The buried NSSO job report is turning out to be a nightmare for the Modi government that swept to power in 2014 vowing to turn India into an economic powerhouse in five years of its tenure. The reality is that the government has been struggling not only to create jobs but also sustain the already existing jobs.
Indian women workers, especially in the informal sector, are on the sharp edge of job crisis in the country.?
According to the private Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), 90 per cent of around 10 million jobs lost last year were held by women.
India¡¯s job crisis has become a major cause of worry given that the government¡¯s promises have fallen flat. A major turbulence occurred when the NSSO job report that pegged unemployment rate worst in 45 years, was buried by the government. The report highlighted that up to 6.1 per cent of Indians are unable to find any work at all.
AFP
The former chief economic advisor to the Indian government, Kaushik Basu, blamed the Centre¡¯s ¡®disproportionate focus¡¯ on big firms for the crisis. For years, economists have said most Indians are under-employed and paid poorly for the work they do.?
The data was due to release last year in 2017 but was withheld, prompting the resignation of two members of the national statistics office.
The NSSO¡¯s Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017-18, for the first time since 1993-94, the actual size of India¡¯s male workforce, or men who are working has shrunk.
Currently, there are 28.6 crore employed male in the country.?
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There has been a steep decline in employed males in the country. The figure grew from 21.9 crore in 1993-94 to 30.4 crore in 2011-12 when the last NSSO survey was conducted.
The decline in female workforce participation may have deep implications considering the call for economic development of women and women¡¯s rights.
The female labour participation rate was merely 23.3 percent in 2017-2018, down about 8 percentage points from 2011-2012, per the report.