Dailies 2013, Issue 9 Indian Institute Of Journalism and New Media, Bangalore March 21, 2013

Meltdown3,32,131

VOTES PURGED

18CONSTITUENCIES

33.2 lk RCOST TO RE-ENLIST

By Hansa V & Satyajith G D

A total of 3,32,131 people across 18 constituencies have been denied the right to vote in the upcoming assembly elections.

The voters whose names have been deleted primarily belong to the minority com-munities, especially Mus-

lims and the economically weaker sections. Each voter would have to pay Rs. 10 to re-enlist online, amounting to a total of Rs. 33.2 lakhs to be paid by the “ghost” elec-torate to the government.

When asked if the amount will be written off by the gov-ernment or if innocent vot-ers would have to pay, Chief Electoral Officer, Anil Kumar,

refused to comment. Some of the constituen-

cies where the number of deletions of names are more than 20,000 include Gan-dhinagar (25,267 deletions), Chickpet (40,391 deletions), Sarvagnanagar (43,614 de-letions), Vijaynagar (47,548 deletions), Basavanagudi (53,178 deletions), Pad-manabhnagar (29,311 de-letions) and BTM Layout (20,647 deletions).

Ex-Mayor, P.R. Ramesh sparked fury when he re-vealed that one constituency, Chickpet, had 42,000 fewer voters. He had acquired data on all the constituencies via a Right to Information (RTI) request.

His revelations sparked an investigation by the Elec-tion Commission.

A Muslim community leader is going door to door trying to get members of his community to re-enlist. Shri S.M. Ayub, President, Kar-

nataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), said that the allegations were perfectly true.

He said that even though the allegations cannot be linked to the BJP, the Elec-tion Commission is helping his group after they had filed a complaint.

He said: “About 15,000 minorities’ names out of a total of 29,000 were deleted from the electoral roll in my-constituency alone this year. We went and filed a com-plaint with the Election Com-mission and now we are on a door to door campaign to tell people that they will be asked to register themselves for the voter ids.

The main reason for the deletion of the names is be-cause of constituency head, R. Ashok. As he knows that the minorities in the area will not vote for them, he en-sured that their names were deleted from the electoral

lists.” Updating of voter IDs is now possible online. Indi-viduals who seek changes in the details in their voter ID cards need to apply online and will not have their cards delivered at their doors.

They will have to visit an eSeva centre, where they will have to pay a nominal fee of Rs. 10 to get their cards. While the rest of the job is done online, all the individual has to do is go and get his voter ID. But the voters do not have easy ac-cess to the internet. They will have to spend more as they not only have to go and get the forms from the near-est office but also have to pay for postal services. This will be the case for the poor, whose names were deleted from the electoral rolls- they will be made to pay again while the rest (non-poor) get it for free.

P R Ramesh has exposed failings in the voter rolls.

Continued on PAGE 4

After the ex-mayor’s startling accusations that the 2010 BBMP election was fixed, released statistics show that the purge extends to more than just one constituency.

TOP 5 Basavanagudi Vijaynagar Saravaga Nagar Chickpet Padmanabanagar

Yeddyurappa confident of election victory

PAGE 2

Slum dwellers oppose online registration for ration cards

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Mass Unemployment looms large over Bangalore city

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EXCLUSIVE

The Daily Observer| March 21, 2013 02

B. S. Yeddyurappa

• 1988, he became the Presi-dent of the BJP unit of the state of Karnataka. He was first elected to the lower house of Karnataka Legisla-ture in 1983 and has since represented the Shikaripur constituency five times. • In the Tenth Assembly, he was chosen as Leader of Opposition. In 1999, he lost the elections but was nomi-nated by the BJP to become a member of the legislative council (upper house) of Kar-

nataka. • He has won five elections from the constituency since, losing only once, in 1999. • Yeddyurappa was sworn in as the 25th Chief Minister of Karnataka on November 12, 2007. However, JD(S) re-fused to support his govern-ment which made him to re-sign on November 19, 2007. • In Karnataka’s 2008 Assem-bly elections, Yeddyurappa contested from Shikaripura against the Samajwadi Par-ty’s S. Bangarappa, another ex-Chief Minister. • Dr B.S Yeddyurappa on 30 May 2008 took oath of State 28th Chief Minister after the recently held assembly elec-tions.Yeddyurappa was nominated as the Deputy Chief Minister as well as the finance minis-ter in Kumaraswamy’s Gov-ernment.

