New Delhi: The India Employment Report 2024 by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and Institute for Human Development, which had elicited much comment and controversy earlier this year due to its dire findings on employment in India, is no longer available on the ILO’s website and its link has stopped working.
The report, released in March this year, had made an analysis of the labour market trends in India over a period of 20 years. Among the most notable of its findings was that the youth made up 83 percent of the total unemployed population, as of 2022. Further, the share of educated youths among all unemployed people also increased to 65.7 percent in 2022 from 54.2 percent in 2000.
The report had primarily analysed data from the National Sample Surveys and Periodic Labour Force Surveys between the year 2000 and 2022, with a postscript for 2023.
According to news reports, labour and employment secretary Sumita Dawra had called senior ILO officials to convey the government’s disappointment over the report. The ministry had reportedly informed the ILO that the report had failed to capture international migration trends as well as a surge in gig and platform workers in India.
The report, previously available on the website, is no longer to be found in any of the ILO’s online publication repositories. Further, the link to the report — which ThePrint had used successfully when the report had been launched — reports an error,which reads: “This page isn’t working. www.ilo.org redirected you too many times.”
ThePrint has also reached out to the ILO via email for comments on whether the report has been taken down or received objections by the Indian government, and if and when it will be back up. This news report will be updated when a response is received.
Meanwhile, the Delhi-based Institute for Human Development, which had partnered with the ILO to produce the report, has denied being contacted either with objections or about a takedown.
“We have not received any communication from the ILO or the Government of India regarding either objections to the report or taking it down,” Priyanka Tyagi, the institute’s chief executive officer, told ThePrint.
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Highlights from the report
The India Employment Report 2024 was the third in a series of reports by the Institute for Human Development on labour and employment issues.
According to the report, despite an overall growth in labour force participation and employment rates, the employment conditions remained poor. The report had highlighted issues, such as declining wages and a rise in self-employment among women.
It had further noted that while youth employment and underemployment surged between 2000 and 2019, educated youths experienced significantly higher levels of joblessness.
It had also said that 90 percent of India’s working population is engaged in informal work, and the proportion of regular employment, which had been steadily increasing after 2000, started declining after 2018.
Moreover, a significant portion of youth lacks basic digital literacy skills, with 75 percent unable to send emails with attachments, 60 percent unable to copy and paste files, and 90 percent unable to perform basic spreadsheet tasks, like inserting a mathematical formula.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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