Create more jobs, improve employment policy

Government of India has recently announced its plan to make 10 lakhs government jobs in the next 18 months. Out of about 40 lakh sanctioned posts, 22 per cent posts are now vacant and the government will fill these posts in 18 months.

While the announcement has been called “a historic step in the interest of the youth” and by some top government leaders as “a new hope and a boost of confidence among the youth”, the plan has serious problems.

Vacancies are too many

The first question is, how is the government now managing in the absence of more than one fifth of the required number of employees? Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh told the Rajya Sabha on 3rd February 2022 that 8.72 lakh posts are vacant in various departments of the Central Government. In Public Sector Banks, Defense Forces and Police, Health Sector, Kendriya Vidyalayas and Central Universities and Judiciary, this number touches around 30 lakh posts. This number does not include vacancies in state government jobs. As the sanctioned posts broadly indicate the required number of posts required to run the government, it appears that this government is probably facing a serious shortage of staff, which then leads to long delays in work, corruption and perhaps other causing inefficiencies.

However, the government has not complained about such shortfalls in recent years. Then why suddenly announced this? Is it because the government is concerned about youth unemployment? Or is it because it wants to fill the required positions? Or, is it because elections are to be held in many states?’

‘Quality’ as issue

Another major concern is the quality of employment generated through this scheme. The share of contract workers in total government employment has been increasing rapidly in recent years – from 11.11 lakh in 2017 to 13.25 lakh in 2020 and 24.31 lakh in 2021. In addition, there are “honorary workers” like Anganwadi workers, their assistants. , Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) worker, etc. These government employees earn low wages (consolidated pay), and are not entitled to “decent work” conditions (International Labor Organization recommendations), including a minimum package of Social Security.

The government should ensure that the employment created under its scheme is of standard quality. So far no assurance has been received from the government on this.

need more jobs

The total labor force in the country is 437.2 million (April 2022 data). The youth unemployment rate is currently around 20% at a labor force participation rate of 42.13% (Center for Monitoring Indian Economy Pvt Ltd). Given the backlog of about 30 million unemployed people and an annual growth of 50 lakh-70 lakh workers every year (World Bank), the dimensions of India’s unemployment problem today are dire. The creation of just one million jobs in the next 18 months is very little. The youth of the country will hardly get any relief from this scheme of the government. And will not have much impact on the current unemployment problem.

It is important to note here that the performance of the private sector in generating employment opportunities has been disappointing. Currently, when the economy is still struggling to cope with the shocks caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic, and when private final consumption expenditure has not exceeded pre-pandemic levels, private firms are forced to cut costs. Manage your profit margin by doing it. Form of rationalization of wage bills). In such a situation, it becomes even more important for the government to ensure more and more jobs.

focus on basic needs

As claimed, if the government is indeed in ‘mission mode’ to provide employment to the unemployed and the youth, it will have to do much more than what has been announced. To begin with, the government has to create more jobs within the government. Recent national and international reports and rankings have shown that India lags far behind other countries in terms of health and nutrition, especially for women and children, education, literacy and skills, holistic care of children in early childhood and later; Drinking water and sanitation, and other infrastructure, etc.

We believe that the government has to take the responsibility of meeting these basic needs without relying on privatization – for at least 40% of the population. The first task for the government would be to take better direct care of basic welfare, human development and human resource development, and infrastructure of the downtrodden population without privatization in these areas.

Another major task would be to re-orient the industrialization policy to focus on labour-intensive sectors of the economy, and promote micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and informal production, finance by ensuring better technology and higher productivity. To provide (including working capital) and advance cluster development for all industries with potential.

urban employment

And, finally, taking into account the fact that the urban economy has been badly hit by the pandemic, a carefully designed urban employment guarantee program to generate ample urban employment opportunities for the urban youth is most desirable. Will happen. This program should be separate from the rural employment guarantee programme. The urban program should include: basic urban services, where youth will receive specialized training so that they can be included in the mainstream economy; Day-care centers were set up for childcare to reduce their unpaid services to women and ensure quality care for children; and to fill in the infrastructural gaps in the under construction work to facilitate quality urban living.

If the gesture of filling vacancies in the government is part of the mission employment, then for this there will be a radical change in the employment policy of the government. Let us hope that the people of India will be able to understand the motives behind this gesture, and assess the performance of the government accordingly.

Indira Hirve is Director and Professor at Center for Development Alternatives, Ahmedabad. Neha Shah is Associate Professor at LJ University, Ahmedabad