By Mohammad Tawheed
WHO financed your college or university degree? The latest smartphone you have in your hand, did you pay for it with your own hard-earned money? Or how much of the wedding jewellery you have was not bought with your parents’ but your own savings? Is it your friend or a sibling who pays the cab fare when you go for a job interview? Well, if it’s usually a person other than you who pays your bills, then you are very unlike those working part-time or shift jobs. There’s also a likelihood that you live in Kashmir because part-time work is still a taboo here.
Kashmir being a class-conscious society, associates different kinds of jobs with different classes. For instance, the educated upper and middle classes are typically associated with white collar jobs and the lower or uneducated class is associated with blue collar jobs. As a result, white collar jobs are valued highly whereas blue collar jobs are looked down upon. This class-based hierarchy of the job market in Kashmir has created a stigma around part-time work, which due to lack of a robust private sector mainly includes blue collar jobs.
Traditionally, government has been the biggest employer in Jammu and Kashmir and young educated people especially in Kashmir Valley have banked on full-time government jobs for their employment and job security. Most of the people in the Valley are averse to private sector jobs that do not guarantee job security. This dependence on government jobs as the only securework has also added to the stigma around part-time work among Kashmiris.
Consequently, a large number of young people─ students, college or university pass outs, people planning their marriages, people wanting to earn some extra money on top of their jobs or ventures or simply those in need─ miss out on a lot of part time-work or possibilities of making money. The educated but unemployed youth who aspire for nine to five administrative or managerial office jobs are unwilling to accept part-time blue-collar jobs as an alternative, at least for the time being. Even the unskilled and uneducated youth is reluctant to work as a part-timer.
Moreover, as the data released by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) depicts, the Union Territory of J&K is reeling under high unemployment rates. J&K reported a 17.1% unemployment rate, 3rd highest in the country for January-April quarter of 2022. In the May-August quarter, the rate was at 19.1%, again 3rd highest in the country. And in the month of September 2022, the unemployment rate jumped to 2nd highest in the country at 23.2%. This comes in the backdrop of huge economic devastation caused by crippling lockdowns necessitated by COVID-19 pandemic. During the lockdown periods, J&K’s major economic sectors like horticulture, tourism, transport and trade were among the least performing and also the most damaged sectors. According to CMIE, more than five lakh people in J&K lost their livelihood between June 2020 to March 2021. Daily wagers & labours depended upon NGOs or other volunteer organisations for their basic needs like food. Many businesses like local handicrafts suffered irrecoverable losses while some of the business units were closed down due to non-payment of loans and debt. The overall economic activity in Kashmir during the pandemic was almost zero. The losses incurred by Kashmir’s economy during the pandemic were estimated by various trade and commerce bodies to be around 40000 crores.
Given the cumulative effect of class consciousness, unemployment and pandemic, it would be an informed guess that many people in the valley are living in precarious economic conditions. And in a society like ours, where your class determines whether you take up a certain kind of a job or not, you are basically cutting down on your chances of achieving some level of financial stability. For example, if you are a person in need─ you are currently unemployed or your first business tanked or you don’t want to miss the EMI of your education loan─ taking up a part-time job would be the ideal respite from your financial worries, however, if at the same time you are living in a class-conscious Kashmiri society, probably there won’t be an easy respite from your financial woes because of the cultural demeaning of part-time or blue-collar jobs.
In Kashmir we see many young people who have attained the marrying age either being unable to afford their marriages or totally depending on their parents for getting married as well as their post marriage life. This has led to an upward trend of late marriages. According to a study done by the Sociology Department of Kashmir university, the percentage of unmarried population in Kashmir is fifty-five percent.
All these figures and facts put up an extremely worrying reality of Kashmiri society in front of us. To deal with such issues, why can’t we, as in the developed world, set aside the stereotypes associated with part-time or blue-collar jobs and simply let people work and earn according to their needs? Therefore, it is high time we break the taboo around part-time work culture in Kashmir and inculcate dignity of labour in our society so that people are encouraged to take up part-time jobs in whatever form.
Additionally, working in a part time job doesn’t always have to be driven by need. Those seeking part-time work voluntarily or involuntarily shows an upward trend across the globe particularly across the developed world. According to the data provided by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the proportion of persons employed part-time among all employed persons in 2021 for various countries is as─ 36% in Netherlands,25.6% in Japan, 25.3% in Switzerland, 22.2% in Germany, 21.7% in UK and 20.3% in Norway.
In the present world scenario, Millennials (26-41) and Gen Z(18-25)are more financially sophisticated than any previous generation was at their age. According to the 2022 Investopedia Financial Literacy Survey conducted in United States, 54% Gen Z adults already hold some kind of investment in the stock market. So again, why can’t people in Kashmir earn and learn to manage their finances at a young age? We need to encourage our youth, particularly students, to develop the temperament for simultaneous work-study culture. Besides part-time work being essential for students sponsoring their own education, it helps students acquire skills for managing finances and solving real-world problems early in their lives.
There is also a dire need for normalizing part-time or blue-collar jobs existing in Kashmir’s job market. Hardworking people who come here from outside J&K can teach us a lot because the jobs a local Kashmiri finds himself averse to are the same jobs they fill up after travelling long distances and away from their home. Although Kashmir doesn’t have a huge part-time job market, opportunities like working as a barista at restaurants or as a sales person at retail stores, driving a cab or guiding tourists on weekends are still up for grabs. Freelancing opportunities are opening up in fields like journalism. Online jobs that pay on hourly basis like content writing also exist.
It is very important to realize the fact that low-status associated with part-time or blue-collar jobs is purely a social construct and this construct is hampering people to mitigate effects of financial uncertainty particularly in the times of record unemployment and high inflation. We need to create a culture free of any constraints on seeking financial independence.
Yes, part-time work especially blue-collar jobs don’t provide the kind of job security or financial development one looks for but part-time work is definitely something better than idleness. More often than not, working as a part-timer benefits rather than harm or does nothing for you. The unemployed youth of Kashmir regardless of its educational status or class needs to show up for such jobs, at least for the time being.
Views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial stance of Kashmir Observer
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