In the run-up to the 2014 elections, Modi had promised to create 2 crore jobs every year, but critics claim not even a fraction of those have been delivered.
New Delhi: With just a few months to go for the 2019 general elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is putting greater focus on one of his major poll promises from four years ago — fixing the jobs situation in the country.
The Prime Minister’s Office is set to hold its second review meeting on the issue in less than two months; the previous meeting was held in mid-July and had been chaired by Modi.
The PM is also set to hold another meeting — to take note of the economic situation in the wake of rising fuel prices and the depreciating rupee.
No clarity on numbers
In the run-up to the 2014 elections, Modi had promised to create 2 crore jobs every year, but opposition parties and critics claim that not even a fraction of the promised jobs have been delivered.
“There is a problem with credible data on job creation and we need to sort that out… but at this point there is some anxiety over job creation and this issue will be taken up at the top level,” said a government source.
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In an interview earlier this year, Modi, quoting data from the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, claimed that 70 lakh jobs were created in the formal sector last year, in addition to the ones generated in the unorganised sector.
However, a report by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), released earlier this month, showed a different picture.
According to the CMIE report, unemployment during April-June 2018 increased by 1 per cent year-on-year, even as the country’s gross domestic product grew by 8.2 per cent compared to 5.6 per cent in the corresponding period in 2017-18.
The data showed that unemployment rate rose to 6.4 per cent in August 2018 — higher than the 5.6 per cent rate in the preceding month — while in August 2017, the unemployment rate was much lower at 4.1 per cent.
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According to the data, there are a low number of jobs for the expanding labour force, which had shrunk sharply right after the announcement of demonetisation.
“Data suggested that while hope among the unemployed may have returned, sufficient jobs have not sprung to absorb them,” said Mahesh Vyas, managing director of CMIE, in his paper.
In January, a report jointly prepared by State Bank of India Group’s chief economic adviser Soumya Kanti Ghosh and IIM professor Pulak Ghosh suggested that enough number of jobs were being created. In 2016-17, about 55 lakh jobs were created in the formal sector, the report showed.
Opposition parties, meanwhile, have been intensified their attacks on the NDA government over jobless growth. Former finance minister and Congress leader P. Chidambaram had taken to Twitter to claim that the Centre was “clueless” about jobs.
5. Even selling pakodas is a 'job' said PM. By that logic, even begging is a job. Let's count poor or disabled persons who are forced to beg for a living as 'employed' people.
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) January 28, 2018
8. The truth is India is witnessing a three year spell of modest, but jobless, growth and the government is clueless about how to create jobs.
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) January 28, 2018