Context:

• Self-enumeration for Census 2027 began on August 17 in snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, ahead of the wider population enumeration.
• The exercise is significant because Census data forms the foundation for public policy, welfare allocation and evidence-based governance.
• However, concerns have been raised over the disability question in the forthcoming Census.
• Despite improvements in the revised questionnaire, limited categorisation of disabilities could lead to substantial undercounting and misclassification, weakening the evidence base for disability-related policies. 

Disability Question - An Apparent Improvement:

• The Census questionnaire contains 40 questions, with Question 13 dealing with disability.
• It first asks whether a person has a disability and, if yes, permits selection of up to three categories from nine options.
• These are seeing, hearing, speech, mobility, intellectual disability, mental illness, acid attack, chronic neurological disease, and blood disorder.
• The inclusion of blood disorder and replacement of the outdated term “mental retardation” with intellectual disability are welcome changes.
• However, the improvement is limited because the classification does not adequately reflect the broader legal framework governing disability in India.

The Gap with the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016:

• The RPwD Act, 2016 expanded recognised disabilities from 7 to 21 categories.
• These include autism spectrum disorder, specific learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, dwarfism, muscular dystrophy, thalassemia, haemophilia and sickle cell disease, among others.
• Yet several of these conditions do not appear separately in the Census questionnaire.

Why This Matters?

• The absence of distinct categories can produce misclassification and undercounting.
• For instance, autism may be recorded as intellectual disability because assessment boards or enumerators lack the capacity to distinguish the two.
• Reproducing such broad categorisation at the national level could distort the actual prevalence of particular disabilities and affect the delivery of appropriate services.
• The Census has also removed two useful provisions present in the 2011 exercise: “Any other disability”, and “Multiple disability”.
• Although respondents can select up to three disabilities in the new questionnaire, it remains unclear how multiple disabilities will ultimately be recorded and whether this could lead to duplication or distorted estimates.
• The 2011 Census explicitly provided for multiple disabilities and an “any other” category to improve coverage.

Flawed Classification:

• The new classification is also conceptually inconsistent. Acid attack is listed as an independent category, although under the RPwD framework it falls within the broader domain of locomotor disability.
• Placing a specific condition alongside broad categories such as mobility raises questions about the principles used to construct the classification.
• A Census questionnaire should ideally follow a consistent, legally aligned and mutually coherent taxonomy.

Why UDID and NSS Cannot Fill the Gap:

• It may be argued that the Unique Disability ID (UDID) database can compensate for gaps in Census data.
• However, UDID registration does not cover the entire disabled population and depends on access to certification procedures, healthcare facilities and transportation—conditions often absent in remote areas.
• Similarly, National Sample Survey (NSS) exercises can provide prevalence estimates but cannot substitute for a complete population count.
• Thus, neither database can adequately replace Census-based disaggregated data.

The Biggest Challenge - Remote and Inaccessible Regions:

• The concern is particularly acute in the very regions where enumeration is difficult.
• Enumerators may lack adequate guidance on -
  • What constitutes a chronic neurological condition;
  • How to sensitively ask about mental illness;
  • How to identify intellectual disability without clinical training; and
  • How to distinguish overlapping disabilities.
• In remote and snow-bound areas, specialist healthcare and formal diagnostic infrastructure are often scarce.
• Consequently, the Census risks becoming “backward among the backwards”—producing the weakest disability data precisely in areas where reliable information is most difficult to obtain.

Data Determines Policy:

• Disaggregated disability data is essential for determining budgetary allocations, healthcare infrastructure, educational interventions, social security and district-level welfare programmes.
• The problem becomes particularly evident with the broad category of blood disorders.
• Thalassemia, haemophilia and sickle cell disease have very different treatment requirements -
  • Thalassemia → regular transfusion and iron chelation;
  • Haemophilia → factor concentrates and appropriate storage/cold-chain facilities;
  • Sickle cell disease → medicines such as hydroxyurea and crisis-management protocols.
• Combining these conditions into a single Census category prevents policymakers from determining their individual burden and evaluating disease-specific programmes.
• It also limits understanding of hereditary and carrier burdens, which is important for prevention and early intervention.
• Similarly, the complete absence of specific learning disabilities can undermine education planning, despite the importance of early diagnosis, remediation and geographically targeted interventions.

Way Forward:

• The disability question should be aligned with the RPwD Act, 2016 and India's broader commitment to inclusive development.
• Three immediate reforms are important -
  • Expand or restructure categories to reflect the 21 recognised disabilities under the RPwD Act.
  • At minimum, restore a structured “Other—Please Specify” provision and the multiple-disability category.
  • Provide comprehensive enumerator training and standardised guidance for identifying and recording disabilities sensitively and accurately.

