Employment generation will remain a major challenge before the Narendra Modi government in its third term
There are no easy ways out, given the swelling numbers of young job seekers, and the changing nature of the economy that requires fewer workers, thanks to rapid technological advancement
The Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) notes that just 21% of the total establishments used the Internet for entrepreneurial activities.
The survey, quite similar to a previous report of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), says the unincorporated non-agricultural economy employed about 11 crore workers during October 2022 to September 2023 in comparison to about 9.8 crore workers during 2021-22.
The ILO’s India Employment Report had also warned that the share of manufacturing employment was stagnant, at around 12%-14% and the slow transition of jobs from agriculture to non agriculture reversed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Citigroup report too said the current rate of job creation will not be sufficient to meet future demand.
Various Periodic Labour Force Surveys had also noted that 45.76% of the total workforce was engaged in agriculture and allied sectors during 2022-23
The Swadeshi Jagran Manch has demanded that the Centre impose a robot tax and incentivise job creation in the Budget.
The trade unions have asked the Centre to convene the long-pending Indian Labour Conference
Technological innovations should be to reduce the workload of people, and not to create hurdles for their livelihood.
To industrialise agriculture production, the government should consider more public and cooperative investment to create more jobs and ease the load on farmers.
It has to bring on board the private and public sectors, labour unions, States and political parties to design a growth model with job creation at its centre.
Recent global experiences suggest that economic growth without employment growth can cause social and political upheavals.
This is not a problem that can be explained away, and an honest account of the problem will be a good starting point for mitigative measures
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