India stands at a critical demographic crossroads. With the world’s largest youth population, the promise of a demographic dividend is immense — yet the data tells a far more sobering story.
In this Sharp Scope issue, data analyst Divyanka Tandon presents a rigorous, statistics-driven examination of India’s employment paradox, drawing on NSSO, CMIE, and World Bank datasets. The analysis reveals alarmingly low labour force participation, surging educated unemployment, deep structural inefficiencies in agriculture, and a massive productivity deficit that threatens India’s long-term growth trajectory.
The brief argues that unless India undertakes urgent and systemic reforms in labour markets, education, manufacturing, and social security, the demographic dividend could rapidly turn into a demographic liability — with profound economic and social consequences.
This is essential reading for policymakers, scholars, and anyone tracking India’s growth story through a data-driven lens.
Read the full issue brief in the PDF below ↓↓↓
Series: Sharp Scope | SamvadaWorld Think-Tank Series
Volume: 2 | Issue: 2 | Date: November 2025
Divyanka Tandon holds an M.Tech in Data Analytics from BITS Pilani. With a strong foundation in technology and data interpretation, her work focuses on geopolitical risk analysis and writing articles that make sense of global and national data, trends, and their underlying causes. Views expressed are the author’s own.
Riddhik Parashar 
Archita Gaur 
Dr Lakshmi Karlekar
Clear-eyed and data-driven. Too many blurts on youth and growth ignore the employment disconnect. Until we sort out skills, formal jobs and real industrial growth, this whole dividend talk seems wishful.
We keep hearing about India’s ‘demographic dividend’ like it’s a gift, but the numbers show we’re scrambling to create decent jobs. Something has to change on ground level, not just in speeches.
Doesn’t matter how young we are — if the economy can’t absorb us, all this population growth just becomes pressure on resources and opportunity. Sharp Scope nailed it with the phrase ‘demographic burden’.