By Irshad Mushtaq, MI Securities
Kashmir is more educated than ever before, yet more of our young people are sitting idle than the national average.
According to recent government data, over 3.7 lakh educated youth are registered as unemployed in Jammu & Kashmir, even as our literacy rate stands around 82%.This paradox tells us one thing clearly: degrees alone are not enough. Our real wealth is not just in certificates; it is in the family skills, small trades, and traditional crafts that we are quietly allowing to die.
The Reality We Don’t Want To Face
For decades, Kashmiri families have passed on valuable skills from one generation to the next: barbers, tailors, carpenters, wazas, papier-mâché artisans, shawl makers, orchardists and traders. Today many of these skills are being shut down instead of upgraded. Youth are chasing limited government jobs, repeatedly sitting for competitive exams, and losing the most productive years of their life in waiting rooms. At the same time, markets in other parts of India and the world are hungry for exactly the kind of authentic products and services that our skills can create.
This is not just an economic loss; it is a cultural tragedy. When a family stops practicing its ancestral skill, it doesn’t only lose an income stream; it loses stories, techniques, values and identity built over generations. Once a craft dies, you can’t revive it with a quick scheme or a short workshop. You need continuous practice, respect, and a clear path to dignity and growth.
Missed Opportunities Hidden In Everyday Skills
Look around your own mohalla and you will see possibilities disguised as “small work.” A neighbourhood Nayeem who runs a basic salon could, with training in grooming, hygiene, branding and customer service, become the founder of a respected salon chain or grooming brand. A simple darzi who stitches school uniforms could evolve into a heritage fashion label, blending Kashmiri design with modern cuts for markets across India and overseas.
Our wazas and home cooks already know how to feed hundreds at weddings. With standard recipes, hygiene training, packaging and digital marketing, the same skill can transform into cloud kitchens, catering brands, or signature food products like ready-to-cook rogan josh or yakhni mixes. Carpenters and woodworkers can move from doing one-off jobs to building interior brands, furniture lines or boutique design studios if we connect them with design, finance and online platforms.
Instead, what are we doing? Many children from such families are encouraged to shut the shop, get a generic degree, and then apply for the same few posts that lakhs are chasing. In effect, we are killing living, income-generating legacies in order to join a queue with no guarantee.
What We Must Teach Our Children Now
The first mindset change is simple: respect all honest work. A skilled barber creating employment for three others is far more valuable to society than a graduate who refuses to work below a certain “status level” while staying dependent on parents. Every dignified skill – whether of hand, head or heart – deserves equal respect.
Second, we must combine family skills with modern education and technology. A child from a carpenter’s family should learn not only woodworking, but also basic design software, social media marketing, cost accounting and customer service. A child from a tailoring family should understand measurements, fabric, and cuts – along with e-commerce platforms, photography, and branding. When old skills meet new tools, they stop being “small work” and become scalable enterprises.
Third, we must teach money and investing early. Young people should know how savings, SIPs, mutual funds and insurance work, so they can build safety nets and growth capital for their ventures instead of living hand-to-mouth.
Financial literacy is no longer optional; it is a survival skill, especially for business families. When our youth learn to manage money, they reduce dependence, increase options, and gain the courage to start and expand enterprises.
Building A Kashmiri Enterprise Culture
If we want to see real change in employment, we must move from job-seeker thinking to job-creator thinking. That means nurturing a culture where starting a small business is normal, not risky madness. Parents and elders play a crucial role here: instead of saying “Pehla naukri, phir baki sab,” we must encourage our children to test micro-business ideas while they study.
We also need to fix the ecosystem around small enterprises. Many entrepreneurs in J&K still struggle with credit access, complex paperwork, and lack of mentorship.
Government schemes exist, but awareness, documentation support and follow-up are often weak. Civil society and professionals have to fill this gap: chartered accountants, lawyers, mentors, and financial advisors should adopt local businesses, helping them become formal, compliant and investor-ready.
Digital skills are another missing link. Too many Kashmiri businesses run without even a Google listing, a basic Instagram page or an online catalogue. At a time when customers from Delhi to Dubai can buy everything from their phone, not being visible online is like shutting your shop’s shutter during peak season. Teaching basic digital marketing, e-commerce platforms and online payments can dramatically increase the reach and income of even the smallest artisan or shopkeeper.
A Call To Action For Every Kashmiri Family
Change will not come only from government or big investors; it must begin at home. Here are a few practical steps every family can take:
1. Document your family skill as a 100-year story – write down how it started, who kept it alive, what you make or serve, and why it matters.
2. Involve children in the work – even if they pursue other careers, give them hands-on exposure so the knowledge does not vanish.
3. Turn the mohalla shop into a micro-brand – choose a name, create a simple logo, improve hygiene and customer experience, and start telling your story online.
4. Invest in training – grooming courses for barbers, design workshops for tailors, hospitality and hygiene for wazas, digital tools for every business.
5. Start disciplined savings and SIPs – so your enterprise has capital to modernise equipment, upgrade interiors, or open another outlet when opportunity appears.
If we do this collectively, we can convert Kashmir from a place of “educated unemployment” into a hub of skilled, confident entrepreneurs who employ others.
Conclusion: Don’t Kill Your Legacy – Compound It
Kashmir’s greatest strength has never been just its scenery; it is the quiet competence of its people – the hands that weave carpets, carve walnut, serve wazwan, repair machines, cut hair, teach children and run small shops. In chasing a narrow definition of success based only on degrees and government jobs, we are putting this strength at risk.
The choice before us is clear. We can allow our family skills and crafts to fade into memory, and keep adding names to unemployment lists. Or we can upgrade our legacy – by blending skills with education, values with technology, and tradition with modern enterprise. If each family preserves and modernises even one skill, Kashmir will not just survive; it will thrive.
The future of our youth will not be written only in exam halls. It will be written in workshops, kitchens, salons, studios, orchards and small offices where knowledge, courage and discipline come together. As a son of this soil and a student of markets, my appeal is simple: don’t kill your legacy. Start compounding it – for your family, for your community, and for Kashmir.
About the author:
Irshad Mushtaq is the founder of M I Securities, Munawar abad, Srinagar, and an AMFI‑registered mutual fund distributor (ARN‑47504) since 2004. He works as a personal finance columnist and financial educator, focusing on bringing simple, disciplined investing and market awareness to investors in Kashmir and beyond. He can be reached at [email protected], Contact No : 9906518342
