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New Delhi, 8 September 2021
Employment Creation
COHERENT LABOUR
POLICY VITAL
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
How soon will the Modi government convene the
Indian Labour Conference, is a question weighing on trade unions’ mind.A tripartite
output of the government, employers and employees last held a meeting in 2015, a
gap of six long years. The government’s apathy to hold negotiations on various
issues related to labour comes at a time when there are country-wide demands
for implementation of the unorganised workers’ database as also their present
conditions of work.
The Centre must remember that being a
founding member of the ILO it had traditionally “upheld the high ideals of
tripartism” and that ILC was held every year or after two years in exceptional
circumstances. Burning issues related to labour, such as migrant workers,
labour codes, loss of jobs and wage reduction during the pandemic, social
security, increasing marginalisation of women workers etc. need urgent
attention.
The CMIE in its latest employment data
releasedfound that nearly 19 lakh people lost jobs in August with the
manufacturing sector the worst affected. Unemployment rate had climbed to 8.32
per cent, which is similar to the post lockdown figure of 8.35 per cent
recorded around this time last year. The number of employed persons decreased
from 39.97 crore in July to 39.78 crore in August, which indicates that 19 lakh
people lost their jobs over the past month.
Since the days of under Nehru, all available
capital was reserved for heavy industry which created few jobs for the
unskilled. Simultaneously, the demand for light industry products and services
remained constrained by domestic incomes, which grew at a snail’s pace. The
situation did not change significantly since then and unemployment coupled with
underemployment remained a critical problem.
The post pandemic scenario has forced the
employment oriented micro, small and medium enterprises sector with no option
but to reduce labour and also wage costs to remain afloat. Informal sector
workers, self-employed and daily wage labourers have been significantly
affected. The unemployment rate, as per CMIE, stood at 8 per cent in
mid-August, marginally higher than 7-8 per cent in February 2020
(pre-pandemic).
Experts believe that even the present figure
appears to be gross under estimation. Obviously a widespread recovery in the
jobs market will likely to be slow and gradual. Vaccinating a majority of the
adult population is widely expected to reach at least 75 per cent by year end
and, until then, the economy remains vulnerable to pandemic shocks. As such,
the possibility of job creation appears rather bleak as companies would only go
for hiring as and when demand picks up.
The little recovery may be for formal sector
workers and not for their counterparts in the informal sector. Within the
formal sector, a faster boom is likely in sectors with greater demand for
e-commerce, IT software and pharma. Thus, whatever jobs that may be created
would be in the above sectors. However, traditional sectors like
infrastructure, hospitality, real estate, entertainment etc. may be slower to
recover where possibility of job creation appears bleak.
Many small traders and businesses have
permanently shut down or reduced their operations to below 50 per cent, leaving
sharp reduction in jobs. Pandemic will obviously leave long-lasting effects,
which politicians and bureaucrats are yet to comprehend. Workers, as has
been emphasised, will need both reskilling and upskilling, which has, however,
been taken up by the present government.
The Centre’s flagship skill development
programme over the past six years has been less than 50 per cent against the
target of 70 per cent, and this was stated by the government in Parliament.
Academics say this wasn’t surprising because training under the short-term
training programme of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikash Yojana was
superficial, short and often at odds with the industry's demands. Skill Development
Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, informed the Lok Sabha that 65.95 lakh candidates
had enrolled under the programme but only around 44.3 per cent of those
certified got jobs.
The locomotives for employment generation are
public infrastructure spending, exports and consumption demand. None of the
above two sectors are expected to grow in as demand takes time to pick up. The
thrust lies in evolving a viable strategy for small and micro units to thrive
and grow. A change of course away from neo-liberalism is necessary, which would
require evolving an alternative State that enjoys the support of workers,
peasants and petty producers and sections of middle class wishing to break away
from neo-liberalism. Only then will jobs be created as the young workforce has
been growing and needs to be employed. More jobs will also need to be created
in the realm of physical infrastructure development and construction sectors.
The labour and farm laws as well as
production linked incentive scheme to stimulate manufacturing output and
employment has had little effect. Moreover, the much-hyped Atmanirbhar Bharatscheme
had had little effect in gearing up job creation. As regards state governments,
except for a few, most of them have not been successful in promoting innovation
and industrial development. States like West Bengal are more interested in
dishing out subsidies rather than promoting cottage industries and reviving
development and employment in rural and semi-urban areas.
The crux of the new strategy has very little
change of boosting job creation. There may be some increase in employment in
high skilled, emerging areas but in general there is little possibility of jobs
being created as per emerging demand every year with new pass-outs. The
situation is definitely grim for semi-skilled or unskilled workforce. If the
present situation continues, there is little possibility of the health of the
informal sector improving in the immediate future.
It is thus time that the government has to
evolve a coherent policy of labour with special reference to job creation,
specially for unskilled and semi-skilled sections, and this can to only be
possible through encouragement of labour-intensive sectors. The thrust
obviously has to be on various infra projects, hotel and entertainment
industry, gems and jewellery making, electronics manufacturing, to the extent
possible by reducing imports etc. There has to be a judicious strategy for
small and micro units to thrive and grow in a big way. Unless there is manifest
a determined effort at job creation, a section of the population may languish
further.
The Global Commission on Future of Work which
stated the need to adopt a human-centred approach “to survive in a carbon
neutral, digital age and afford them dignity, security and equal opportunity.
It must also meet the changing needs and challenges facing businesses and
secure sustainable economic growth”. It categorically stressed the need to invest
more in people’s capabilities -- this means establishing an effective life-long
learning system that enables people to skill, reskill and upskill, a system
that spans early childhood and basic education through to adult learning.
Informal workers and small businesses have to contribute and benefit in the
sound formal economy. Moreover, more investments are required in the
institutions of work, including the establishment and implementation of a
universal labour guarantee, which our government is unfortunately not doing.
The challenge is indeed immense and the
government will have to prove that growth is not oriented towards big business
but also to such sectors where jobs can be created to help the common man.
While reskilling and upskilling are good initiatives, this has to be backed
with job creation in both formal and informal sectors.---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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