NEW DELHI: After facing a backlash on social media over job creation, the government has tasked Niti Aayog to paint a rosy picture of job scenario, backed by data from various sectors and ministries, before it goes for polls next year.
One of the reasons for such a move, according to a senior Niti Aayog member, is that the government did not have any statistical data to back their claim of job creation. Now that Niti Aayog is entrusted with this task, its focus for the next 4-5 months will be on sprucing up employment data, the official added.
“NITI Aayog, with MoSPI (Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation), is making sure we get quarterly household-based employment data, to be announced in October this year. Credible employment data will inspire debate based on facts and not opinion,” NITI Aayog tweeted, quoting its vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar at the Jobs & Livelihood Conference.
“Conference reflects government’s commitment to public-private partnership in all sectors of economy, to identify drivers of employment growth,”it tweeted.
India’s unemployment rate has registered a slight increase since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government began its term in May 2014, despite the government’s professed emphasis on job creation, according to IndiaSpend.
The Annual Employment-Unemployment Survey conducted by the Labour Bureau pegged the unemployment rate at 5 per cent in 2015-16 from 4.9 per cent in 2013-14 and 4.7 per cent in 2012-13.More recent data from the BSE-CMIE index estimates the country’s unemployment rate at 5.13 per cent for the week ending January 14.
Even the International Labor Organization’s latest World Employment Social Outlook painted a bleak employment scenario. It predicted overall unemployment rate to hovers between 3.4 per cent and 3.5 per cent during 2017-19. The report also said that of the 535 million labour force in India in 2019, about 77 per cent or 398.6 million will have poor quality jobs.
The government has been dodging the question on employment for a long time, citing lack of authentic data. Even the Economic Survey comfortably skipped the question over job creation and job losses during demonetisation. Earlier, the Economic Survey (2016-17) based on data from the labour ministry had stated: “Employment growth has been sluggish.”