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How does one get a job after finishing studies?
Well, going by a three-city survey, a large number of working youngsters got jobs through personal contacts or the good offices of family and relatives.
The survey shows that the marketplace for jobs is fairly unregulated in India, says a report, State of Urban Youth, India 2012 , by Iris Knowledge Foundation, commissioned by the UN Habitat’s research wing.
The survey covered employed youth aged between 15 and 32 in Mumbai (tier 1 city), Vadodara (tier II) and Latur (tier III).
Of the total of 687 respondents, 29 per cent got jobs through personal contacts or friends, 15.5 per cent through family or relatives, 14.5 applied directly to the company, and 13 per cent landed a job through advertisements.
Surprisingly, in the era of technology, only 5 per cent said they used the Internet or telephones to land a job.
Access to opportunity
The study, which collated various academic works and data to take a closer look at India’s ‘demographic advantage’, also found that a large number of youth (67 per cent) felt that not everyone had equal access to opportunities.
“That the educated and those with connections have the most access to opportunities is a clear perception that, in fact, reflects reality.
In most cities it is the social capital that works,” says the study.
Interestingly, when it came to achieving equal status, a majority of the respondents ranked education above wealth to get past various disadvantages.
However, a third of them also ranked mother’s education as the most important factor to achieving equal status.
“Mother’s education was not only perceived by youth as being an important factor in gaining status, but was also computed to be the single most important factor in young people achieving prosperity and success,” says the study.
Over a quarter also ranked father’s education and father’s occupation highly.
In a positive sign, caste and religion were considered only marginally important in achieving equity, with over a quarter of the respondents saying it was public institutions run by ruling elites/classes that made the playing field uneven.
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