• In 1990, Jagadish Shettar was elected as the President of Hubli Rural Unit of the BJP.

• 1994, the Dharwad District Unit President of the party. He was elected to the Karna-taka Legislative Assembly for the first time in 1994 and has been reelected as Member of the Legislative Assembly from Hubli rural constituency for four successive terms.

• 1996, he became the BJP State Secretary and in 1999

• He has worked in the posts of BJP State Party President, Opposition Leader in the Kar-nataka Legislative Assem-bly, Minister for Revenue in the Karnataka Government, Hon’ble Speaker of Karna-taka Legislative Assembly, and now as Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj in the Karnataka Govern-ment

• One of the issues was re-garding the use of prime lands surrounding the Cha-mundi foothills.

• There was a complaint filed in the Lokayukta court al-leging irregularities in land denotification six years ago. The complaint was filed on July 11 2012.

Jagadish Shettar

• Began his political career in 1994• In 1996 he won the Lok Sabha seat at Kanakapura District and became Mem-ber of Parliament• He lost the seat in 1998 elections• In 1999, he contested again for the Sathanur as-sembly but was defeated there as well. • He won the assembly election from Ramanaga-ram in 2008.

H. D. Kumaraswamy

By Krishna Prasad

THE Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka Mr. Anil Kumar Jha today briefed the audi-ence about the conduct of assembly elections.

CEO Jha and Deputy CEO P T Kulkarni briefed about the elections stating that the code of conduct of elections was already enforced in the state.

The Election Commission (EC) has also directed the Police department to take positions in the respective constituencies.

“Code of conduct has al-ready been enforced in the state. Implementation of all new schemes, tenders and orders has been temporarily withheld”, said CEO Anil Ku-mar Jha.

According to the code of conduct of the Election Com-mission of India, the new electoral roll of Karnataka state now has a magnitude of four crore 18 lakh voters after a revision drive was conduct-ed recently in January.

Regarding the recent re-

ports in the newspaper stat-ing missing and deletion of names in the electoral list: “I admit that there are errors in the list of magnitude of 4 crore and odd voters. 43,000 errors are being fixed up to date through software.

EPIC is just an identity document.

Until and unless your names appear in the elector-al list, people are not eligible for voting.

We have also decided to provide photo electoral rolls to each voter this time before two or three days the voting commences”, he added.

The security has also been beefed up for the as-

sembly elections. The EC has deployed

more than 500 companies of Paramilitary Forces iThe EC has fixed a total of Rs 16 lakh as the amount that a contes-tant can spend for campaign-ing in his constituency.

According to the statistics from the EC, there is a total of two crore 13 lakh male voters and two crore 4 lakh female candidates.

The Election Commis-sion also said that the single phase elections were sched-uled from 8 am to 5 pm. The EC also requested the peo-ple to call the 24-hour help-line 1950 for help and com-plaints.

By Krishna Prasad

Security forces deployed to free and fair election

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Yeddyurappa’s KJP to file 69 will stand

B.S Yeddyurappa an-nounced he will contest the state elections and an-nounced a list of 69 candi-dates from the Karnataka Janata Party

Yeddyurappa will be con-testing Shikaripura. “I am very happy to announce the list and am confident of win-ning this election with a ma-jority.

“We’ll receive the same sort of support from the peo-ple of Karnataka.”

Referring to his older poli-cies BSY said: There is noth-ing like BSY has changed the party and he wont sup-port the poor anymore. I will and am always for the poor and especially farmers”, said Yedyurappa.

V Dhananjay Kumar, Secretary of KJP said: “Cam-paigning with full force will start very soon and I am sure of winning this election with complete support from the people.

“We will prove that we have the best set of leaders who can govern Karnataka.”

Shobha Karandlaje

said,“Out of 69 candidates there are only three women candidates contesting from KJP this election.

Ms. Karandlaje is cur-rently the Power Minister and is also in charge of the Food and Civil Supplies depart-ment in the Jagadish Shettar government. She is contest-ing from Rajajinagar.

Another party member CM Udasi said, “I am very happy to be a part of KJP and our party is going to give a tough competition to the Opposition party and their leaders.

MLA CM Udasi is current-ly heading the Public Works Department in the Jagadish Shettar’s government.

