Student protests at Jantar Mantar have exposed deeper flaws in India's growth and education model, with the government facing pressure over the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-UG (NEET-UG) paper leak controversy. According to reports from Business Standard, the government may not concede the key demand that Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan should resign, but they are unlikely to be satisfied by the reported removal of the ministry secretary. The protests, led by Wangchuk, have ended after a month-long fast, though his ending the demonstration is likely to break the momentum of the student movement. Latest reports indicate these protests represent a culmination of long-standing frustrations among students who perceive the education system as increasingly expensive, inequitable, and incapable of delivering quality education or employment opportunities.
At the root of this crisis is a fundamental structural flaw in India's economic growth engine. Historically, developing nations cash in on their demographic dividend by shifting millions of low-to-medium skilled workers from agriculture into labour-intensive manufacturing – think textiles, garments, toys and footwear. However, India skipped this crucial phase, leaping straight from agriculture into high-skill, capital-intensive services like IT and finance. While this model generates impressive GDP figures, services simply cannot absorb hundreds of millions of young job seekers given that India's comparative advantage has been the abundance of low-skilled labour. The result is a growth model where economic expansion happens without creating the sheer volume of mass-employment opportunities the country needs. As reported by The Indian Express, India's working-age population has increased by nearly 90 million over the past decade, while the economy generated only around 60 million jobs, leaving a gap of roughly five million jobs annually.
The current economic model faces a serious challenge in creating sufficient quality jobs for educated Indians, with the software industry being one of the few sectors offering decent careers. According to Business Standard, private security, education, and healthcare sectors have grown at 10-14%, 11-14%, and 12-15% annually respectively, while public security expenditure remains at just 1% of GDP with police density at 150 per hundred thousand population. The education budget has reached 4% of GDP but falls short of the 6% recommended by the National Education Policy, with total government healthcare expenditure estimated at 1.5% of GDP. Latest reports from The Indian Express reveal that graduate unemployment among those aged 15-25 remains close to 40 percent, while among graduates aged 25-29 it is around 20 percent. The State of Working India 2026 report shows that among those aged 15-19, the proportion of young men in education has increased from 49 percent in 1983-84 to 73 percent in 2023-24, and among young women, it has risen from 38 percent to 68 percent.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) was registered as an autonomous body in 2018 to conduct NEET and other nationwide entrance examinations, but the centralised structure has faced significant challenges. As reported by Business Standard, the NTA reportedly has a permanent staff of only 25, with responsibilities including testing centre management, IT infrastructure, paper distribution, and monitoring outsourced to private vendors. This raises questions about the rationale for centralisation when all key responsibilities are outsourced to private entities. Recent analysis reveals that inadequate institutional capacity, dependence on outsourced personnel, and weak accountability mechanisms have allowed examination malpractices to recur, with honest students increasingly finding themselves disadvantaged despite years of sincere preparation. The spree of paper leaks stems directly from institutional decay and widespread outsourcing of recruitment exams to private vendors lacking strict regulatory oversight.
Education has increasingly transformed into a market-driven service rather than a public good, with the rapid expansion of private institutions and the mushrooming coaching industry substantially increasing the financial burden on households. Families often invest a large proportion of their savings in coaching for competitive examinations, creating immense psychological pressure on students to succeed. As reported by The Indian Express, the coaching economy is a huge shadow industry that profits directly off this institutional failure and youth desperation, extracting money from middle/lower-income families. The National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 envisioned significant reforms but critics argue many reforms have faced implementation challenges due to inadequate consultation, resource constraints, and weak institutional preparedness. The State of Working India 2026 report highlights that only one in four young people enters the formal wage economy, with most ending up in informal services, self-employment, or low-productivity agriculture.
The analysis suggests India should adopt a labour-intensive growth strategy given its abundant labour supply and shortage of land and capital. As reported by Business Standard, the country should be frugal in capital and land usage while focusing on industries that generate employment. The current production-linked scheme favours capital- and technology-intensive industries with low employment potential, which requires rethinking to align with India's resource endowment. Recent analysis emphasizes that India's education system requires comprehensive structural reforms centred on quality, equity, and accountability, with public investment in education needing substantial increase to strengthen government schools and universities while ensuring affordable access for all. The State of Working India 2026 report concludes that India's employment problem is increasingly one of educated young people unable to find jobs that match their qualifications and aspirations, requiring fundamental changes in the economic model to capitalize on the demographic dividend.
