By N Vidyasagar
The Times of India, New Delhi[ Saturday, January 18th, 2004]
Feeling good? May not be for long. For, the Planning Commission may boast of creating 84 lakh jobs annually, but India's growing population is by and large jobless, according to experts. This has become the biggest challenge, as the economic recovery hasn't seen much job creation. An estimated 35 million Indians are unemployed and another 20 million young people will enter the market in the next four years.
While corporate India is bullish on the prospects of high economic growth, no new jobs are being created on the manufacturing shopfloor, according to an analysis done by the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
India's employment statistics present a disturbing picture. The 10th Planning Commission document has already warned that at present the country's infrastructure won't be able to provide jobs for new entrants or clear the backlog. Unemployment may go up from 9.21 per cent in 2002 to 9.79 per cent in 2007.
"It is a time-bomb waiting to explode. We need to have a clear roadmap to where jobs are going to come from," says London-based Dr. Madhav Mehra, president of the World Council for Corporate Governance.
Disturbing figures
35 million people are unemployed
20 million will enter the labour force in 4 years
Unemployement may go up to 9.79 per cent in 2007
"There is no doubt that India has had a dramatic success in the last two years, but actually a delusion." Dr Mehra adds, that India needs to be cautions as the future is bleak with jobless growth.
The biggest worry is 54 per cent of India's population is under the age of 25 and a majority of them have no inclination to work in the agriculture sector. According to the Planning Commission, there are 212 million people (aged 14-24), but only 107 million have jobs, Moreover, nine percent of the country's workforce is in the organized sector.
There is hot hiring only in IT and to an extent in housing. Only an estimated 170,000 are employed in India's call centers in the last three years and Nasscom expects a million people will be employed in call centers and back office jobs in 2008.
For the rest," It is a very disturbing scenario. There will be unrest unless we wake up now," says Amit Mitra, secretary general, FICCI. " We need flexible labor laws, access of finance to small enterprises, removal of inspector-raj, There is need to connect vocational education centers like ITIs to industry needs." Mitra maintained that legislative changes in labor policy could create over 4 million jobs in manufacturing alone. Today, companies deploy capital-intensive technology instead of employing human labor. FICCI president Y K Modi said US retail major Walmart wanted to source textiles from India, but only from a couple of people, " We are losing out in that deal because no-one here wants to take a risk by employing 5,000 people permanently," said Modi.
Author : Dr Madhav Mehra
Dr Madhav Mehra is the President of World Council for Corporate Governance
| Join Dr Madhav Mehra on Facebook |
| Join Dr Madhav Mehra on Twitter |