Code of conduct in place for upcoming state elections

Annual deaths resulting from firearms total

2008200720062005

6219760380898769

March 21, 2013| The Daily Observer 03

Protest over online ration card registration SLUM dwellers

protested against the new complicated registration procedure of ration cards at Town Hall today .500 slum dwellers in support

with Karnataka Kolageri Nivasigala Samayukta Sanghatane (KKNSS) protested against the state government’s new rule of registering new ration card through online in town hall.The new procedure of online

applying of ration card has put the poor communities into hardship, resulting in denial of ration cards to the marginalized communities of the state.M. Salwaraj, a resident of

Ambedkarnagar slum said: “The procedure lists a series

of steps and presents a set of criteria of applying for new ration cards. The steps are quite complicated which makes applying for a new ration card difficult for us.”Describing the new

application procedure he said: “At first an applicant should send ‘SMS’ with details of name from his/her mobile phone to a prescribed mobile phone number. After receiving a reply from

that number the applicant needs to get introduced by a ration card holder at the Bio-metric Centre. The personnel at the centre first verifies the introducer, if found accurate then only the documents of the applicant gets examined.” Meena, a member of KKNS

said: “The procedure is not

user friendly. It assumes that every citizen is eligible to read and write, but the true scenario is quite different. The slum people are

illiterate. It seems that the state government didn’t think about the poor people while making the new rules.”“Our demand is that the

circular which had been issued by the Food and Civil Supplies Department should be withdrawn immediately and the old procedure should be made legalised again in order to help the poor ration card applicants” she added.KKNSS is a state level

federation which started with a primary objective of educating and organising the urban poor communities to fight for their rights and to demand a rightful place with

dignity and security in the society. Lingamma, 65, said: “My

ration card has recently expired and now to apply for a new card I need to go

through the new procedures which requires online login and so on. I don’t know how to read and write which is delaying the procedure for me to get a new card.”

By Urmi Sengupta

The poor protest against complicated online procedures.

DELAYS in the procedure of issuing BPL cards prohibits the poor from accessing low-cost health treatments.Akhtar Unnisa, 45, has

been diagnosed with breast cancer. A widow with three unmarried daughters and only one son who earns barely enough, she said: “I was diagnosed with breast cancer two years back. It is very difficult for me to avail the treatment as it is very costly. Each injection costs me around Rs. 20,000”.“I applied for BPL cards four

years back but I didn’t get it. The officials said it will take time and I have to wait for it”: she added.Going by statistics provided

by Kidwai Hospital, of the total cancer cases registered 24.6% is breast cancer. Dr. Jagannath Dixit, a

surgical oncologist of HCG hospital said: “Breast cancer has become very common now-a-days. Women between 25 to 50 years are

the common victims of this malicious disease.” “We see around 30 to 40

new cases of breast cancer for every 1000 women.And it is expected to rise among women aged above 30 years,” he added.He said: “In the early

stages of breast cancer the cure rate in the first five years is 80 to 90 % but in the advance stages the survival rate drops to 5 to 10%” The treatment of breast

cancer generally ranges from neo adjuvant chemotherapy,

organ preservation (breast), use of biologics like herceptin cyber knife IGRT/IMRT (radiation delivery) and other therapies.NGOs are now trying to

spread awareness for breast cancer by organizing various events. Even celebrities and other socialites are actively taking part in these events to raise awareness.Dr. Ranjit Chakraborty,

a Gynaecologist of the Woodland Hospital, Kolkata said: “Women of any age can get affected by cancer.”

“Each injection costs me around Rs. 20,000.”- Akhtar Unnisa,

45yrs, breast cancer patient

BPL card delays put lives at riskCountry made ammo seized from youth

THE Madivala Police arrested Niraj Sharma alias Radheshyam Sharma for illegally smuggling country made guns and bullets.The police, on March 19,

received information that guns were being smuggled at a crossroad opposite State Bank Of India at BTM Layout 7th Sector. Tracing the source of

information and confirming it, the police officials raided the spot, arrested Niraj and recovered a pistol along with four bullets.

Upon interrogation it was revealed that Niraj had hidden another pistol along with four bullets at his home in Yallakunte in Bangalore.Niraj, who hails from

Rohtas district of Bihar, had completed his Pre-University education and was working in a tile polishing factory from one and a half year revealed the investigation. A case has been registered

at Madivala Police station and further investigations are on.A police officer said, “We

will soon be arresting other people involved in smuggling of illegal pistols related to this case.”

By Krishnaprasad S By Urmi Sengupta

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Niraj Sharma was arrested for smuggling weapons

The Daily Observer| March 21, 2013 04

The Janata Dal (United) has announced a slew of policies it plans to push af-ter the state assembly elec-tions.

