Sansad TV Perspective: The Employment Scenario

In the series Sansad TV Perspective, we bring you an analysis of the discussion featured on the insightful programme ‘Perspective’ on Sansad TV, on various important topics affecting India and also the world. This analysis will help you immensely for the IAS exam, especially the mains exam, where a well-rounded understanding of topics is a prerequisite for writing answers that fetch good marks.

In this article, we feature the discussion on the topic: The Employment Scenario. 

Anchor: Teena Jha

Participants:

1. Shankar Agarwal, Former Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment
2. Sanjay Aggarwal, Immediate Former President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry
3. Girish Arya, National Secretary, BMS

Context: 

The pandemic along with certain other socio-economic factors have resulted in a significant decline in employment. In a country like India with a remarkable youth potential, unemployment imposes a major threat towards the developmental aspirations of the country. On one hand, we witness the praiseworthy Digital Revolution and on the other side, unemployment offers an inevitable challenge. In order to reverse the unusual consequences of unemployment, the Government of India introduced several measures. The proper implementation of those policies that intend to generate employment needs a precise discussion accompanied by experts’ intervention.

Positive Signs of Revival:

• The service sector has shown signs of recovery.
• New jobs have been created in the IT and BPO sectors accounting for a growth of over 150%.
• There have been positive signs from the Transport, Health and Construction sectors viz employment.

Key Highlights of the Discussion:

• The Government of India is all set to constitute a committee to formulate National Employment Policy that aims at job creation in the country in order to avert the employment crisis and its bitter consequences. This establishes an ecosystem of employment that enables people to get jobs within their domicile.
• The new employment policy aspires for job creation under the PLI scheme covering diverse sectors with special attention to protect the gig workforce.
• The most important question that has been raised points out whether there is enough hiring happening to fetch an overall recovery in the post-COVID-19 times. For instance, the hospitality sector is under pressure along with a 13% decline in jobs in the restaurant industry.
• A policy needs to act as a catalyst that would assure effective growth in employment. This would be a motivation for small and medium businesses to set up employment opportunities for the labour force of our country. 
• The e Shram portal was launched by the Ministry of Labour and Employment to create a national database of unorganized workers and intended to improve social security services and welfare benefits for the unorganized labourers. This was a remarkable initiative by the government to address the issues and insecurities of gig workers with a considerable number of registered beneficiaries (about 8 crore and 35 lakhs registered workers).
• Besides the initiatives like Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana have been successful in creating a safety net during the pandemic which the experts believe must progress further to secure the interests of the workforce and provide them with employment opportunities in the coming days.
• The food processing industry also needs improvement to generate income in the rural areas ensuring food security and quality. Recently, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries has signed an agreement with the Department of Animal husbandry and dairying (DAHD) to improve the facilities of rural food processing units in the livestock sector.

 The Future Avenues:

Incentivising the creation of employment opportunities along with skill up-gradation that operates under the New Education Policy can act as a boost towards the successful implementation of the National Employment Policy and help the industries to employ skilled workers. In the holistic approach, there is a necessity of integrating the sectors and cross sectors for the generation of employment and mitigating the challenges. It was construed by an expert that the policies of the government must be in favour of medium and small businesses that are going to be the pillars of job creation. 

Read more summaries of Perspective in the link.

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