Why bother?

The National Family Health Survey (NHFS-5) "done between 2019 and 2021, shows improvement in the sex ratio from previous years - for the first time, it says, there are more females than males in India," BBC. "But the data suggests that the historical preference for boys remains. Over 15% people - 16% men and 14% women - told the surveyors that they wanted more sons than daughters." The same survey showed that "India's total fertility rate now stands at 2," wrote Vivek Kaul. NHFS-5 points out that 23% of married women and 26% of married men would like to have another child, which means that over 75% of people are satisfied with only one child. As family size comes down more women enter the workforce, according to a paper by Amlan Roy. But, "As per the NFHS-5, one in four women in the age-group 15-49 are employed. When it comes to men, nearly three in four men are employed." "Also rather disturbingly, the more educated a woman is, the lower the chances of being employed." As for poor children, the two years of lockdown due to the coronavirus epidemic has completely disrupted their education. "According to India's Annual Status of Education Report (Aser), in 2021, only 40% of enrolled children had received any type of learning materials or activities from their school during the week of the report's survey,' BBC. "The situation was most acute for the youngest children, because they tended to have the least access to technology." "With about 30 percent of students not returning to schools as classroom teaching resumed after a gap of two years due to the pandemic, the Odisha government has asked the district collectors to work for bringing them back," ET. "After two years of lost growth, India's economy needs a major structural transformation towards a trajectory of high long-term growth of both output and employment," wrote Sudipto Mundle. Because, "Of the 28 million unemployed persons in 2019-20, young workers in the 15-29 age group accounted for 24 million." "Among those who are employed, 90% are employed in unskilled or low-skill jobs." "Between 2017 and 2022, the overall labor participation rate dropped from 46% to 40%," ET. Among women, "About 21 million disappeared from the workforce, leaving only 9% of the eligible population employed or looking for positions." What a waste of our most abundant resource. "Now, more than half of the 900 million Indians of legal working age -- roughly the population of the US and Russia combined -- don't want a job, according to the CMIE." "India will have to create 90 million non-farm jobs over the next decade which will require an ambitious reform agenda able to deliver 8-8.5 percent annual GDP growth and productivity gains, consulting firm McKinsey said," TIE. The Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS) showed that the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for women before the pandemic (2018-19) had dropped to a disgraceful 18.6%, HT. No jobs and prices are shooting up, ET. The present is bad. The future will be much worse.