As the Indian economy undergoes a structural shift from agriculture to non agricultural sectors like manufacturing and services, the real challenge is to create jobs for agricultural workers in non-agri sectors. Job creation in India on a gargantuan scale is required to absorb these workers. Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS)2017-18 has underlined the fact that almost 44% of India’s labor force is engaged in agriculture sector. Agriculture sector has been traditionally plagued with low wages and uncertainty due to weather. A lot of agriculture workers therefore want to transition into other sectors to escape low incomes and lower social prestige. It is a great challenge for any government to effect a meaningful employment generation to accommodate these workers.
Among the non agriculture employment opportunities in India, statistically speaking, manufacturing leads(22%) followed by construction(21%). In urban areas, 11% of workers are employed in construction whereas in the case of rural workers it goes up to 30%. The main provider of employment opportunities in rural areas in construction is the government. As much as 78% of all rural construction workers were employed by the government run schemes , according to 2017-18 data. Almost 12% of rural workers are employed in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The real question of unemployment in India does not get solved by these schemes though. Rural workers need and demand long term employment that is regular and pays good wages.
Most of the rural workers get jobs in the construction sector as they are unskilled. The quality of employment in construction is poor as most jobs are casual labor jobs. These jobs have no job security, paid leave or benefits like social security. It is therefore essential that manufacturing sector should be stepped up. Jobs in the manufacturing sector are a step up from construction jobs as they need skilled or semi skilled labor and offer regular employment as opposed to casual labor. It is here that various government policies like skill development and incentivizing employers for employment generation gain importance.
These policies are being executed via government schemes like Skill India, Pradhan Mantri Employment Generation Program(PMEGP) and Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Protsahan Yojna(PMRPY). While the schemes look good on paper, they have not been able to solve the issues relating to unemployment in India. The actual implementation of the schemes is far from satisfactory. To give just one example, the PMRPY incentivizes employers for generating new employment. The central government provides the entire employers contribution towards EPF for a period of three years for new employees. But the scheme’s administration is far from satisfactory.
Government schemes are good as complementary schemes for employment generation in India but they cannot be the sole agency for increasing employment opportunities on a large scale.
References:
- Govt schemes aren’t the real solution to the job creation issue. Vaidic Dalal. 3 July 2019
- M S NILEENA 9 Jan 2019. The caravan magazine.
