The terminology that economists take fascination to explain various features relating to countries in a seemingly simplistic way often challenges the comprehension on the part of lay people, including even the literati. The economic health of a country is portrayed by them with terms such as GDP (Gross Domestic Product), literacy, life expectancy and also unemployment rate, narratives about which in various dailies are invariably passed over by most readers, remaining satisfied or dissatisfied as the case may be according as the health remains robust or weak. The aforementioned volatile features expressed numerically, their changes stated to first or second decimal place, doesn’t carry any clear message to lay people. While in the case of the term unemployment, those who are without a job (with income) bear the burnt of the pain, may not be able to make out how the rate of unemployment is determined, except maybe they understand that as the rate increases more enter the unemployed bracket of the population. Even as one has a job and earns some income, the questions of its adequacy to support the family, quality of work and consistency with educational qualification as well as skill loom large, the answers to which take us to the term underemployment.
The Sanskrit quote Udyogam Purusha Lakshanam, which translates to “It is a must criterion for males to do a job (in order to nurture their families)” is believed to have come into existence in times of a distant past in the country when some people chose to be idle, saying that God will look after all their needs, encouraging begging in the process. Any person, irrespective of gender, who does not work is not considered by society as a proper human. Further, the philosophy of dignity of labour espoused by many thinkers as respecting all types of jobs equally can lead to proper understanding of unemployment.
