Tezenlo Thong
Recently, our local newspapers have being reporting instances of targeted fraud on our desperate unemployed Nagas. These few reports, I am afraid, are just the tip of the iceberg. Nonetheless, they divulge the magnitude of the problem of unemployment in our modern society, which concerns or should deeply concern every one of us. Employment is vital not only for social and economic well-being, but also for the psychological health of any individual. Unfortunately, because of prolonged or permanent unemployment and meaninglessness, many Naga youngsters are psychologically bruised. After having spent many years studying and preparing with the dream of getting a job for subsistence, it must be truly devastating to spend one’s years or rest of life hunting for a job. In other words, after leaving school if one’s job is to hunt for a job in vain, such an existential reality inexorably impairs one’s psychological well-being.
Unemployment is a modern malady unknown to our foreparents. Likewise, the modern notion of “professionalization” of job is foreign to our ancestors. Thus, J.P. Mills, one of our erstwhile colonial administrators, has rightly observed that in the pre-colonial Naga society “there [was] no such thing as an ‘unemployment problem.’” Indeed, everyone had a “job”. As such, every member of a society felt valuable and meaningfully belonged to their social group. No one suffered psychologically from being socially stigmatized on the ground of unemployment. It is with the inception of “modernity” and modern Western education among the Nagas that the reality of unemployment and its associated psychological ramifications began to dawn on us. Today, our understanding of employment is gravely limited to the sphere of government job. Traditional and other means of livelihood, such as “self-employment,” are excluded from such a notion. Thus, the job opportunity in our society is being limited by our misconception of employment, and we suffer the consequence for such a misunderstanding.
What are some of the psychological burdens or challenges that face our youngsters who suffer from chronic or permanent unemployment? First, unemployment undermines self-esteem. Put it differently, unemployed youth suffer from low self-esteem. This is in part because they are stigmatized and judged by parents, family and members of their society for being unemployed. So society contributes to the undermining and erosion of their self-esteem. It is more than enough to be unemployed, but worse to be condemned and criticized for not getting a job that is simply not available for every aspiring candidate.
Second, the experience of unemployment not only diminishes one’s self-esteem, but also one’s self-worth as well. Self-worth is vital for a meaningful and healthy existence. Every person wants and needs to feel that he/she is worth something not only to himself/herself, but also to the larger social group in which he/she belongs. People who are unemployed often feel a sense of loss of purpose. They feel worthless and useless, which leads to anger, frustration and despair. Providing job opportunity will enable our unemployed youth to regain their sense of self-worth and keep them away from self-destructive habits, such as abuse of drugs and alcohol, and from engaging in anti-social activities, from which we all bear the brunt.
Third, prolonged or permanent unemployment creates a sense of “prolonged childhood” among unemployed women and men, chipping away a sense of personal, familial and social responsibility and contribution. In our traditional society, a person assumed an adult responsibility at a much younger age. The “rite of passage,” when a child becomes an adult member of a society, occurred much earlier than it is today. Marriage, in a traditional society, is one of the clear markers of such transition of social status, which could occur normally between seventeen to twenty years of age or even earlier. In contrast, in our modern society the period from childhood to adulthood is extended due to a longer period of education, followed by an extended period of unemployment.
Today, we could arguably consider employment as the rite of passage or the point of transition from childhood to adulthood. However, unfortunate as it is, the long period of study is followed by an extended length of unemployment. A state of unemployment creates two things: continued economic dependence on one’s parents and a failure to assume full responsibility for the social roles expected of an adult person, such as marriage, parenthood and social contributions. In all these years of education and unemployment, a person, even way after thirty years of age, still depends on his/her parents as he/she did in childhood. Additionally, having lost a sense of self-worth and self-confidence, an unemployed youth may continue to lead a life of perpetual childhood, removed from personal, social and moral responsibilities.
In light of the grave situation, therefore, it makes no sense to impose an “age-limit” for acquiring a job, because it provides amble reasons, if not justifications, for the already desperate youngsters to indulge in self- and socially-destructive activities. Why should our society draw rules that penalized or victimized our youngsters for no fault of their own? Instead of helping them in their desperate attempts for a livelihood and to help cope with the circumstance, why should the society decide that they are no longer good for employment? What we term as “age-limit” is what others in Western countries call “age discrimination in employment,” which remains illegal. Why, then, do we consider it a “virtue” and seek to implement it vigorously? The imposition of age-limit upon the unemployed is a grave mistake, because it is a “death sentence” that finally takes away their final and faint hope of getting a livelihood – the last hope that kept them hoping and trying. It further erodes their sense of value and self-esteem, and they plummet into a deep psychological crisis and a sense of valuelessness and meaningless. Thus, having reached the death-end, many are compelled to choose the path to self-sabotage and social-destruction.
I wish that a student body like the Naga Students’ Federation would, instead of pressing the government to implement strictly the rules of “age-limit” on our unemployed youth, press the government to do away with this archaic law and try to find a solution for those who are desperately seeking to live. They deserve, at least, sympathy and understanding, not judgment. At a practical level, our society needs to come up with a concept and opportunity akin to the so called “backward” privileges/quotas for people who have reached a certain age and are unemployed. As a matter of fairness and justice, I would even suggest that no family should enjoy multiple job opportunities before every other family has got at least one. By doing so, we can save our society from some of the social menaces we are faced with and salvage our young people for meaningful existence and contribution.
If we want to live in a just and peaceful society, we need to create mechanisms to ensure that the meager job opportunity in our society is equitably utilized and the unemployed youngsters are incorporated or weaved into the social fabric, where they may feel safe, loved and valued by the larger community. Otherwise, the prevalent social perils, such as chemical abuse, violence, hate-crimes, extortion, robbery, murder, etc., will continue to breed and drag us all down.