The elections, which are slated to be held on May 5 will be a litmus test for the party which is seeking to gain a foothold in the state as-sembly. The President of the Karnataka wing of the JD(U), M P Nadagouda, speaking exclusively to The Observer, said that the party was fight-ing all 224 constituencies.

Mr. Nadagouda also said that if the party were to do well in the coming elections, then the party would embark on a series of reforms which would target inclusive development of people across Karnataka. He also said the party would follow the “Bihar model of de-

velopment,” which had seen a consistent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 11 percent in the last five years.

The Karnataka party chief also said that a third of all seats in educational institu-tions should be reserved for students from rural India, while compulsory rural ser-vice must be increased to ten years for medical students who get scholarships in gov-ernment institutions to make healthcare “affordable” to the rural populations of Karna-taka.

On the issue of the Cauv-ery water dispute with Tamil Nadu, Mr. Nadagouda said that “The river (Cauvery) be-longs to the world,” and called for both state governments to discuss the issue and arrive at an amicable solution.

Addressing a question regarding JD(U) President

Sharad Yadav’s comments saying that stalking women in India was a norm and that “everyone does it,” Mr. Nada-gouda said that Yadav had made the comments in a

wider context, and was being misconstrued. “In some parts of India, the husband will be stalking his wife. She can’t even walk a short distance without him,” he added.

State JDU’s chief unveils party policies

JDU’s chief addresses people at press club

By Rohan D PremkumarC

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By Kakoli Mukherjee

THE “unemployable gradu-ates” syndrome is the big-gest challenge that the education sector is facing today. Though a large num-ber of graduates churn out of colleges in Karnataka every year, only 10 percent is found to be employable by the industry.

With an estimated four lakh people expected to en-ter the workforce each year up to 2026 in Karnataka, the onus lies on educational in-stitutions and academicians to turn this manpower into ei-ther an asset or a liability.

Karnataka faces a strange paradox today where there is a huge demand for seats in educational institutions, while colleges are shutting down due to lack of students. This is happening due to the poor quality of education pro-vided.

In a round table discussion on the relevance of higher education in today’s industry and economic growth sce-nario organized by the Con-federation of Indian Indus-tries (CII)in association with KPMG Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd. , eminent academi-cians and industry experts talked about addressing the perceived lack of fit between graduates and employment.

Prof. K M Kaveriappa, Ex-ecutive Director, Karnataka State Higher Educational Council, said: “The quality of education in our country is poor because the syllabus is prepared by faculty who work in isolation without consulting the industry or other societal institutions. Thus, the nation is producing graduates who are irrelevant to employers and the society as a whole.”

The professor pointed out that the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) is lower than that of the world average due to high drop-out rate from schools due to poverty, child marriage and the inability of malnourished children to ab-sorb higher education skills.the industry.”

Degrees don’t add up to employment for state’s graduatesContd from Page 1>>>

A.L. Shivakumar, BJP Councilor, Chickpet, said: “Chickpet is an upcom-ing commercial place and residents are migrating or settling in different places. Hence there will definitely be a decrease in the elec-toral rolls of this constitu-ency. Moreover congress issued illegal voter IDs for all migrant workers in the city and we deleted those names.”

Abdul Karim, 53, a bed-selling merchant at Chickpet, said: “Currently, I do not have a voter ID card in my posses-sion. Every time the govern-ment changes, they bring new laws. I do not know why my name is not in the elec-toral list this year. I received my AADHAR card, my name got deleted.” Ex-Mayor, P.R. Ramesh said: “In the previ-ous BBMP elections held at Bangalore, out of 198 wards, more than 100 wards were won by BJP alone. Investiga-tions by the Election Com-mission found that during the elections, BJP made non-

Bangalore residents vote. They were provided with duplicate ids with their pho-tos printed on it. On further cross-verification by the Elec-tion Commission, they found that no such persons existed at the given addresses. They were all bogus voters. “

“In the previous elections, a seal with the word ‘DE-LETE’ was prepared so when the minorities went in to cast their votes, they saw that their name had the ‘DELETE’ stamp and were not allowed to vote.

Upon asking the reason for deletion of the minorities, the individuals working at the poll booths said that the details in the cards of the mi-norities were either changed or not provided properly by them or even did not exist and thus they were asked to remove their names.”

Afzal, 25, a gas mechanic at Kalasipalaya, said: “How can they remove the name from electoral list? I do not understand why they tell that us that it is mandatory

to have AADHAR card for us to vote. They say that as we don’t have AADHAR cards, our names have been delet-ed from the list. Now I have to get a new card for no fault of mine.”

