Wanted 16 Million Jobs

Ways out of a grave crisis *per annum

- M.G. Arun, Shweta Punj & Ajit Kumar Jha

The year was 2013. Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP, was on a campaigning spree, attacking the UPA government on corruption and non-performance and promising radical transformation in all spheres if voted to power. At a rally in Agra, he made a promise that is returning to haunt him. “If the BJP comes to power,” he thundered, “it will provide one crore jobs which the UPA government could not despite announcing it before the last Lok Sabha polls.”

Cut to 2017. In May, a Lab our Bureau quarterly report on employment noted that a mere 230,000 jobs were created in eight key sectors from April-December 2016, a far cry from Modi’s 2013 promise. This, when over a million aspirants enter the Indian job market every month. Further, the Central Statistics Office said GDP growth slipped to 5.7 per cent in the April-June quarter, the lowest in three years, with manufacturing growing at a five-year low of 1.2 per cent, from 10.7 per cent a year ago. Core sector growth, on the other hand, rebounded to a five month high in August to 4.9 per cent and manufacturing activities grew for the second consecutive month in September. Small consolation, though, for job seekers: the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy estimates that about 1.5 million jobs were lost during January-April 2017, the first quarter after the November 2016 demonetisation exercise. Worse, India is set to see a further 30-40 per cent reduction of jobs in manufacturing compared with last year, according to recruitment firm TeamLease Services.