The Report strongly puts the idea of re-defining 'economic activity' for public debate so that women's contribution to economic growth could be recognised properly in economic terms and a number of social and family related barriers could be addressed through policy interventions. The Report firmly puts on the agenda to best utilize the 'demographic dividend' by focusing on generating gainful employment for youth, in general, and young women, in particular.

The Report particularly aims to focus on generating employment and enhancing employability of workers among less advantaged. It is widely believed that poverty in India, though significantly declined over the years, is continuing mainly because of non-inclusion of different less advantaged population groups in development process. The report attempts to identify some of the important sources of such exclusion in the labour market and focus on required policy measures for 'inclusive growth'.

The Report notes that given very low proportion of skilled workers at present, a suitable and workable framework to enhance the employability of workers is essential. The same can be achieved by providing training to workers at various levels with emphasis on recognizing local skills and certifying informally acquired skills along with the expansion of skill development institutions. The Report also argues for rationalization of labour laws and broadening the ambit of labour reforms for achieving equitable employment growth. It sets out short-term and medium-term strategies to ensure gainful employment opportunities for all the working people with particular emphasis on the disadvantaged groups.

The President of India in her address on 4 June, 2009 to the Joint Session of both Houses of Parliament, had announced that the Government will bring out five reports to the people on education, health, employment, environment and infrastructure. Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoL&E) has been entrusted with the responsibility of bringing out the report on employment being the nodal Ministry on employment related matters. The present Annual Report is first in the series.

The inclusion of employment as one of the themes of these reports underline the Government's commitment and priority attached to this subject and its potential for advancing the objective of inclusive economic growth and development. The present report aims to contribute to the national agenda of 'inclusive growth' by focusing on those population groups who face variety of socio-economic and institutional entry barriers and fail to earn a respectable living status despite being engaged in economic activities. This Report to the People on Employment provides a framework to understand the contemporary employment scenario.

Major Short term strategies and targets include: Employment growth to be targeted at least 2.5 per cent per annum compatible with the 9 percent growth in the economy; Promote labour intensive and high employment elasticity sectors to achieve the quantitative employment growth target; Focus on inclusion of youth, women and vulnerable groups with their specific needs of training and skill development; Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) must reach out to all poor households with 100 days of assured employment; An urban employment guarantee scheme on the lines of MGNREGA may be considered; National Floor Minimum Wage to be given statutory sanction; Statutory provisions to provide social security and improved conditions of work and remuneration of contract workers at par with the regular employees; Expand the outreach of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) scheme to all poor households; Well calibrated withdrawal of stimulus package for labour intensive exporting enterprises e.g. textiles, handicrafts, gems and jewellery; Re-skilling the retrenched workers for redeployment; Developing Information base and e-monitoring on real time basis; and Compilation of employment/unemployment data on annual basis regularly.

Key Medium term strategies and targets are: Focus on self-employed and casual workers for improving livelihood; Enhance the scope of employment in the organised sector; Enhance regular employment for less advantaged groups and in poorer states; Comprehensive coverage of unorganised sector workers under social security schemes; Rationalisation and simplification of labour regulations and broadening the ambit of labour reforms; Promote diversification of rural workforce to off-farm and non-farm activities; Promote green technology, green jobs and encourage greening the workplace; Detailed skill mapping mechanism to be evolved; Credible and independent accreditation & certification process to be created; Upgradation of all training providing institutions and strengthening delivery through - Public Private Partnership (PPP) Mode; Creating large number of skill development institutions and pool of trainers to expand the outreach of skill development initiatives; Target regions with concentration of vulnerable social groups such as Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, minorities, women, illiterate less skilled for active labour market policies; and ISO Certification of skill development institutions and assessing bodies.

The Report solicits valuable comments and suggestions from the people on major issues highlighted in this Report specially those relating to the employment of youth, women and the disadvantaged groups.