According to the latest survey of the World Bank, the state of Jammu and Kashmir, ranks among the worst Indian states for business. If asked to give a reason for this, every one of us will offer different reasons. But, the root cause of all our problems is conflict. Decades of turmoil have affected our valley in every way. Be it our economy, progress, development, education or business, every sector has had to bear the brunt of this everlasting turmoil. How all these sectors, especially our business sector, have been affected is pretty obvious. But, for the sake of clarity, I will try to explain how conflict and turmoil is affecting our business sector negatively.
Let us take the example of a labourer, who works hard, on a daily basis, to earn his livelihood. Now, this particular labourer is only able to feed and take care of his family if he is able to find work every day and earn his wages. When the same labourer is not be able to work due to strikes, protests and curfews, he cant earn his livelihood and thus wont be able to feed his family. On the other hand, a high ranking official treats strikes and curfews as holidays. In this situation, it is pretty clear that it is the common man who suffers ultimately.
Unemployment has been an ongoing debate in our society for long. Everyone knows that it is useless to look at the government for jobs as it cant employ all. Where do the people look for employment then? The private sector, which is sadly, non-existent in our Valley. The reason is that most companies and MNCs aim at gaining profits but a valley which remains shut for various reasons, for the better part of the year, hardly provides an attractive location for the private sector.
According to a survey around eight Lakh educated youth are without jobs and totally dependent on their parents in our valley. As already stated, our government cannot accommodate all but the least they can do is make Kashmir an attractive location for various MNCs and companies to establish their business units here. This will not only provide employment to hundreds of jobless youth but will also help in putting our valley on the global map.
Strikes and shutdowns dont only affect the business sector, they affect our educational sector too. Most institutes of the valley remain closed for days, sometimes even months, altogether. Thus, the students sit at home idle or roam around aimlessly. Many of these students may fall prey to bad habits like smoking or doing drugs since, an idle mind is the devils workshop. Psychological problems like depression are also on rise in our valley as the continuing turmoil is taking its toll on our minds. It is only a matter of time before every one of the people living in this part of the world will suffer from stress and depression. Some even say that the rise in the number of youth joining the militancy ranks, is also due to widespread unemployment.
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