From questions to action: Why Parliament must lead on youth employment

Indian Express

13-05-2025

Written by Ruchi Gupta, Vandita Gupta and Abhishek Sharma
India is a young nation with an old promise — the promise that democracy, when made truly representative, can deliver on the aspirations of its people. Today, that promise rests on how seriously we confront the question of youth employment.
Two-thirds of our population is under the age of 35. Every month, nearly one million young Indians enter the workforce. Yet, too many find themselves navigating a maze of informal, low-paid, insecure work — or worse, excluded altogether from meaningful economic opportunity. This is not only an economic challenge. It is a democratic one. Youth employment is not a standalone issue —it is systemic. It shapes social mobility, institutional trust, and the long-term legitimacy of democratic governance itself.
Youth employment intersects with every sector, state, and social group, and while this enormously increases complexity, it also presents a unique opportunity. Youth employment is one of the few issues that can bring the entire country together in one unifying purpose. And the institution best positioned to harness this potential is Parliament. The Parliament is not just our country's highest institutional expression for bipartisan deliberation and decision-making in the national interest, but also India's only space where regional, ideological, and generational diversity come together with a mandate to deliberate.
A recently released report by the Future of India Foundation, The Public Record: Parliament on Youth and Employment, assesses Parliament's engagement with this critical issue. The report offers evidence of Parliament's growing, if uneven, engagement with this agenda. It is a foundation to build on — and a challenge to deepen.
Parliament is listening – but gaps remain
Of the over 60,000 questions asked by MPs in the 17th Lok Sabha, over 8,000 questions (more than 14 per cent) were related to youth employment. Over 88 per cent of MPs — across parties, states, and demographics — engaged with the issue at least once. Despite the partisan divides that often characterise public debate, through these individual questions, Parliament has quietly emerged as a place where the urgent needs of India's youth are finding common ground and being voiced.
What MPs are asking is instructive. Questions about vocational training outcomes, the performance of skilling schemes like PMKVY, support for MSMEs, and access to credit through the Mudra scheme reflect a keen interest in the mechanics of employability. Others probe into issues around labour conditions, public sector recruitment, contractualisation, and job security.
The report also surfaces important variations that Parliament can learn from: States like Maharashtra and Kerala show deeper engagement; women and ST MPs raise more community-specific concerns; thematic breadth spans from labour rights to entrepreneurship. These differences indicate not fragmentation but strength. They show that Parliament has within it the capacity to broaden and diversify its focus. The challenge is not to invent new agendas. It is to consolidate what is already on everyone's mind.
Crucially, attention is slowly turning to future-oriented themes: The gig economy, artificial intelligence, and digital skilling. However, these questions are still few, and the engagement with associated issues is still preliminary. Few MPs raised concerns about algorithmic management, digital exclusion, platform regulation or job displacement — key issues that will shape the future of work.
From ad-hoc questions to institutional leadership
Raising questions is necessary, but not sufficient. Institutional leadership means building the frameworks — across committees, ministries, and party lines — through which ideas can mature into outcomes. Parliament has the legitimacy and reach to convene a broader coalition: One that includes not just ministries, but state governments, industry leaders, educators, and, most importantly, young people themselves.
This is not a call for grand new institutions, but for deeper use of the ones we already have. Take, for example, the MP's dual role: As a representative of their constituency, and as a voice within their party. In both roles, the youth employment agenda must become central.
At the constituency level, MPs must ask — what does economic opportunity look like for young people in my district? Where are the gaps— in skilling, infrastructure, credit and employment? Tools like the YouthPOWER Index, developed by the Future of India Foundation, offer MPs granular data to help answer these questions and build targeted action plans.
At the party level, internal deliberations must rise above sycophancy, partisanship and performative politics. The lived realities of young Indians— low-quality education, underemployment, and digital exclusion — require serious attention from party forums. MPs must ensure that their party's platforms and legislative strategies reflect these structural challenges, not just in rhetoric but in design.
Youth employment requires a national compact
This agenda cannot sit in any one stakeholder's corner. It requires coordinated effort across domains — from the Centre and states, government and opposition, public and private sector.
Parliament can — and should — model this coordination. A dedicated 'Youth Priorities Day' during each session could create a structured space for multi-party dialogue on youth employment, skilling, and civic participation. Cross-party MP groups, formed voluntarily, could work together on specific themes — from gig worker protections to reforming recruitment processes.
Committees could anchor these efforts by embedding youth-impact assessments into their reviews of legislation and budgets.
Most importantly, Parliament must open structured pathways for engagement with India's youth themselves. A standing Youth–Public Policy Forum, under the Lok Sabha Secretariat, could bring together MPs, students, entrepreneurs, gig workers, and civil society on a regular basis. The goal would not be token consultation, but substantive dialogue — an acknowledgement that young Indians are not just beneficiaries of policy, but architects of its direction.
From representation to real leadership
This is a moment of opportunity. Parliament's engagement with youth employment can be made transformative. What is required now is regularity, structure, and political seriousness. The use of parliamentary questions should evolve from a method of information-gathering to a tool for agenda-setting. Budgetary scrutiny, legislative review, constituency planning — each must embed youth employment as a core lens.
If Parliament steps up to lead, it can renew the public's faith in the capacity of democratic institutions to respond meaningfully to national challenges.
The time is narrow, but it is ours
In every era, democracies are tested by the needs of their youngest citizens. The story of Young India is replete with stories of perseverance and restless aspiration of a generation determined to build a better future. Their ambitions are not exceptional — but they represent a political and moral challenge to our polity.
Parliament has the authority, the structure, and the precedent to act. The demographic dividend is not a promise. It is a window. And windows, by nature, close.
This is Parliament's moment. Party leaders, committee chairs, and individual MPs must recognise the urgency and opportunity before them and meet the future with the seriousness it deserves.
Ruchi Gupta, Vandita Gupta and Abhishek Sharma are with the Future of India Foundation. The complete report is available at http://www.futureofindia.in