Unemployment: New Outlook

8/6/2019 Unemployment: New Outlook

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Unemployment: New Outlook; A National Seminar, Samajik Aarthik Vikas Shodh

Sansthan, Regional Chapter of Bhartiya Aarthik Shodh Sansthan (BASS) Allahabad;

Aligarh (U.P.), Jan 26-27, 2005.

Unemployment: New outlook

By: Arun Bhadauriai

After fifty years of Independence and four decades of planned development, still

the Boserups hypothesis (1965,81) has not been proved in India that Population Growth

is far from inimical to poverty and environment, increased per capita income and

emergence of public services1. Even today we have many villages in the country where

fruits of development have yet to make inroads. Illiteracy, poor health and hygiene,

unsafe drinking water, lack of technical services and communications for rural poor etc

are still at the threshold of villages and the fruits of development had not reached the

inner areas2. However, adoption of Economic Reforms in the early nineties was certainly

a welcome effort towards eliminating unemployment from Indian Economy as economic

activities were to be multiplied. Policy of privatization though at one point of time scared

the general public of job crisis. But, it was a nice and appreciable step for pulling

economy from the vicious circle of poverty and employment.

Phenomena of economic development states that service sector are the real

indicator of the pulse rate of development in the economy. Any economy with highest

dependence on primary sector cannot be taken as developed/developing economy. Indian

Economy has achieved the status of fast developing economy in the recent past just due

to the fact that its service sector is growing very fast and expansion in the IT services

have make dent in the appreciable success of Indian brain world-vide. Business Process

Outsourcing (BPO) Industry has opened the floodgates for Indian service providers to

utilize the best fruits of expanding and globalize world business. Can one see the dirtyface of unemployment, which was earlier present in Indian under developed economy?

What I mean to say is that the dichotomy of Indian economy is very hard to understand

but it is only the way out to solve the problem of unemployment. Another important and

most significant issue is the type of unemployment prevailing in India. Frictional

unemployment is found in developed economies and disguise unemployment is the


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characteristic feature of underdeveloped economies. What type of unemployment we are

talking? Certainly we are not talking about the frictional unemployment though it is also

present today in Indian economy.

It would not be an exaggeration to mention that there is lots of job opportunities

are emerging in India as a result of globalization. However question may be asked

whether Indian youth is ready to access these opportunities. The existing education

system in India prepares an educated sophisticated white-collared dumb but ambitious

stuff who just want to get job with unlimited social and financial security for lifelong

time. The eligibility criterion is just for the sake of screening among the crowd. Such a

system of education does not produce the good stuff that want to perform for today with

few aspirations for his future. This is therefore can be said Indian youth is not ready to

access these opportunities. However, in the last few years, youth studying at the metro-

cities have acknowledged the potential of working in private sector and conclusively;

have modified themselves according to the need of private sector.

Over the years after the inception of WTO and Policy of privatization &

liberalization employment opportunities in public sector are shrinking. Voluntary

retirements and several other things have contributed to huge employee turnover in

Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs). Moreover policy of disinvestments is closing door for

the job bearing high social security. Further, with the globalization of economy,

employment situation in the organized sector is not very encouraging. Consequently,

traditional skills and education would not help aspiring youth to get easy access to

secured jobs without making substantial and concerted efforts.

Youth in twenty first century is passing through transitive India where he is

finding difficult to see across the sparkling and star-studded pictures of leisure and

amusement. At the same time economic reforms are taking entry into second stage where

they will attain speed and pace of economic development will minimize the role of public

sector in the economy to the mere controller and provider of the infrastructure that even

within the collaboration of private sector. Meanwhile, corporate sector and service sector

along with money market shall be expanding at very rapid pace. This will lead to

emergence of new business opportunities and several economic activities, which will in

turn demand new entrepreneurs3. Hence youth with entrepreneurial skill will get the bird.


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This is again a very convincing, as one entrepreneur not only employs himself rather

offers service to many.

India is known for the simultaneous existence of organized and unorganized

sector like any developing/underdeveloped country. For all the period after independence

unorganized sector had been the largest job provider for Indian youth. Still this sector

gives job for more than 80 percent of the total workforce in the country4. In the present

millennium where population of India have crossed the one billion mark, employment

generation in the unorganized sector/private sector is the only option for providing

gainful employment to the millions of youth. The ample requirement to easily find job in

private sector is to have access to proper identification of vocations, appropriate

competency based skill learning and training in these vocations. Training at polytechnics

and other similar institutions would certainly provide good niche for the easy

employment for youth from rural and backward areas.

References:

1. Mehrotra, P.N.: Transforming Poor Communities into Sustainable

Communities: Contours of Environmental Policy in Information Age, Planning and

Development Unit (Planning Commission, GOI), Department of Economics, University

of Allahabad, Allahabad, April 2002.

2. Baluswami, N.: Upliftment of Rural Youth, part of lecture at NSS camp,Bharathihar University, Coimbatore, 2002.

3. Lal, Ratan: Unemployed youth should be an entrepreneur, Yojna, March 2002.

4. Jain, A.K.: Employment Generation through Community Polytechnics,

Kurukshetra, November 2002.


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i Guest Lecturer, DDUIRD, Agra

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Unemployment: New Outlook