The Alumni of SCD Government College, Ludhiana have expressed serious concern over the continuing exodus of Punjab’s youth and their worrisome demography in the state. In an alumni virtual discussion involving professionals from banking, education, journalism and industry, they identified it as a structural crisis of economic opportunity, governance, policy continuity and declining confidence of the people of the state.
Brij Bhushan Goyal who is also an organising secretary of the Alumni Association, initiating the discussion, noted that political discourse is increasingly reduced to mudslinging while Punjab faces a demographic warning as only 21.4% of its population is in the 0–14 age group against 25.2% nationally. Goyal noted that migration has now spread beyond traditional destinations such as the USA, Canada and Australia. He pointed to the absence of stable, long-term agricultural and industrial policies and questioned whether local youth are adequately benefiting from investment initiatives. He also highlighted the under-utilisation of Punjab’s global Punjabi and NRI network and demanded that the State must create credible mechanisms to attract diaspora capital, expertise, technology and international business networks into productive investment.
K.B.Singh, a former bank DGM, attributed the problem to Punjab’s structural economic imbalance. Once a leader in per-capita income, Punjab has slipped to the middle as other States diversified into industry and services after 1992, creating relatively fewer employment opportunities. State is already in a serious debt trap, he said. G. S. Bajwa, alumnus, said migration is not new, but its scale has changed. Small landholdings, unemployment, costly education and the desire to escape drugs, lawlessness, corruption and administrative problems are among the factors pushing youth abroad. Jaspal Singh Pinki stressed that migration was substantial even when Punjab had the country’s highest per-capita income. He cited weak large-scale industrialisation, inadequate agricultural diversification, border-State disadvantages, the 1983–95 terrorism period and the failure to develop Mohali into an IT hub comparable with Gurugram or Noida. Prof. P. K. Sharma, an alumnus and freelance journalist, said successive governments had failed to address the issue seriously. He described the loss of productive youth as a major economic setback, with Punjab’s human capital contributing increasingly to foreign economies. Tejinder Singh Dua raised concerns about Punjab’s investment environment and the concentration of new manufacturing sectors elsewhere. He called for a more equitable development opportunity while stressing that Punjab’s fertile land and water must be protected.
Also dismayed at daily Bandh Calls by state's various protestors disrupting roads and rails traffic and businesses , the alumni discussion concluded that people’s confidence has shattered resulting in continual youth migration which is a symptom of a deeper crisis. State and GOI must address their concerns. Many other participants noted that Punjab still possesses major strengths—MSMEs, agriculture, human capital, educational institutions and a globally successful diaspora. The challenge is to integrate these assets into a coherent long-term development strategy.
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