INDIAN DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDEND, PROSPECTS & CHALLENGES IN THE CHANGING GLOBAL ECONOMIC SCENARIO

Recently we felt Sub-prime led financial crises 2007-10 followed by Euro zone meltdown in which the the countries like Greece, Italy, Spain, Ireland etc still groping in dark to overcome the debt crises with falling GDP rates & rising rates unemployment even to the alarming rates of 27% of the labour force .These crises are having the global impact & pose a serious challenge for the third world countries like India. With the growing population &, increasing labour force the job market becomes a challenge. The world population has gone to 711crore by 2013 in which the share of China is 136cr.(19%) & that of India is 125cr(17%).The labour force in these countries is 79cr.(58%) & 49.84 cr(40%) respectively. Both India & China are considered giant drivers of the growth in the world economy because of large market size. Both need to learn the lessons from the global financial & Euro crises especially India. Over the years GDP growth has been jobless & this trend needs to be reversed. At present India has demographic dividend i.e. more young population up to 64% of the total population of 125cr.The biggest question before us is can we turn the demographic dividend into the fruits given the high poverty level of 37% & 6% organized & 94% unorganized sector for employment option. The employment issue is the burning issue in the present era of globalization which touches the hearts & minds of all the youngsters we do produce from the colleges & Universities. The issue generates interest not only among the student –teacher community but also among the parents & society & other stake holders. The objectives of the present study are :-to analyze the job market of India with respect to rest of the world, finding the strategies & options to absorb the youth, focusing on the roadmaps to meet the global challenges. The present study is divided into four sections. The 1st section is introductory part,2nd is on demographic & employment trends,3rd deals with prospects & challenges for employment, the 4th & final section is the conclusive part with suggestion. The methodology used is time series analysis based on the secondary data. The time period chosen for the study is pre-1990s decade & post-1990s up to 2013.