Dr Rizwan Rumi
There is something important about the order in which governments address competing priorities.
At a time when thousands of educated young people in Jammu and Kashmir are searching for employment, when Ph.D. holders are waiting for opportunities that match their qualifications, when engineers are struggling to enter a limited job market and when young doctors are seeking a dignified stipend for their work in government hospitals, the proposed revision of salaries and allowances of legislators inevitably raises a larger question: how can institutional strengthening move alongside the economic aspirations of the young generation?
The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly’s recent consideration of bills concerning the salaries, allowances and pensions of ministers and legislators is part of the normal functioning of a democratic institution. There is nothing inherently wrong with periodically reviewing the remuneration of elected representatives. Legislators carry significant responsibilities, serve large and geographically dispersed constituencies and incur legitimate expenses in the course of public service.
A reasonable, transparent and accountable remuneration structure is important for the functioning of democratic institutions.
But governance cannot be viewed only through the legality or administrative justification of an individual decision. Public policy is also judged by its timing, its social context and the priorities it appears to reflect.
That is where the present discussion becomes significant.
The Other Side of the Economic Picture
Consider the situation of medical interns in Jammu and Kashmir.
In September, MBBS and BDS interns across the Union Territory raised concerns over their monthly stipend, reported to be around ₹12,300, and demanded an increase to ₹30,000. Their argument was rooted in the changing cost of living and the demanding nature of their responsibilities in hospitals, including emergency departments, wards, OPDs, night duties and postings.
These are not young people standing outside the public system asking for favours.
They are already inside it.
They are attending to patients, working long hours and contributing to the functioning of public healthcare while simultaneously completing the final stage of their professional training.
The question of their stipend therefore represents something larger than a dispute over a monthly payment. It raises the broader issue of how a society values young professionals who are entering essential public services.
The same concern extends beyond medicine.
Jammu and Kashmir has thousands of educated young people with degrees in engineering, education, management, science, technology and other disciplines. Many have pursued postgraduate and doctoral qualifications. Families have invested years of income, effort and hope in their education.
Yet a degree does not automatically translate into employment.
A Ph.D. holder waiting indefinitely for an appropriate opportunity represents a gap between education and the labour market.
An unemployed engineer represents a gap between professional training and economic capacity.
A young teacher searching for a stable position represents the challenge of converting educational expansion into meaningful employment.
The issue is therefore not simply unemployment.
It is underutilisation of human capital.
The Question of Priority
This is why the debate over legislators’ remuneration cannot be reduced to the simplistic argument that elected representatives should not receive better salaries.
They have legitimate responsibilities, and their remuneration can reasonably be reviewed.
The more important question is whether similar urgency exists for the economic concerns of young citizens.
If the system has the institutional capacity to review salaries and allowances of elected representatives, can it develop equally predictable mechanisms for reviewing the stipends of medical interns, honorariums of frontline workers and remuneration of early-career professionals?
If legislative reforms can move through established procedures, can recruitment processes also be made faster and more predictable?
If public institutions are being strengthened, can parallel efforts be made to expand the economic ecosystem that creates opportunities for educated young people?
These are not unreasonable demands.
They are questions of balance.
The Cost of Waiting
For an educated young person, unemployment is not simply a period without income.
It is a period of uncertainty.
Years are spent preparing for competitive examinations, acquiring qualifications, completing internships, pursuing research and waiting for vacancies. When recruitment processes take too long or opportunities remain limited, the cost is measured not only in money but also in lost time, delayed careers and postponed economic independence.
A predictable recruitment system can therefore be as important as the number of vacancies itself.
Jammu and Kashmir needs faster recruitment cycles, clearer calendars, timely examinations and appointments, and stronger mechanisms to prevent prolonged uncertainty.
Young people should not have to spend their most productive years simply waiting for the next notification.
From Government Jobs to a Wider Economy
At the same time, it would be unrealistic to suggest that the government alone can absorb every educated young person into public employment.
The long-term answer lies in economic diversification.
Jammu and Kashmir has enormous potential in tourism, horticulture, food processing, healthcare, education, information technology, handicrafts, renewable energy, logistics and emerging service industries.
But potential must translate into employment.
Horticulture can create opportunities beyond cultivation through grading, packaging, cold storage, food processing, branding and direct-to-consumer marketing.
Tourism can generate employment not only in hotels but also in adventure tourism, transport, hospitality management, guiding, digital marketing and local entrepreneurship.
The technology sector can allow skilled young people to serve markets outside Jammu and Kashmir while remaining based here.
