Cards, ludo and low wages: Tales from Maharashtra’s hinterland

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₹150-200 per day. The men are not interested. They would rather work at construction sites, where the wages are higher—upwards of ₹300 per day.

But those jobs are hard to come by. The men of Jiwnapur joke about themselves, to cover the humiliation of not being able to provide for their families: “While the women are out working, we play cards and ludo." The unemployment crisis in Jiwnapur is heightened by the fact that the villagers lost their land to a hydroelectric project. They relocated in 2011 after their farms and homes were submerged.

“There are over a hundred graduates in this village but not even 20 have a regular job," said Akash Ramesh Narule, 25, who is a member of the village gram panchayat, the local governing body elected by residents. Pressed for funds, Narule did not finish his graduate degree and dropped out mid-way. The predicament of the educated is stark.

For instance, Shubham Khobragade, 29, who failed to find a job despite completing a master’s degree in commerce, offers private tuition to school students. He earns less than ₹5,000 per month. Or a little over ₹150 per day—lower than what unskilled workers receive under the government’s rural employment guarantee scheme ( ₹297 per day).

For the unemployed youth, education appears to be a handicap—they hesitate to take up menial work after spending years pursuing a degree. “Ten to twelve lakh students apply when just a few thousand government job openings are announced. It’s a lottery," Khobragade laments.