The Job Machine

A lot of pieces need to fall in place for the textile sector to create the targeted one crore jobs in three years.

- Sarika Malhotra

In June 2016, Modi took the initial steps towards fulfilling his promise of creating mass jobs for the young, close to two years after taking over as prime minister. The Union Cabinet, under him, cleared a package for the textile and apparel, or T&A, sector, the second biggest employer in the country after agriculture. The incentives were for the garment manufacturing segment, the biggest job creator in the textile value chain. The cost —₹6,000 crore over three years.

Will the initiative be able to create the jobs Modi had promised during his ‘achhe din’ election campaign, jobs that are a must if India is to avoid the demographic disaster of a huge unemployed population and the resulting social unrest? In 2011/12, close to 10.8 million Indians were unemployed. By 2025, India is estimated to have the largest number of people, over 832 million, in the working age group (18-59) compared to 658 million-plus today. The garments sector seems to be its biggest hope for generating jobs. According to data from the office of the Textile Commissioner, readymade garments is the biggest employer in the value chain; in 2011, it employed 11.22 million people out of the 45.19 million working in the textile sector. The number of people working in the apparel segment is expected to grow to 12.9 million by 2017.