Providing
jobs is indeed a big change for a populous country like India with a huge
number entering the labour force every year. Moreover, with improvement in
education, not just general education but technical too, there is an abundance
of job seekers in the country. As usual, guarantees, not just promises, are
made during elections by political parties but there is no direct mention of
how much employment opportunity would be created.
The
“India Employment Report 2024: Youth education, employment and skills” by the
Institute for Human Development (IHD) and International Labour Organisation
(ILO), recently released presents extremely concerning facts on India’s labour
market over the last decade. Each year, around 70-80 lakh youths are added to
the labour force but between 2012 and 2019, there was almost zero growth in
employment – just 0.01 per cent.
The
Report examines the challenge of youth employment in the context of the emerging
economic, labour market, educational, and skills scenarios in India and changes
over the past two decades and is primarily based on analysis of data from the
National Sample Surveys and the Periodic Labour Force Surveys. It found that 60
per cent of casual workers across the nation find themselves denied the minimum
wage they are entitled to. “As much as 62 per cent of the unskilled casual
agricultural workers and 70 per cent of such workers in the construction sector
at the all-India level did not receive the prescribed daily minimum wages in
2022”, the report stated.
Labour
economist Ravi Srivastava, one of the key figures behind the Report,
highlighted the systemic exploitation faced by unskilled workers contracted
through intermediary entities. These workers often find themselves
short-changed as contractors siphon off a portion of their earnings, leaving
them deprived of even the basic minimum wage.
Highlighting
the scarcity of quality job creation in higher productivity manufacturing and
services post 2019, the report found that though there was a notable shift in
employment from low-productivity agriculture to relatively high productivity
non-agricultural sectors, the first two decades of this millennium, the
momentum slowed and ultimately reversed between 2019 and 2022. An important
point made in the report is the lack of employable skills, but doubts have been
raised on this issue as work-oriented skills are being imparted, both by
government and private institutions all over the country. It is the demand
constraint that is the key factor in job creation.
As
rightly pointed out by Srivastava and several other experts better quality jobs
are concentrated among youths with a high level of education. It may also be
pertinent to mention here that this education, which is mostly imparted from
very well-known private institutions, are very costly and beyond the means of a
major section of middle-income groups not to speak of the low-income segments.
Thus, quality employment has been concentrated among the rich class who can
afford high quality education to their children.
Another
report of the ILO says “83 percent of
jobless Indians are youth, only 17.5 percent of youth in rural areas are
engaged in regular work, the share of people employed in industry and
manufacturing has remained the same since 2011 at 26 percent of the total
workforce, the percentage of youth involved in economic activities decreased
from 42 percent in 2012 to 37 percent by 2022.
The
Congress, highly critical of BJP has stated, “Modi government promised 20 crore
jobs in past 10 years but snatched 12 crore jobs from the youth”. It’s also
alleged the youth unemployment tripled under the Modi government. In its released
manifesto, Congress has promised minimum
wage of Rs 400 per day, employment guarantee in urban areas and Rs 1 lakh with an apprenticeship to every graduate and diploma holder for one year. The BJP is
yet to release its manifesto.
The problem of underemployment is also related to MGNREGS programme, which is only for 100
days a year but poor allocation by the Centre can provide employment for not
more than 50 days. It is necessary to ensure that this programme should provide
at least say 125-150 days’ full employment, keeping in view the critical
situation in the job front, the government could levy a super-rich tax of one
percent to meet the additional expenses.
Experts
have rightly pointed out that the minimum the government can do is to increase
the allocation for the above programme and also start a similar programme for
the urban sector. There are many jobs that are neglected in the cities that
include waste collection and recycling, helping in road repairs, keeping parks
cleaner, etc. Even after the recent hike in rates of MGNREGS, these are less
than the minimum wage of around eight important states. The well- known social
activist, Nikhil Dey, has pointed out that the minimum wage remaining lower
that the state minimum wage meant denial of basic standard of living to the
MGNREGA workers.
In
this connection, it may be pertinent to refer to a stark reality that found
millions of women work in Indian households out of which over 67 percent have
been employed without written contracts, while 77 percent face violence and 85
percent have no social security, leading to a web of exploitative conditions
that is masked by informality. The official figures, a cruel mockery of
reality, thus miss up to 45 million workers. This vast discrepancy, reflecting
the informal nature of the work, hinders efforts to monitor violations and
enforce legal protections. Government initiatives, such as the e-Shram portal
for informal workers, have failed to make any headway.
According
to the Periodic Labour Force Survey, over 80 percent of these women journey
from rural areas seeking better economic prospects. Around 70 percent of these
women fall in their prime working years and yet find themselves stuck in a low
wage informal sector. It is debatable whether India’s economic progress can
stand on the broken backs and the bruised spirits of these women.
As
regards high-end jobs, reports indicate that in the current year placements in
higher educational institutions recorded anywhere between 35 to 55 percent. In
addition to fewer offers from companies, there are reports of lower salary
packages. In fact, the impact of the global scenario on the educational sector
in the country is quite visible with most government and private institutions
reporting around 20-25 percent drop in recruitment. One can find many
post-graduate students in management or engineering without suitable jobs as
most of such candidates do not want to accept a job which offers a salary below
Rs 20,000-25,000.
The situation is thus
quite challenging, and the government is silent on how it envisages creation of
employment opportunities.Technology-driven manufacturing with artificial
intelligence expected to play a crucial role in the coming years obviously goes
against employment creation and is indeed a crucial problem for a populous
country like India with a huge workforce. It is imperative that with
educational levels increasing the government just cannot ignore this vital
sector and must come out with an effective plan of action. But before all this,
recruitment in the government – both at the Centre and in the states – needs to
be given top priority
This article is authored by Dhujarti Mukherjee.
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