Dealing With Unemployment In Bahraini

Government efforts in dealing with unemployment in Bahraini has been fruitless. The situation has now turned to a time bomb. A large majority of citizens are jobless or low paid. This study derives solutions of dealing with high levels of unemployment in Bahrain society aimed at pushing the government to make policies favoring the normal citizens. Dialogue in an environment like this doest work resulting to mass protests as witnessed in the 1990s when the Shi’iti ethnic community revolted heavily against the government. (Duraid Al Baik, 2007 pp30)

Through a series of data collection methods like opinion polls, questionnaire, observation and face to face interviews most respondents view the situation as a government failure. The study also uncovers existence of unprecedented levels of discrimination on public sector jobs with some ethnic communities looked down upon. The Shi’i ethnic community comprises the highest percentage of the country’s unemployment and yet most of them are graduates. The study recommends a diffuse and a citizen centered government to address the affairs of social economic inequalities.

Significance Unemployment in Bahraini is worth studying since most of its population are youth graduates but still remain jobless. This situation has in the past resulted to protests among the youth pressing the government to address their grievances. (Onn Winckler, 2005) This has been accompanied by revolts especially in the 1990s. In 2005 September, many unemployed Bahrain citizens formed an employment committee. This committee was mandated to channel their grievances to the government on employment and decent wage to meet basic needs but this effort was fruitless. Purpose

Considering the population of Shi’i ethnic community in Bahraini is twice that of the Sunnis, unemployment rate among the Shi’s is several times higher than that of the Sunnis. (Robert Dahll, 1978) The question that arises then is why there are many unemployed Shi’is as opposed to the Sunnis? Then, what role can the government play to address the problem? Hypothesis The hypothesis is derived from the fact that governments cannot operate without checks and balances. If the government is not checked on matters of social policy, then this will result to social inequalities manifested through high levels of unemployment.

Literature Review In the year 2002, Bahrain government officials released a report indicating that unemployment levels in the country was at 3%, the lowest among all OECD countries. (www. bahrainrights. org/en/ref1102604) These results were contradictory following a government outcry that Bahrain was being faced with a major economic problem of job creation. At 3% unemployment level, the people in a country should not still complain of unemployment unless such a report was unconfirmed. The Bahraini national plan that was implemented in the year 2005 aimed at reducing unemployment levels did not perform to its expectation.

According to the plan, it only allowed some of the unemployed citizens to get financial assistance from the government based on their qualifications. (Onn Winckler, (2005) This statememnt limited many citizens who were inexperienced and without particular qualifications fro the government scheme. This nullified the workability of such a plan. In September 2005, the government of Bahrain allowed the unemployed to form a committee. This was to work as a civil society group to push the government on matters of social policy regarding the unemployed.

Since then, members of this committee faced unprecedented harassment from the government forces to stop intimidating the government and a shaming them internationally. This plan did not perform. Methods Data collection methods When collecting the data it was vital to incorporate all the communities to avoid bias. Targeted in the process were both urban and rural setting for comparison purposes. The utility of the questionnaire was to get the thoughts and expectations of the people on the government efforts to resolve the crisis. • Interview Face to face interviews were conducted on selected samples.

this method was recommended due to its emotional appeal to the situation among the Bahriani society. (Soraya. M, 2000). • Questionnaire These were distributed among samples both in the urban and rural settings. It was evident thai a majority of the respondents were willing to participate in the process. • Observation Though this method, we could observe that a majority of Bahraini citizens were jobless though educated. Most of them were just idling along the streets looking for job opportunities. • Opinion poll This was primarily conducted to get views on what the people expected to do for them.

It was conducted both in the rural setting and he urban areas. Sampling method A sample was picked from the population randomly from selected locations. The study was performed to fit both urban and rural setting each with different approach. Samples from the population were collected based on age (20-40years) and levels of education then selected randomly. Timing The data collection took a period of 14 days. Data analysis took a period of 28 days. The data analysis method utilized was SPSS. Results The research clearly indicated that majority of citizens in Bahraini were highly educated but still remained jobless.

This was amidst so much government efforts to resolve the crisis but to no avail. Many among the educated Bahrains had turned back to their rural homes to start life again due to unavailability of opportunities in the urban areas. They still had a lot of trust in the government in finding a lasting solution to the social inequality. However, some rural people were ignorant of the situation though they wanted change. In the urban setting, many respondents depicted a lot of anger from the situation and wanted an immediate solution.

According to the group proposed that there was need for the formation of an independent body of experienced policy experts to come up with a strategic policy solution to the crisis. This body was to get government funding and to last for not more than six months before the first phase of the policy is put in place. If implemented by the government, the results of this study can be of substantial help to the people of Bahraini in the present and the future generations to come. References Bahrain Center for Human Rights www. bahrainrights. org/en/ref1102604

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