Conclusion:

• The Census is conducted only once in a decade. If disability categories are inadequately designed, the resulting errors can influence budgets, welfare programmes, healthcare planning and educational interventions for years.
• The objective should not merely be to count persons with disabilities, but to count them accurately, identify their diverse needs and make them visible in public policy.

Why in the News?

• Recent data show that around 9.2 crore young Indians are neither in education, employment nor training, a figure the falling unemployment rate does not capture.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Youth Unemployment (Official Data, Problems, NEET Youth, Scale of the Problem, Importance, etc.)

The Official Picture

• The government has often cited the Unemployment Rate (UER) to suggest India is doing well on jobs.
• The UER measures the number of unemployed people as a share of the total labour force, those currently working or actively looking for work.
• By this measure, the trend looks positive. Data from the Periodic Labour Force Surveys (PLFS) shows the UER falling steadily from 6.1% in 2017-18, a 45-year high, to just 3.1% in 2025, for those aged 15 and above.
• However, relying only on this headline figure obscures three significant problems.

Problem One: Youth Unemployment Remains High

• Unemployment among young Indians aged 15 to 29 is far higher than the overall rate.
• It fell from almost 18% in 2017-18 to around 10% in 2022-23, but has since stayed stuck at that level.
• More troubling is that unemployment rises with educational attainment. Graduates aged 25 face the highest unemployment rate, close to 40%.
• This means roughly four out of every ten graduates aged 25 who are looking for work fail to find it.
• Analysis in the State of Working India (SWI) 2026 report by researchers at Azim Premji University found that unemployment among young Indians with education up to graduation or more was actually higher in 2023 than in 1983.
• Educated unemployment is not new in India, but the situation appears to be worsening over time.

Problem Two: The Quality of Jobs Created

• India's workforce has undoubtedly expanded. The total number of people employed rose from 43.3 crore in 2017-18 to around 61 crore by December 2025. But a closer look at where these jobs came from raises concerns.
• The SWI 2026 report found that between 2021-22 and 2023-24, India's employed population grew from 49 crore to 57.2 crore. Employment rates rose from 71% to 74% for men and from 26% to 34% for women.
• However, of the 8.3 crore jobs added in this period, 4 crore were in agriculture, with women accounting for a large share at 3.8 crore.
• Agriculture is typically low-productivity, low-paying work, and a shift towards it is generally a sign of distress rather than progress.
• The pattern is similar for women's employment overall. The number of women in the workforce rose sharply from 9.4 crore in 2017-18 to 18.6 crore in 2023-24.
• But the report notes that the number of women in own-account self-employment has increased nearly fourfold since 2017, while self-employment earnings for women and salaried earnings for both men and women have largely stagnated.
• More people are working, in other words, but not necessarily earning more.

Problem Three: The UER Understates the Problem

• In a developing economy like India, using the unemployment rate to assess labour market stress can be deeply misleading.
• The UER counts only those who are willing to work and actively searching for a job. In India, however, many people who could work do not register in surveys as looking for work.
• They are therefore counted outside the labour force altogether, and never appear in the unemployment figure.
• As one of the SWI report's authors explains, this happens particularly with women. Regardless of their education, even after completing graduation, many are not recorded as looking for work, and thus fall out of the labour force entirely.
• If these individuals were counted as unemployed, they would enter the labour force and the unemployment rate would be considerably higher.
• The UER is therefore best understood as the lowest possible estimate of people not being mobilised into the workforce.
• Beyond it lies a large pool of people outside the labour force, either discouraged workers who have given up searching, or those kept out by social norms, most often women.

The Better Measure: NEET

• A different metric captures this reality more accurately: NEET, or Not in Employment, Education, or Training.
• The logic behind NEET is straightforward. Those pursuing education cannot reasonably be expected to be working. NEET therefore measures how many people are in none of these three categories, not studying, not training, and not working.
• As the SWI report describes it, NEET is a comprehensive measure of labour under-utilisation that excludes those in education or training. It includes not just the unemployed, but also those of working age who are neither in education nor in training nor in employment.

The Scale of the Problem

• According to official PLFS data released in March this year, 25% of Indian youth were classified as NEET.
• Applying this proportion to current population figures produces a striking number.
• Based on Ministry of Health and Family Welfare projections, India's youth population in 2026 stands at 36.8 crore, the largest youth population in the world.
• At 25%, this means roughly 9.2 crore young Indians are currently neither in education, nor skilling, nor any form of employment. That is a figure almost equal to the entire population of Iran.

Why This Matters?

• The combination of high youth unemployment and an enormous absolute NEET population helps explain the growing youth unrest in the country.
• What makes it more striking is the context. These figures coexist with government satisfaction over the pace of economic growth based on GDP figures, a period some have described as a "goldilocks" phase for the Indian economy.
• The disconnect is the core issue. Headline growth and a falling unemployment rate can both look healthy while a very large share of young people remain entirely disconnected from productive activity.