Healthcare and education can become stronger professional sectors if investment, quality infrastructure and private participation are encouraged.
The objective should be to create an economy in which a young person does not have to choose between a government job and leaving the region.
Building a Predictable System
What Jammu and Kashmir needs is not merely more announcements but stronger systems.
A comprehensive youth employment strategy could include:
- Predictable recruitment calendars so that candidates know when examinations and appointments are likely to take place.
- Periodic review mechanisms for stipends and honorariums, particularly for interns and early-career professionals.
- Faster filling of sanctioned vacancies in public institutions.
- Greater public-private partnerships to generate employment beyond government departments.
- Support for entrepreneurship and start-ups, particularly among educated youth.
- Stronger university-industry linkages so that academic qualifications correspond more closely with labour-market requirements.
- Expansion of professional and vocational training linked to actual economic demand.
- Greater investment in sectors such as tourism, horticulture, technology, healthcare and green energy.
Such measures would shift the discussion from simply asking how many government jobs can be created to asking what kind of economy can sustainably create employment.
The Optics of Governance
Political leadership must also understand the importance of public perception.
Citizens do not judge governments only through budgets, laws and official statements. They also observe what receives attention, how quickly decisions are taken and whose concerns appear to receive priority.
A government may have perfectly legitimate reasons for reviewing legislators’ remuneration. But when young people are simultaneously confronting unemployment, recruitment delays, contractual insecurity and inadequate professional stipends, the timing of such decisions naturally invites questions.
People may ask:
Where is the same urgency for recruitment?
Where is the same urgency for young doctors?
Where is the same urgency for unemployed engineers?
Where is the same urgency for researchers and highly qualified professionals?
These questions should not automatically be dismissed as political rhetoric.
They are questions of public trust.
And public trust is strengthened when citizens believe that the system recognises their struggles and responds to them with seriousness.
The Politics of Fairness
The present political dispensation also operates in a changing electoral environment.
Young voters are increasingly conscious of what governments promise, what they deliver and how they respond to everyday economic concerns.
They are not necessarily demanding miracles.
They are asking for fairness.
They want recruitment processes to move.
They want vacancies to be filled.
They want merit to have value.
They want professional qualifications to lead somewhere.
They want young doctors, teachers, engineers and researchers to believe that their years of education have not been wasted.
Most importantly, they want to feel that political institutions understand the economic pressures confronting their generation.
That is why the debate should not become an argument between legislators and unemployed youth.
The two should not be presented as competing interests.
A strong democracy needs legislators who can perform their responsibilities effectively. But a strong democracy also needs citizens who can build independent and productive lives.
Institutional development and youth empowerment must therefore move together.
Turning a Moment of Debate into an Opportunity
The government has an opportunity to change the narrative.
It can demonstrate that strengthening democratic institutions does not mean overlooking wider economic concerns.
If legislators’ remuneration is being reviewed, a parallel institutional mechanism can be created for the periodic review of professional stipends and honorariums.
If administrative capacity is being mobilised for institutional reforms, similar urgency can be applied to recruitment backlogs.
If Jammu and Kashmir is investing in infrastructure and development, greater attention can simultaneously be given to industries capable of employing its educated population.
Such a dual-track approach would be more than politically prudent.
It would be economically sensible.
Jammu and Kashmir’s greatest long-term resource is not merely its land, mountains, tourism potential or natural beauty.
It is its people.
And among them is a generation of educated young Kashmiris who possess qualifications, ambition and the willingness to work.
They are not asking for sympathy.
They are asking for opportunity.
A Question That Goes Beyond Salaries
Ultimately, the debate over legislators’ salaries is only the visible part of a much larger conversation about governance and economic priorities.
The real question is not whether elected representatives deserve fair remuneration.
They do.
The real question is whether the young people of Jammu and Kashmir also see a system that is willing to invest with equal seriousness in their future.
A government earns confidence not merely by improving conditions for those inside the political system, but by making those outside it feel that they too matter.
If young doctors, engineers, researchers, teachers and graduates can see a clear pathway from education to employment, from employment to economic independence and from economic independence to a secure future, then institutional reforms will acquire a deeper meaning.
Jammu and Kashmir does not need a choice between strong institutions and empowered youth.
It needs both.
Because the measure of a functioning democracy is not simply how well its institutions are compensated or administered.
It is also whether the generation waiting outside those institutions can see a future within them—or, even better, a future where opportunities exist far beyond them.
And that is where the real test of governance lies.
Dr. Rizwan Rumi is a writer, columnist and author with a doctorate degree. He regularly writes for various national and international publications and has published extensively on education, society and contemporary issues.
