No unemployment in India!

The replacement of MGNREGA by a supply-driven, guarantee-less, funds-constrained scheme will make matters worse for the rural poor who will face unemployment or under-employment

- P Chidambaram

THERE IS A deluge of good news. Retail inflation is at 1.33%.The GDP growth for 2025-26 has been estimated at 7.4%. I think we must add another hurrah: there is no unemployment anywhere in India, at least unemployment of the kind we need to worry about.

No takers for jobs!

I have good reasons to state that there are no takers for jobs. Data shows that for hundreds of thousands of vacancies in the government and quasi-government sector, there are no takers. Despite good pay (and the 8th Pay Commission will improve it), dearness allowance, annual increments, promotions, job security, medical benefits, HRA, Transport Allowance and other allowances, leave benefits, advances and loans, and Unified Pension Scheme, young men and women are not inclined to take the jobs — sanctioned by the government but vacant. What will you conclude from this extraordinary situation other than there is no unemployment and no takers for jobs?

According to Ministry of Education, the sanctioned and vacant posts in central universities (see Table 1), as of April 1, 2024, 27% of teaching posts and 47% of non-teaching posts were vacant in central universities.

As of June 2025, 7,765 teaching posts in KVS and 4,323 teaching posts in NVS were vacant. Nevertheless, we are assured that teaching is well and thriving in India.

Official data speaks