Dignity of labour: Where art thou?

“If there is unemployment in America, it is because the unemployed do not want to work.” — Henry Ford

In a poignant scene in the 2006 film, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Sanjay Dutt playing the titular character, dons the hat of a radio jockey who solves people’s problems by applying Gandhian values and principles. His first caller is Victor D’Souza, a young man who contemplates committing suicide after realizing that he has squandered his father’s savings in the stock market, money which had been saved to buy a new house.

Victor accepts Munna’s advice and pours his heart out to his father and agrees to do everything he can: sell newspapers, give tuitions, drive a taxi, till he can repay his father. However, it is what Victor says to his father next which got me thinking. He asks his father, who is by now misty-eyed whether he will feel awkward and embarrassed if Victor drives a taxi, assuring him that he will not drive anywhere close to their house as the two reconcile.

All of this made me wonder: Is driving a taxi such a bad thing?

Maybe statistics can provide the answer. A study published by the Centre of Monitoring Economy at around this time last year revealed that the unemployment rate for graduates was around 18.5 percent at the end of 2019. In other words, one in four graduates is looking for a job. And considering the impact of the Covid-19 and the nation-wide lockdown, it is going to take a while for things to look up.

As the saying goes “Beggars cannot be choosers”. The unemployment crisis is not going anywhere and anyone with a bit of sense and self-respect would take any work which is available, at least so that he can provide himself and his family with food on their table and a roof over their head. Sadly, that has not been the case.

We, in India continue to classify work as high grade and low grade, the former being a desk job while the latter involving manual work. The source of this distinction can be traced back to the pre-independence era when our colonial masters wanted to create an educated class comprising solely of natives to do menial, clerical work and run the administration. The logic was simple. So long as you have the support of the locals to run your empire, they will not revolt. The economy was in the doldrums and the best hope of the average Indian to live a decent life was to get a “Sarkari naukri”, thus giving rise to a craze for pen-pushing government jobs.

However, has the situation changed, or more importantly changed for the better? If the question had been asked at least a decade ago, evidence would say that the answer was a resounding “Yes”. Data collected by the National Sample Survey Office for the years 2011–2012 showed that while the unemployment rate for young male graduates in the age group of 15–29 in urban India was at 16.3%. In sharp contrast, the unemployment rate for illiterate urban men of the same age group was just 2.5%. In other words, the more educated you were, the lower were your chances of finding a job!

For a moment, forget about the statistics. Ask yourself, how many lawyers, doctors, engineers, chartered accountants do you know in your neighbourhood? And then ask yourself: how many competent plumbers, electricians, mechanics, carpenters, computer technicians do you know?

We seem to have inherited, probably from a bye-gone era, the notion that a particular profession carries with it a sense of respectability. Unfortunately, that is not the case today. The laws of demand and supply spare none and if there is a glut of professionals in a certain occupation, there will be obviously be a shortage of demand leading to low salaries and lower employability. It’s Economics 101.

The second culprit is the culture we have been brought up in. All of us have been led to believe that if we study hard, we will be rewarded with a comfortable job accompanied by a fat salary. None of us, at least in India ever thought of taking up a part-time job.

Realistically speaking, part-time work should be encouraged since it is not only a step towards financial independence, but also provides an escape from the ivory tower of academia and an early exposure to the “real-world”. However, the Indian culture not only permits but also encourages us to live and remain with our parents until we are able to stand on our own feet. Working while studying is seen as a distraction. Rather than encouraging us to take up whatever work is available while simultaneously completing our education, no matter how unconventional it may be, parents are more than willing to sustain us till we can earn our own livelihood. As a result, we grow up believing that a profitable white-collar job will drop down from the sky once we are through with our studies. This is the bubble in which we live.

Sadly, the world is not so utopian, as much as we want it to be. Employers are no longer impressed with high grades, bookish knowledge, and embellished CVs.

Yet, the fetish for fancy degrees does not seem to die. A survey conducted by Economic Times in collaboration with TeamLease has revealed that many in the market would still opt for a low-value MBA or engineering course over being an electrician or a gemologist which would pay more. A gemologist with a five year’s experience can earn around Rs 60,000 per month as opposed to an engineer or an MBA graduate from a non-top-tier institute, who, with the same amount of experience will earn around Rs 40,000 per month. A lab technician, a licensed electrician, even a visual merchandiser takes around Rs 60K every month.

Maybe that is the reason why in an early scene in “Vaastav: The Reality”, Sanjay Dutt’s character Raghu, a seemingly good-for-nothing lad is able to earn a surprisingly large amount of money by running a Paav-Bhaji stall while his educated brother, Vijaykanth played by Mohnish Behl is forced to stay at home, unemployed and idle. It is a different matter that due to unfortunate circumstances, a life of crime is waiting for Raghu.

In his 1995 book, “Dumbing down our kids”, Charles Sykes lists out eleven rules for the American youth, who according to him “feel good about themselves but can’t read, write or add”. Often quoted at high school and college convocation ceremonies, this compilation of “things that graduates don’t learn” serves as a strident polemic against the ongoing feel good, politically correct atmosphere which he believes has created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and set them up for failure in the real world. However, it is Rule 5 which caught my interest. It says:

“Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.”

Indian parents on the other hand would react very differently to this. They would, on the other hand, tell their kids, “Study hard or you will have to flip burgers for the rest of your life”. Sad. How untrue, but sad.