the demand for NRU by giving a missed call to a toll-free number set up for this purpose. Data collected through the missed call campaign, they said, will be used to urge the government to set up an NRU.

IYC president Srinivas BV said the number of suicides of unemployed youths was now overtaking the number of farmer suicides. Taking pot-shots at PM Narendra Modi for allegedly buying special glasses to see the solar eclipse, Srinivas said, “The Youth Congress is ready to buy a pair of spectacles from anywhere in the world for the Prime Minister to see the problems of the youth, which he has till now refused to acknowledge.”

AICC Joint secretary in charge of Youth Congress, Krishna Allavaru said the unemployed people in the country did not want to hear about the Citizenship Amendment Act or National Register of Citizens (NRC), but wanted the government to focus, instead, on increasing employment opportunities in the country.

Congress alleged that as many as 36 youths committed suicide in the country every day. “The root cause of recession in India is ‘Modi-made’ and ‘Made in India’. It has been created by the Narendra Modi government due to its wrong policies like demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax,” Allavaru said.

IYC spokesperson Amrish Ranjan said as part of the campaign for NRU, unemployed youths will have to call on the toll-free number and the call details would be sent to the government.