About Vishwamitri River:

• It is a small non-perennial river located in Gujarat.
• Course:
  • It originates from the western and southern slopes of the Pavagadh hills in eastern Gujarat.
  • The river flows westward, through Gujarat’s third-largest city, Vadodara, after which it meets the two tributaries of Dhadar and Jambuva before draining into the Arabian Sea via the Gulf of Khambhat.
• It flows between the Mahi and Narmada rivers.
• The highly meandering, sinuous river has a unique ecosystem bearing a plethora of beautiful ravines right from its beginning till its end.
• Porcupines, the common Indian civet, the jungle cat, cobras, pythons, the checkered keelback, and the Bengal monitor are some of the species found in the ravines on the banks of this river.
• Vishwamitri is also where the protected and vulnerable species of the Indian crocodile (Crocodylus palustris), also known as the mugger, resides.
• Historically, the river has been central to Vadodara’s development, with human settlements along its banks dating back to 1000 B.C.
• This river system includes the Sayaji Sarovar on the Vishwamitri River near Ajwa, and the Dev Dam on the Dhadhar Branch.

About Ribociclib:

• It is an anticancer medicine used in combination with other medicines to treat certain types of breast cancer.
• It belongs to a group of drugs called CDK 4/6 (cyclin-dependent kinase) inhibitors.
• These drugs block the action of kinase, which is a protein that helps cells to grow and divide. This stops the growth and spread of cancer.
• It is a treatment for breast cancer that has:
  • spread to another part of the body (advanced or metastatic breast cancer)
  • spread to the area and structures surrounding the breast, such as nearby lymph nodes, muscle, and skin, but not to other parts of the body (locally advanced breast cancer)
• Ribociclib is always given alongside a hormone therapy drug to treat breast cancer.
• Since the growth of normal cells may also be affected by the medicine, other unwanted effects will also occur. Some of these may be serious and must be reported to your doctor.

About Guruvayur Temple:

• Guruvayur Temple, also known as the Dwarka of the South, is a Hindu temple located in the small town of Guruvayur, in the Thrissur District of Kerala.
• It is dedicated to Guruvayurappan, a beloved form of Lord Vishnu worshipped as Baby Krishna.
• History:
  • It is ascertained that the main presiding deity is 5,000 years old.
  • In fact, the word ‘’Kuruvayur’’ has been mentioned in the Tamil literature called ‘’Kokasandesam’’ in the 14^th century CE.
  • References to Kuruvayur have also been made in the 16th century C.E.
  • However, the earliest recorded history of the Guruvayur temple can be traced back to the 17^th century C.E.
  • The present structure was rebuilt in the year 1638 C.E.
  • In 1716 AD, the Dutch plundered and set fire to the temple. It was rebuilt in 1747 AD.
  • In terms of devotees every day, it is the fourth biggest shrine in India.
• Features:
  • It is renowned for its traditional Kerala style of temple architecture, characterized by its gabled roof, wooden carvings, and intricate sculptures.
  • Structures like the Nalambalam (temple structure surrounding the sanctum sanctorum), Balikkal (sacrificial stone), and Deepastambam (pillar of lights) are situated on the temple premises.
  • The wall of the sanctum sanctorum is decked with ancient 17th-century murals.
  • Another famous sight here is the Dwajasthamba. It is a flagstaff, around 70 feet tall, fully covered with gold.
  • The Thulabharam is one of the most popular offerings at Guruvayur Temple. In this ritual, devotees are weighed against jaggery, coconuts, sugar, or bananas on a giant set of scales. This quantity is then given to the Lord as an offering.
  • The temple is also noted for being home to a large population of captive male Asian elephants.
  • The Punnathur Kotta elephant sanctuary is very close to the temple.

About Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF):

• It is an important zoonotic disease caused by a tick-borne virus (Nairovirus) belonging to the family Bunyaviridae.
• The CCHF virus causes severe viral haemorrhagic fever outbreaks, with a case fatality rate of 10–40%.
• Distribution:
  • The disease was first characterized in 1944 in the Crimea.
  • In 1969, the same pathogen was identified as the cause of a similar disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, leading to the combined name used today.
  • CCHF commonly spreads in (is endemic to) Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Europe.
  • Its distribution closely mirrors that of Hyalomma ticks, the primary vectors responsible for transmitting the virus.
• Transmission:
  • It is transmitted by bites from infected ticks or by direct contact with blood or tissues of infected ticks, people, and livestock.
  • The ticks can also be hosted by migratory birds.
  • People working in livestock industries, slaughterhouses, and veterinary services are considered among the highest-risk groups for infection.
• Treatment:
  • There is no specific treatment or cure for CCHF.
  • Supportive care includes fluid balance, giving oxygen, managing blood pressure, and treating other infections.
  • An antiviral called Ribavirin has shown some benefits in treating CCHF patients.