When asked about the al-legation of discrimination to the BJP party, Mr. Prakash, spokesperson for BJP, de-nied the allegations.

Mr. Prakash, spokesper-

son, BJP, said: “Ask him to go to the Election Commis-sion and register a complaint there. I can’t understand how it is even possible for us to discriminate like he says.”

“We have not deleted any names from the electoral rolls. If anything has to be done; only the Election Com-mission has the right to do it, so they must have done it.” he added.

Disappeared electorate...

Descending order of missing voters declared by the ex- mayor

05

After a hard day’s work, they were sleeping in their huts without knowing that they would have to vacate it because of a sudden fire. Their mistake was that they had asked their employer to raise their sal-ary and provide safety.This was the story of some

migrated labourers who were working on the construction of a bridge in K.R. Puram, Bangalore. They got food and shelter but their daily wage was 50-60 rupees a day. When they asked for a raise and requested for safety from their employer, they were kicked off and lat-er their huts were set on fire. When the Baharatiya Maj-door Sangh (BMS, a labour organisation in Bangalore) found that around forty-eight thousand rupees was due.Mr. Suryanarayana Rao,

organising secretary of BMS said: “The employers don’t register the workers and neither keep records of ac-cidents and deaths to avoid compensation.” He added that most of the labourers (local as well as migrant) are

uneducated and are unaware of the rules. Since there are no records and identity cards and all workers do not register themselves in the union, it becomes difficult for them to fight cases. They try their best to conduct secu-rity checks on sites but trade unions are not entertained by the employers. Among the ones registered

in BMS, there were 60 ben-

eficiaries under permanent disabilities and 485 deaths (including deaths of workers as well as family members) last year. They and their families have received the due compensation. Workers have also received funds for marriage, children’s educa-tion, delivery, medical needs and so on. According to the records of

Karnataka State Construc-tion Worker’s Central Union (KSCWCU),there have been a number of incidents which show how careless and cruel the employers can be. Its Secretary Mr. C. Palani-kumar said that there was a painter who died and his employer was not ready to pay the compensation to his family. The association forced him to do so by refus-ing to take the body until he paid the sum. According to Labour Offi-

cer (Karnataka Building and Other Construction Worker’s Welfare Board) Meena Patil, there are no records of the total number of workers who have died on site. The re-cords are available for only those who have been regis-tered and according to that 195 workers were victims of accidents last year which lead to either permanent dis-ability or death. According Mr. Palanikumar

and Mrs. Patil, the board provides various benefits to its registered workers. Com-pensation for accidents, deaths, disabilities and so on are provided after regis-tration. The KSCWCU has also

been successful in pres-surising the government to reduce the age of retirement from 60 to 55 for males and 50 for females.Although so much is be-

ing done for the construc-tion workers,nothing is being done to prevent deaths and accidents. Mr. Palanikumar said: “In

2006 we had requested the government to introduce a” He added that the board has around 1500 crore rupees (including amount collected from ses—companies have to pay one percent of the total amount if their project is of more than 10 lakhs) but so far only 10 crore has been distributed.The BMRCL workers were

not being registered in the board or union but the union has made the government do that as well.On one hand the unions

are working hard to imple-ment more schemes for the construction as well as other workers and on the other deaths and accidents still happening.However, the other side of

the story is about the work-ers who seem to be quite happy with their work. 26-year-old Anand is satis-

fied with his work and claims not to have seen or heard about any accidents since two years. All the workers on that site

were working with a lot of precaution. Everybody had helmets and was wearing gloves. According to the con-tactors, even visitors have to wear helmets and come in-side. It can be concluded that

workers are getting the needed amount of compen-sation but there is still a lot to be done so that no accidents happen on sites in future.

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Baharatiya Majdoor Sangh reported 485 deaths in the year 2012

