8.7 crore Indian youth are outside jobs, study, training; 88% in domestic duties

NITI Aayog's new skilling report identifies 8.7 crore young Indians outside education, employment and training. Nearly 88% are engaged in domestic duties, while women face major barriers to skilling, mobility and work. What pushes people into that position?NITI Aayog's new skilling report identifies 8.7 crore young Indians outside education, employment and training. Nearly 88% are engaged in domestic duties, while women face major barriers to skilling, mobility and work. (AI-generated image)India's skilling problem is not simply about people who cannot find jobs.A new NITI Aayog report Reimagining Skilling for Viksit Bharat @2047 identifies 8.7 crore people aged 15 to 29 who are not engaged in education, employment or training (also called the NEET population), including those who are unemployed.That is around 11% of the population segment mapped in the report, excluding those who are looking for jobs.Then comes the number that makes this story much more complicated: around 88% of this group is engaged in domestic duties. And while the report does not provide a male-female breakup of these 8.7 crore young people, its separate analysis of women shows why domestic responsibilities, mobility and access to work cannot be treated as side issues in India's skilling debate.THIS IS NOT JUST A STORY ABOUT JOBLESS YOUTHThe report places these young people alongside four other major groups: school students, tertiary learners, the formal and informal workforce, and women. Together, the five segments represent around 60 crore citizens. NITI Aayog is not looking at skilling as something that happens only after a person loses a job. It is looking at what happens across a person's entire journey from school to higher education, work, periods outside the labour market and possible return to work.For young people who have already dropped out or fallen outside the system, the report proposes routes back in. (Photo: NITI Aayog Reimagining Skilling for Viksit Bharat @2047 report) MAIN BARRIERS TO SKILLINGFor many, the problem starts well before they reach a training centre.The report identifies financial constraints, the loss of income involved in taking time out to train, the cost already spent on previous education, and a lack of flexible learning options as barriers that can keep people outside the skilling system.For women, these pressures are compounded by caregiving, household responsibilities, safety and mobility constraints. (Photo: NITI Aayog Reimagining Skilling for Viksit Bharat @2047 report) FOR WOMEN, THE BARRIER CAN START AT HOMEThe report's findings on women make the domestic-duty figure particularly important.Women are treated as a cross-cutting segment in the report, and NITI Aayog says just 3% are in formal jobs while 71% are either working in informal jobs or part of the young people outside education, employment and training.The barriers are not limited to whether a training course exists.68% of women surveyed prefer part-time skilling courses, while 30% prefer short-duration courses. The report's qualitative research describes women whose choices are constrained by caregiving, family expectations and safety concerns, with training centres even a few kilometres away becoming difficult to access.That changes the question.It is not enough to ask whether India has enough training seats. Can someone actually reach the training centre, afford to attend it and fit it around the responsibilities they already carry? There's a gap between available skilling opportunities and young people in different circumstances still struggling to access education and employment. (AI-generated image) EVEN A FEW KILOMETRES CAN BECOME A BARRIERThe report's example of Sangeeta is telling.She marries young, has children and wants to learn a skill so she can earn a supplementary income. But family expectations, safety concerns and caregiving responsibilities mean she cannot travel far or commit to a full-day programme.This is why the report argues for more flexible and local pathways.For women, its proposed interventions include trusted local spaces, skill discovery platforms, targeted skill vouchers and hyperlocal flexible work opportunities.WHAT HAPPENS AFTER SOMEONE LEAVES EDUCATION?This is where the report's larger idea becomes interesting.NITI Aayog argues that learning should not be a one-way journey where a person who drops out is effectively locked out of the system.Its proposed architecture creates multiple entry, exit and re-entry points between education, skilling and work. Young people outside the system could return through a short course, micro-credential, apprenticeship or another recognised pathway, build skills and move back into education or work. (AI-generated image) The report illustrates this through the story of a woman who drops out of school and enters the category because of household constraints and early marriage. She later finds a suitable training centre, uses a skill voucher, takes a short course and moves into nearby part-time work before eventually starting her own business.It is an illustrative pathway, not evidence that every woman in the 8.7 crore figure follows this route. But it shows what the redesigned system is supposed to make possible.THE BIGGER PROBLEM IS NOT JUST GETTING PEOPLE INTO TRAININGThe report's central argument is that India's skilling system has to accommodate the reality that people move in and out of education and work.Someone may leave school because of household circumstances. Someone may need to stop working to care for family. Someone may take a short course while working. Someone else may need to return to education years after dropping out.The proposed system is therefore built around non-linear learning, lifelong skilling and outcomes such as employability, progression and sustained livelihoods rather than simply counting how many people completed a course. (Photo: NITI Aayog Reimagining Skilling for Viksit Bharat @2047 report) And that may be the real significance of the 8.7 crore figure.It is not simply a count of young people without jobs.It is a measure of how many young Indians are currently sitting outside the usual education-to-work pipeline, with domestic responsibilities forming a huge part of the picture. The report's answer is not just more courses but a system that makes it possible to leave, return, retrain and work without having to start from zero each time.- EndsPublished On: Aug 21, 2026 17:30 IST