About Smew:

• It is a medium-sized duck belonging to the family Anatidae.
• It was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus.
• Scientific Name: Mergellus albellus
• Habitat and Distribution:
  • The smew species breed in the northern taiga of Europe and Asia.
  • They winter in sheltered coasts or inland lakes of the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, Great Britain, Caspian Sea, East China, Korea and Japan.
  • The smew is an occasional visitor to the Indian Subcontinent.
  • The smew species inhabit freshwater lakes, reservoirs, flooded woods, ice-free rivers, sheltered bays, estuaries, lagoons and tidal creeks.
• Conservation Status:
  • IUCN Red List: Least Concern

Key Facts about Laokhowa Wildlife Sanctuary:

• It is located on the southern part of the Brahmaputra River in the Nagaon District of Assam.
• It forms an integral part of the Laokhowa-Burachapori ecosystem and is a notified buffer of the Kazairanga Tiger Reserve.
• It is a part of the Brahmaputra valley.
• The sanctuary is surrounded by human-dominated areas on all sides except for the north.
• Flora: The vegetation composition of Laokhowa can be broadly categorized into alluvial grassland, alluvial forest, moist deciduous forest, and tropical semi-evergreen
• Fauna:
  • The sanctuary is home to the great Indian-one horned rhinoceros, elephants, royal Bengal tigers, Asiatic water buffaloes and many species of birds.
  • Some of the birds spotted here are the spot-billed pelican, little and large cormorant, egret, open-billed stork, brahminy kite, pond heron, etc.

About Indian Star Tortoise:

• It is a medium-sized terrestrial tortoise.
• Their name comes from the star-like pattern on their shell.
• These patterns act as camouflage by helping to break up the shell outline so that it more easily blends into its surroundings.
• Habitat: It inhabits dry areas and scrub forest.
• Distribution: It is mainly found in the Indian subcontinent specifically western India and southeastern India (Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu), and in Sri Lanka.
• Features:
  • These are generally crepuscular, which means they are active in the early morning and the late afternoon during dry, hot weather. 
  • Life Span: It has a lifespan of 35 to 80 years in the wild.
  • These solitary animals do not hibernate, but when it is very dry and hot, or very cold, they stay inactive. 
• Conservation Status:
  • IUCN Red List: Vulnerable

About Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve:

• Location: It is located in the Nilgiri Mountains of the Western Ghats.
• It encompasses parts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka.
• It was the first biosphere reserve in India, established in 1986.
• Protected areas within this Reserve: Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary, Wyanaad Wildlife Sanctuary, Bandipur National Park, Nagarhole National Park, Mukurthi National Park, and Silent Valley are the 
• Vegetation: It has tropical evergreen forests, Montane sholas and grasslands, semi-evergreen forests, moist deciduous forests, dry deciduous forests, and thorn forests. 
• Tribal Population: Tribal groups like the Todas, Kotas, Irullas, Kurumbas, Paniyas, Adiyans, Edanadan Chettis, Cholanaickens, Allar, Malayan, etc., are native to the reserve.
• It is India’s first biosphere reserve under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme.
• Flora: It mainly includes species of Adenoon, Calacanthus, Baeolepis, Frerea, Jarodina, Wagatea, Poeciloneuron, etc.
• Fauna: It mainly has namely the Nilgiri Tahr and the Lion-tailed macaque and the largest South Indian population of elephant, tiger, gaur, sambar, and chital.

About Regenerative Agriculture:

• It is a holistic farming approach centred on restoring soil health and enhancing biodiversity.
• It focuses not merely on sustaining existing farming conditions, but on actively restoring soil health, improving biodiversity and strengthening farms against climate-related stresses.
• It is based on the following principles:
  • Minimizing soil disturbance
  • Protecting the living roots of perennial crops
  • Maintaining soil cover
  • Integrating Livestock
  • Limiting the use of chemical inputs
  • Enhancing biodiversity
• Popular Regenerative agricultural practices in India:
  • Micro-irrigation: Drip and sprinkler systems deliver water closer to plant roots, reducing wastage and improving water-use efficiency.
  • Natural farming: It uses on-farm biological inputs such as Beejamrut, Jeevamrut, GhanJeevamrut, Neemastra and Dashparni. It also encourages multi-cropping, mulching, cover cropping, minimal soil disturbance and livestock integration.
  • Soil health management: Green manuring, cover cropping and mulching can add organic matter, protect soil from erosion, conserve moisture and support nutrient cycling.
  • Integrated Farming Systems: Crops can be combined with livestock, fisheries, horticulture, agroforestry and apiculture. This diversification can reduce the risk of crop failure and create additional livelihood opportunities.
  • Agroforestry: Integrating trees with crops can provide additional income while improving soil moisture, regulating local temperatures and storing carbon.