Making such claim in the pre-general election year is significant for the PM Modi led government, which has been organizing employment fairs across the country to fill up the vacant posts in the central government before the election 2024. PM Modi had announced to provide 10 lakh jobs over a year to fill up the vacancies. It was aimed at quietening the anger among the unemployed over failure of Narendra Modi to keep his promise of providing one crore jobs every year which he had made in pre-election campaigns in 2013, but soon started talking to provide ‘work with dignity to all hands’ which was interpreted to 2 crore jobs as per the requirement of the country to accommodate all unemployed. Therefore, generation of merely 1.25 crore jobs is in itself a proof of failure of Modi government, as far as employment generation is concerned. Moreover, the minister did not tell how many people have lost their jobs in the meantime.

What “work with dignity to all hands” means, as promised by PM Modi? It is obviously, secured regular salaried jobs with complete social security coverage. The Union Minister of Labour and employment has said that 90 per cent of the workforce in India are employed in informal sector. It means 90 per cent of workers are engaged in low quality jobs without social security coverage. Where is the work with dignity for these workers?

As of June 22, the day on which Union Minister of Labour and Employment, had made the claim of massive jobs generation, unemployment rate in the country stood at over 8.1 per cent on 30 days moving average basis as per the CMIE data on unemployment. In 2014, just before Narendra Modi became the prime minister of India, the unemployment rate was 4.7 per cent.

Most surprising is that Modi government has backtracked on other promises too, such as made before the Indian Labour Conference, the highest tripartite body on labour policies in the country. For example, the 46th session of ILC has recommended in 2015 that India must have a National Employment Policy (NEP) to address the unemployment crisis, and the government had agreed to work for it. However, Union Ministry of Labour and Employment has said in the Parliament of India that there is no plan to have an NEP.

Unemployment rose to a record high under PM Modi by 2017-18, the year for which NSSO found the unemployment rate at 6.1 per cent, which was 45 years high since 1972-73, when it was 1.6 per cent as per a World Bank study. Unemployment rate was just 0.7 per cent in 1961, the study said. Unemployment rate in India reached highest in independent India under PM Modi is an irrefutable fact.

Unemployment rate of 6.1 per cent in 2018 was but only usual status, while current weekly status based unemployment rate was 9.1 per cent, which rose to 9.3 per cent in 2021, under the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions. Labour market recovered a little but unemployment rate stood at 8.3 per cent by December 2022 as per CMIE data, which has been well above 8.1 per cent even now.

Union Minister of Labour and Employment Bhupender Yadav has relied on ESI and EPFO data, which relates to only the organized sector of the economy, where less than 10 per cent of the Indian workforce are employed. He mentioned the informal sector too that employs 90 per cent of the workforce, and said that e-Shram portal has registered about 30 crore informal workers engaged in 400 different occupations.

"Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi we focussed on three subjects 'Sewa, Sushasan, Kalyaan' (Service, Good-Governance, Welfare). When we talk about Sewa (Service) and 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas' (together all and welfare for all) then you may recall that we took care of both organised and unorganised workers in the country," he said.

The claim is ridiculous, since the working age population in the country was 60.7 per cent in India in 2011, which is rising fast and would reach 65.1 per cent by 2031. The present population of the country is above 1.42 billion. Estimates suggest that there are over 80 crore workers in India, and the labour force participation rate was just 32.8 per cent in 2021-22. In April 2023, CMIE data shows, there were a little above 40 crore workers in job. It is indeed a very dismal picture, and creating 1.25 crore jobs in nine years and getting only 30 crore informal workers enrolled in e-Shram portal is simply frustrating for over half of the workers who are waiting for any gainful employment, even low paying ones, and without social security coverage.

Moreover, the system of government counting of employed people does not give clear picture. For example, a person getting one hour of work per week is also counted as employed. Many people work in family activities and declare themselves self-employed earning too little to maintain their lives, but are counted as employed which is nothing but unemployment in disguise. As for counting unemployed, the people not searching for jobs are not counted as unemployed, though they have stopped searching because there are no job opportunities in the market.

Modi government has just failed on employment front is the ground reality, and claims of massive job generation are misleading. (IPA Service)