The unemployed deserve better

There is full flow of rhetoric in policymakers' speeches when it comes to reaping demographic dividends, particularly when about one-fourth of the population is in the 15-30 age group. But in practice, the youths are the ones who are made to struggle all the way to make good careers. Neither are the young people receiving below par education nor are the graduates and post-graduates treated with care for developing their skill sets for a breakthrough in the scarce job market ---government, private, UN system or abroad.
According to the ministry of public administration, 26 per cent of the approved positions, accounting for 500,000, in government offices are lying vacant. Here the rhetorical ambivalence or better say emptiness could not be clearer: 10 per cent of the university graduates are unemployed and the ratio of joblessness among the 15-29 young people is 8.7 per cent. The mismatch between education and demand is quite evident with the unemployment ratio among the higher educated remaining higher.
This explains why young lives perish in the Mediterranean sea on their illegal migration to Europe and also why those who can afford look for studies abroad. If this is the way of reaping demographic dividends, God forbid, the country will not take long to become a land of the mediocre. Already, the rot has begun. Then there is the dubious recruitment method fed on by question leak and other intrigues involving underhand deals of Tk 1.0 million to 1.5 million or more for ensuring employment for each candidate. Such cases are exposed from time to time but who knows how many of the impostors sneak to land jobs.
Against this backdrop, the finance division, ministry of finance, in a circular has imposed 15 per cent vat on the mobile operator's commission in case of online application for government job. The vat amount in an individual case will not be big but it is unacceptable for the wrong message it gives. Practically also, it will be an additional burden on the unemployed youths. Young unemployed people have to apply for several jobs and for years. Apart from applying for government jobs, they also apply for private and other jobs. Graduates and post-graduates usually apply for the 9th grade jobs and the application fee for this is Tk600. For BCS application, it is Tk700 and in some cases it goes as high as Tk 1,000-1,500. This is ridiculous.
Transcription of certificates, other documents, production of photos and processing of all the requirements particularly for candidates without their own computer or laptops cost quite a sum. Travel and accommodation costs prove too much for many. Such unemployed youths are already burdened. When the need is to do away with any application fee, this latest vat comes as an additional hostile measure to the unemployed.
That the unemployed young people cannot manage a job is not their fault. It is the systems of education and job creation that are to blame. In many countries including the one credited to have pioneered and led in espousing free market economy, the rights of the unemployed are recognised. As long as the governments cannot provide them with employment, they are entitled to unemployment benefits. Here, unemployed youths are not asking for such benefits. All they want is reduction of the application fees to the bare minimum. In fact, there should be no such fee, because those applying do not have any reliable income source.
This is no way of planning with a country's human resources. Recruitment has to be made on the basis of merit. If merit is the top criterion, why subject candidates to a kind of indirect extortion! Rather make the process transparent, easy and accessible to all ---irrespective of their financial background. The candidates from poor family backgrounds are already discriminated against, they will encounter further institutional hostilities by way of high application fees and the fresh imposition of vat on mobile operators' commission.

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