The Hindu : For employment-oriented growth

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 06, 2003

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For employment-oriented growth

IT MAY BE very simple arithmetic for the Planning Commission and the Government of India to suggest that 30 million jobs can be generated during the Tenth Plan period, when an eight per cent growth target has been set. Another 20 million jobs could be generated through additional and special programmes to be launched by the Centre and the States. The idea is to throw up 10 million jobs a year to take care of the unemployed and underemployed in the country. But realists and labour organisations believe that all this is only on paper. The very nature of growth and development now seems to be at variance with the traditional concept of employment generation. It is possible that there could very well be a contradiction between jobs and growth in the present global scenario, where cost cutting and competitiveness hold the key to success. Under these circumstances, it appears doubtful if the Utopian goal of generating 50 million jobs during the Tenth Plan period can ever be achieved. There have been different approaches to growth — export-oriented growth, labour-intensive growth and a focus on the services sector, which is now leading the pack. The question remains: when the private sector is the chosen engine of growth, it is bound to concentrate on enhancing profits and exports, facing competition and not exactly on creating employment opportunities. After all, the growing movement against privatisation or disinvestment of public sector undertakings stems from the fear of job losses.

It is in this context that the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, K.C. Pant, has asked the States to prepare an employment profile and focus on labour reforms as well as on effective and productive utilisation of available resources to generate employment. A conference on `Employment strategies in the Tenth Plan' has also decided to set up a task force on job creation. It is expected to identify sectors and sub-sectors of the economy, which have the potential to create employment opportunities and also protect jobs. The problem is the inherent contradiction in the present age. When traditionally employment-oriented sectors such as agriculture, plantations and a few areas of manufacturing are looking at mechanisation and reduction in the dependence on labour, how can modern industries create more jobs? Industry has been calling for labour reforms more to free itself from `labour laws and commitments', to become more competitive. Reforms and growth have unfortunately come to be the anti-thesis of labour and employment in the era of liberalisation and globalisation. The Planning Commission will have to chalk out a completely new approach to marry growth with employment generation and that on the scale of producing 10 million jobs a year. Besides clearing the `backlog', it has to provide for `new arrivals' in the job market.

Another interesting feature in the unemployment scenario is the rising number of `educated unemployed' — both in the live registers of the employment exchanges and those who do not believe in that entry into the employment market. It is perhaps only for government jobs and those in the public sector that employment exchanges may play a role and these are sectors which are now on the downslide, axing jobs, freezing employment and wages. Even in the Centrally sponsored employment generation or guarantee schemes for drought-hit areas, the complaint is that machines are used to speed up work and the targeted people do not get the jobs. Similarly, the geometric progression in the employment of women, in all sectors, has further complicated the job market. Women are the preferred sex in many fields, notably in the services sector. The job market is in such a state that a person who gives up a job cannot easily find a suitable, attractive alternative. The task force faces a real challenge in identifying the right sectors for job creation. But that will be only half the journey. The private sector will have to be persuaded to invest in those sectors and generate jobs on the field.

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