There is a need to make the educated and (lesser educated) citizenry functionally literate and capable of getting secure, decent, and high-wage employment. This has hardly been the government’s focus in its fiscal strategy.
Authors
Deepanshu Mohan, Professor and Dean, Director, Centre for New Economics Studies, O.P. Jindal Global University
Summary
Deliberations around a ‘pro-employment’ growth focus in the Union Budget and its likely macro-fiscal implications offer critical insights on the ‘jobless growth’ debate in India’s macroeconomic landscape.
Let’s observe the data more closely.
For a country that on average had a large proportion of its employed workforce moving from agriculture to non-farm jobs (70 per cent to 42 per cent) over the last few decades, the past few years have seen a sudden increase in farm-based employment (from 42 per cent to 46 per cent roughly), signalling the return of more than 20 million people (willing to find employment) to farming.
There has been a large increase in the proportion of casual, self-employed workers, those employed within the unorganised, informal landscape. These aren’t ‘good’ secured jobs we are talking about, but rather a survival-employment strategy that workers are taking since they are not finding enough opportunities in the secured, organised sector.
Published in: Deccan Head
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