Risk your life at whose cost?Employment

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Ashraf, an 11-year-old, pale, slim and visibly malnourished boy, works in a private silk manufacturing factory in the city. An orphanage who hails

from a village, Nandinagar, in Bidar district of Karnataka. He was brought to the city when he was a toddler. He lost his parents in an

accident and is being forced to work in the silk industry. When asked if he likes his work, he said “I do not like doing any of the work here. I want to go to school like other children.” He also said that he was beaten up if he said he wanted to go to school. Many children like him

languish in various industries all over the city and across the country. Although the law provides them with the provision of free education after their rescue, not many NGOs are aware of this and thus the rescued children land up in their rescue homes without ever attending school. Similar is the story

of Ramulu, a 12-year-old boy who hails from a village, Penumarthi in Andhra Pradesh has been languishing in a private engineering company in the industrial development area of Jeedimetla in Hyderabad. His employers are well aware of the fact that child labor has been prohibited in India, but they see no harm in hiring children for a lesser pay. Mr. Ramakanth Reddy,

manager of the company said, “We know about the law, but when no one is bothered, why should we sustain losses when we can get labor at cheap costs.”The constitution

of India has very stringent provisions for people who do not adhere to the law. The Child Labor (Prohibition and Prevention) Act of 1986 has 15 sections under it which have various punishments for enterprises and factories which indulge in child labor. The sentences vary from rigorous jail term for 6 years to mere fines ranging anywhere between Rs. 500-1000.Ramulu is not aware of

the rights and the laws that the IPC has constituted to free him of his misery in the factory. He, like many others, who hail from different parts of the country landed up in Hyderabad in search of a better life. The situation is the same all across the country. “I ran away from home as

my father used to beat me daily. I started working in a house as a domestic help. Then one ‘sir’ came and told me he will get me new clothes and good food. From then I have been working in this factory. I want to get out of here. I don’t like it one bit but I don’t want to run away from here. I have nowhere to

go,” said a tearful Ramulu.Desire Foundation is one of

the numerous NGOs across the country which works for rescuing and rehabilitating children who are stuck in the nexus of child labor. Mr. Raghunath Varma of

the foundation said, “We get child labor cases very frequently, the children are so used to working that they often fail to adopt the schooling lifestyle. More than schooling they need mental counseling.”Narrating a story of a girl

who was rescued from a tyre manufacturing company on the outskirts of Hyderabad, he said “Radha was 11 when she was rescued but she failed to adapt to the normal lifestyle to go to school and study. She started feeling insecure and one day she ran away from the rescue home.”The IPC gives provisions

for the rescued children to be entitled to free education. A High Court lawyer, B.T. Venkatesh the present child labor laws are very stringent with adequate punishments for the guilty. He said, “The laws need to be implemented more strictly. We live in a country where no one respects the law.” He noted that the silk

industry was the major culprit of child labor followed by the mining industry. “The jobs like boiling of the cocoons are majorly done by the children and the children are made to toil in the mining industry,” said Venkatesh.

Degree with no job

YOUNG men shuffle uneasily in their seats. Their shirts are neatly ironed and their shoes polished to a brilliant shine. They are in a placement firm looking for work, but they don’t look at each other.Instead, some look

pensively at the floor and feign to be busy, scrolling through messages on their phones. Suddenly, a voice breaks

the silence and calls their names. They file out of the office and into a corridor, where they take a test which measures their command of English. They are the 9.5 percent, or the one in every 10 educated young people in Bangalore who are out of work“These consultancies are

like cartels,” says a 22 year-old who is looking for work. “My search for a job has been extremely unfruitful. I have been running around, looking for work for more than ten days,” he adds.He alleges that there is a

nexus between consultancy firms and the Human Resources departments of major Information Technology (IT) firms in Bangalore.In another report by

Teamlease services, a private HR services company estimates that by the year 2020, over 211 million people, or roughly 30% of Bangalore’s workforce, will be unemployed. G.C.Manna, the Ministry

of Statistics and Programme Implementation, was part of the team which came out with the unemployment survey in 2010, says that the surveys on unemployment are “very rough estimates” and excludes many who have either gone back to college or have given up looking for jobs.But a degree does not

guarantee jobs for those in the IT sector. The

unemployment rate for those who have a post-graduation degree are higher than those who have a basic degree,.Bakshu Ahmed, Director,

White Horse Manpower Consultancy Private Limited, says that jobseekers that are overqualified tend to “over-expect” salaries which proves detrimental to their chances of finding a job in the industry.With the increasing scarcity

of jobs in the IT sector, graduates, especially from the lower income groups, are being forced to take up any work. Parappana, a 26 year-old software engineer who now runs a tea-stall off Mysore Road, says, “Jobs are very difficult to come by. Until the job market improves, I will have to work other jobs.”Renate Henna, a fresher, is

more optimistic, said that the current dip in the job market can be traced back to the global economic slowdown, and adds that she is “confident” that the market in Bangalore will improve.

By Rohan Premkumar

I want to go to school“

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ObserverTeam

An IIJNM PublicatonEditorSneha

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