Article to read – Get on the job of making jobs
Source The Economic Times
Page 14
Author Varun Gandhi
India should ideally be in a sweet spot with regards to
generating employment for its youth. Yet, there is something amiss. Somehow,
each public sector vacancy draws a large multiple of applicants, most of them
overqualified. Just recently, the Railway Recruitment Board conducted
examinations to fill about 1.9 lakh posts. There were over 4.25 crore
applicants, a ratio of 225 per vacancy, with even PhD holders applying for
Group D staff positions. Similarly, for 62 police messenger posts in Uttar
Pradesh, there were over 93,000 candidates, while for just five peon posts in
Rajasthan, there were over 23,000 applicants.
In September 2015, there were over 23 lakh applications for 368
peon positions, with more than 250 doctorates and about 25,000 post-graduates
applicants. Meanwhile, the Directorate of Economics and Statistics in
Chhattisgarh received over 75,000 applications for just 30 peon posts in August
2015, while Jadavpur University, Kolkata, in April 2018 received over 11,000
applications for 70 peon posts.
Clearly, something is skewed in our job market. Even after the
advent of privatisation, the public sector still offers better job security and
a slew of post-retirement benefits that low-paying private sector jobs simply
can’t match. The emolument for a general helper (the lowest-ranked government
employee) is Rs 22,579, about double that in the private sector (Seventh Pay
Commission). The challenge, it seems, lies in the inability of our economy to
generate many jobs.
It is hard to quantify this problem, given that our labour
market data itself is fuzzy and fragmented. National Sample Survey Organisation
(NSSO) data on employment-unemployment, where available, is dated, while other
sources have limited scope. Such surveys also fail to take into account the
quality of employment, limiting our view on disguised and gainful employment.
While the Seventh Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) indicates that 1.36 lakh
jobs were created — much higher than the 64,000 jobs created in the preceding
quarter — it cannot cater to the requirements of more than a million joining
the workforce each month.
New Jobs, and Then Some
While Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) enrolments
are utilised as a proxy, this can be inconclusive given that it could simply be
including the formalisation of existing jobs as well. Bifurcating EPFO
enrolment data into new employees joining firms already covered under EPFO
(adjusted for multiple accounts) and employees in firms coming under the EPFO
umbrella, driven by legislation might help.
Expansion of the scope and frequency of NSSO and QES surveys
would also contribute towards bringing clarity.
About 80% of our employed workforce is engaged in informal
employment, with just 17% actually being supported by a regular salary. The
Fifth Annual Employment-Unemployment Survey highlighted that just 21.6% of the
workforce actually availed social security benefits.
While, ideally, greater public spending could provide a solution
to tackling this job crisis, there is limited headroom for such investment,
given an eight-year investment slowdown, near-stagnant exports and an
increasing import burden. Private investments continue to remain muted with
significant spare capacities. The rise of automation further compounds this
complexity, potentially closing off development pathways for India.
Over 69% of jobs in India are at threat due to automation,
thereby ensuring that employment policy needs to focus on the creation of new
avenues for employment. Meanwhile, employment generation in key industries
(such as textiles) remains shackled by policy and intent.
India needs a finalised National Employment Policy, which
besides areas of employment can provide policy inputs on various socioeconomic
issues. Such a policy would articulate the nation’s aspirations for its youth
to grow up safe, healthy, happy and resilient, while working towards a socially
productive life. We need to reform labour laws and provide tax benefits to key
employment-generating industries.
The apparel industry is over 80 times more labour intensive than
automotives; about 240 times more labour intensive than steel; each incremental
lakh rupee invested can create 29 additional jobs (including eight for women).
Similarly, every lakh rupee invested in the leather and footwear sector can
potentially create seven additional jobs.
Besides quantity of jobs, quality of jobs generated matters as
well, which can be improved with improving the reach and intensity of skilling
programmes. Additional job-based fiscal incentives can be explored for
brownfield establishments, in addition to the existing range of activity-,
location-or industry-based incentives.
We need to reform our employment exchanges, transforming them
into job centres — privately or publicly run. They should offer aggregation of
recruitment operations, connecting young people with employment, community and
useful personal networks. Combining this with a social security benefit
delivery would help streamline the welfare system as well.
Killer Skills
The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) should
consider launching a Youth Development Support Programme, one which financially
supports eligible NGOs that encourage the youth to develop skills, combined
with apprenticeship programmes at a district level.
Entrepreneurship needs to be encouraged socially as well.
Removal of barriers to opening an SME business remains key. A lack of access to
finance, limited awareness about government schemes and infrastructural
bottlenecks continue to stifle their growth. India’s banking sector needs to be
pushed towards investing heavily in the SME sector. Instruments like atwo-year
placement holiday in tertiary institutions like the IITs and IIMs should be
utilised to boost risk taking.
Youth is a significant period of development. Providing India’s
young with an encouraging environment is in our interests, and our
responsibility. Unemployment remains their bane. Mere rhetoric will no longer
do.
Q1 What is the problem of the government when it declares a
post for a government job? Give examples relating to the article
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Q2 Why the people are so attach to public sector job ?
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Q3 Define the term informal employment ?
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Q4 What are the benefits of formal employment ?
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Q5 How can automation remove employment in the country ?
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Q6 Give the full forms of
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NSSO
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QES
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EPFO
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NSDC
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SME
Q7 Explain the term “ Labour Intensive Industry “
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Q8 Give examples of certain labour industry which can
generate employment opportunity
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Q9 How can banking sector help to create employment
opportunity ?
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Q10 What role that employment exchange can bring in creating
employment opportunity
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