Dual Tragedy: Jairam Ramesh Attacks Centre's '80 Million Jobs' Claim
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh accused the PM Modi-led government of painting a “rosy picture of the economy” when the problem of unemployment continues to loom over the country. His criticism referred to the ministry of labour and employment’s statement about India creating 80 million jobs in the five-year period from 2017–18 to 2021–22, translating to an average of over 20 million jobs annually.
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“The truth is that the alleged growth in employment figures doesn’t square up to the grim realities of the Modi era economy, where private investment has been weak and consumption growth sluggish,” said Ramesh.
Calling it “artful jugglery,” the Congress leader broke down the government’s claim of job creation by observing the “expansive definition of employment.” The party leader said that a large part of the “employment growth” the Centre refers to records unpaid household work done by women.
Workers are moving to low-productivity informal and agricultural jobs as the share of salaried, formal employment in the labour market decreases, claimed Ramesh. He highlighted that because the ’80 million new jobs’ is headline worthy, the quality of the jobs is not paid attention to. “The government touts the ‘creation’ of these low-productivity, poorly paid jobs as an achievement,” he added.
Ramesh points out that this is why RBI’s data marks an increase in employment during the pandemic years when “large sections of the economy fully shut down.” Key sectors like education witnessed 12 lakh fewer jobs in 2020–21; “1.8 crore “jobs” were “created” in agriculture,” the Congress leader remarked.
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Attributing the huge number to factory workers, teachers, miners, and others who returned home during the COVID pandemic and fell back on farming or as tenants for a richer farmer, Ramesh said, “This travesty is the non-biological Prime Minister’s economic legacy.”
He further added that in the upcoming Budget session, the Centre would use the RBI data to “paint a rosy picture,” when in reality, India is undergoing “a dual tragedy” of mass unemployment and an abundance of low-quality employment.
India’s labour markets are characterised by a dual tragedy: mass unemployment and an abundance of low-quality employment. Our statement on the self-anointed non-biological Prime Minister’s claim of having created 80 million jobs pic.twitter.com/963XUMRXvC
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) July 15, 2024
