Working With Hands

Skilled physical work isn’t a social stigma. India has to fix its thinking, if more young people are to find jobs 

Azim Premji University’s State of Working India 2026, highlights a key point, which explains why India struggles to fix its 40-year-old problem of joblessness. Apart from structural challenges and gaps, the report talks of the need for “an attitude shift in society” on what counts as “knowledge”, and what’s “dignified work”.  Caste, class and colonial legacies inform, to this day, what work is “respectable”. Only 6.7% young graduates, aged 20-29, had permanent salaried jobs in 2023. About 40% are unemployed. Less than half had some form of work: self-employed or ready to be underemployed, as a way of getting a foot in the door marked better prospects. Of course, high levels of unemployment among graduates are not uniquely an Indian phenomenon. But, the sheer volume of India’s working-age population, makes unemployability a crisis.

Look at the numbers – India’s 367mn-strong working-age population (aged 15-29), is about 20mn more than US’s population. Keeping out those in school and college, there are 263mn in the workforce. By 2036, the report estimates, graduates will be 38% of employable men, up from 26% in 2023, in age group 20-24. Among men aged 25-29, share of graduates is projected to rise from about 30% to 42% by 2036. It simply cannot be business as usual.

The idea that “head work” is superior to “hand work”, putting higher value on mental labour than on physical labour, is defined both by caste and class. Graduates from middle-classes and aspiring middle-classes aspire to “head work”. Status is a prime consideration, for jobs that will pass family and society’s approval. There is near contempt for hand work. The report says skill training, vocational and technical, must be made aspirational. Formalising jobs, that such training attracts, is key. The world of work has to be made class and caste-agnostic. 

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