WAITING FOR WORK

THE PANDEMIC CAUSED AN UNPRECEDENTED EMPLOYMENT CRISIS. THE GOVERNMENT MUST BOOST JOB CREATION

- KAUSHIK DEKA

The Indian economy is often criticised as delivering jobless growth—from 2001 to 2011, the economy’s average growth rate was 7.7 per cent, but the job growth rate was a meagre 1.8 per cent. Reports indicate that matters may not have changed much in the past decade. According to a leaked report from the National Sample Survey Organisation, India’s unemployment rate hit a 45-year high of 6.1 per cent in 2017. However, the Union government has not approved the report, saying that data sets derived with different methodologies are not comparable.

INDIA 75 @ THE AGENDA

After streamlining central labour laws, there should be big ticket reforms in state laws

• Priority sectors like MSMEs and retail must have support, like easy access to credit

• More inclusive and updated skill development programmes are needed to help workers adapt to new market demands

• Social security schemes are required for workers in the unorganised sector—for this, it is first necessary to carry out beneficiary identification programmes