What holds back our rural youth?
Barriers and Enablers to Local Livelihoods for Mountain Youth
Research has shown that young people’s aspirations are based on what they see around them.
For 35-year old Gaurav*, getting into the Indian Army has always been the goal. After all, that is what the trend has been in the mountains, and that is what he has seen people around him being motivated towards. But after years of obstacles to his army aspiration and new opportunities, Gaurav is one of many young people trying to leverage the tourism industry of the mountains by running a guest house.
India and Bharat Together (IABT) conducted an aspirations study in 2019, interviewing 60 youth across 6 districts in Uttarakhand. Most of the young people we spoke with were still in the process of deciding what they wanted to do in life. Our needs assessments for our programs have also focused on capturing the perspectives of young people who have not yet entered the livelihoods of their choice.
Our research and ground insights in 2019 revealed that young people from the region spend years preparing for one government job after another, eventually being forced to take up low-paying jobs in cities. Despite their desire to stay in their communities and be engaged in sustainable work, they are not able to do so. To better understand the lived barriers and enablers that such young people face, in 2021 we turned to youth who have actually entered into local livelihoods in rural Uttarakhand.
Through a series of interviews early this year, we sought to better understand the career decisions and actions of ten young people in rural and semi-urban Uttarakhand, including the barriers and enablers to securing local livelihoods. Narratives are a very important part of any experience and through a qualitative study of such narratives using Dedoose, we carried out our analysis of the data. In this blog, we shall focus on the various barriers these young people encountered in their journeys.
The youth we interviewed were engaged in livelihoods in pre-identified sectors, which included agriculture & allied activities, tourism & hospitality, digital services, and the social sector. Some of these young people have never lived outside their native place, while others have ventured out and returned. Most of the young people we spoke to come from an agrarian background, with either one or both of their parents working in the field. Despite this similarity in socio-economic backgrounds, each individual had a different story of what shaped their decisions, actions, and aspirations are for the future.
Educational Barriers
Right from their early years, young people in rural Uttarakhand are often faced with a sub-par educational infrastructure that serves as a lifelong livelihood barrier for them. “Everybody is educated but the quality of education is not good”, said 28-year old Rashmi, a B.A. graduate from Champawat. Another respondent called the schooling system a problem. “The schools do not provide adequate motivation, the atmosphere is often not good”, he further added.
It is hardly surprising that after getting access to a schooling system they find sub-par, most individuals remain unsure and unaware of their future. Decision-making becomes difficult. In addition to this, the young people believe that their inadequate language skills are a hindrance to cracking job interviews. Both the educated unemployment around the young people and their own failure to secure stable employment have led to a disillusionment towards jobs or degrees of some of the young people that we spoke with. “It is not that you will get a job right after you do your diploma,” said 24-year old Ajay, who has a diploma in electricals and now runs an electrician business in his town. “There are so many people with bachelor and master degrees in our village, but they do not have a job,” said another respondent. The distrust towards the degree and the education system becomes apparent when young people get entangled in subpar education and this distrust only accelerates with time. As a result, the perception that higher education does not equip young people with the right skills for employment becomes dominant.
Skill development could be a way for the youth to get out of the vicious circle of demotivation. “College karne se koi fayda nahi hai (there is no benefit in going to college),” said 25-year old Ganesh from Pithoragarhwho felt that the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) had better opportunities for him. However, according to another respondent, skill development centers are still lacking. “There are many skill development centres running here, but along with trainers, they also need funding and opportunities,” he added when he talked about the importance of skill development for rural youth.
Gender Barriers
We also spoke to female respondents whose experiences differed from those of males. Gender acts as a barrier for these women, who either have to seek permission from their families/husbands to gain access to education or have household burdens (marriage and pregnancy, household work and responsibilities, etc) that hinder them from doing what they initially aspired to. (It is noteworthy that the women we spoke with have all said that their parents/husbands “have no problem if they go to college” suggesting that the decision was not theirs alone. No such additional remark was made by any of the male respondents when talking about their educational qualifications). Women are further restricted by the limited skills that they have access to. While the region’s men have access to limited skills as well, the women’s access to skills is an intersection of both geographical barriers as well as gendered connotations. Young women mostly focus on enhancing skills like sewing, beauty parlour skills, dyeing, etc which are related to a stereotypical understanding of gender roles.
Financial Barriers
For the entrepreneurs in our group of respondents, funding and financial constraints have proven to be a barrier. One young man was unable to continue his trekking venture because of financial constraints. Government schemes are considered a potential source of capital. However, lack of awareness and collateral to gain access to loans as well as tedious processes have kept them away from such schemes. “There are government schemes, but these are not for middle-class people like us,” one of the respondents said, “Even if we get approved, the paperwork gets stuck in the bank. They want ITR, pan card. How is an unemployed person expected to have these?”
And when capital is accessible, as one young woman explained, factors such as low confidence in their ideas and abilities can be a deterrent to actually utilizing it. For instance, Rashmi mentioned how their all-women-run Self-Help Group (SHG) has been provided with the funding to start businesses but they lack confidence in themselves to come up with ideas or are not sure how they will be able to manage work and household responsibilities.
Beating the barriers: What are some of the enablers in the mountains?
But the picture is not always grim. We were able to identify factors that have enabled these young people to secure local livelihoods in a region where they are considered sparse. Community networks, skill enhancement centres (which we’ve spoken about above), schemes like Mukhyamantri Swarojgar Yojana and Prime Minister Employment Generation Program, new opportunities in farming, and an emerging digital market in regions like Pithoragarh have enabled young people to seek livelihood opportunities. Community and personal networks hold immense potential, having helped youth find jobs within their region or in case of migration to different cities within India or abroad. Young people have also leveraged networks to secure investments for their businesses. The youth we spoke to also saw potential in the untapped possibilities around them. For instance, banjar khet (fallow land), water sources, potential tourism hotspots, etc are yet to be explored and can be tapped into for their livelihood potential.
“There is a lot to do in the mountains if you are just sitting at home,” said 28-year old Anoop, who gave up a customer support job in Delhi to start up a guest house in his home village. While it is true that the mountains come with their unique set of challenges for youth livelihoods, these young people have shown that challenges can be overcome.
*All the names of the respondents have been changed.
