Jobless growth is a multi-cause, systemic problem. In a jobless growth economy, unemployment remains stubbornly high even as the economy grows. This tends to happen when a relatively large number of people have lost their jobs, and the ensuing recovery is insufficient to absorb the unemployed, under-employed, and those first entering the workforce. Jobless growth of the Indian economy is a “5C” problem: a Complicated Condition Created by Combinations of Causes.

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Jobs scenario in India

• CMIE and labour Bureau data indicates that India continues to face the jobless growth problem
• Multiple data sources clearly show that job opportunities in India are, at present, limited, with the average annual addition to regular jobs during 2012-16 falling to 1.5 million from 2.5 million in 2004-12.
• Besides, job creation in India’s organized manufacturing sector experienced a sharp fall in 2012, later recovering only to a level considerably below any prior year during 2006-12.
• Furthermore, the share of regular workers with any form of social security has declined from 45% in 2011-12 to 38% in 2016.
• the labour force participation rate has declined systematically. It was 43% in 2004-05, 40% in 2009-10, 39.5% in 2011-12 and 36.9% in 2017-18.
• Rapid advances in digital technologies and automation are displacing people from work in all sectors of the economy—in manufacturing, in services, and even in knowledge industries.

Skill India can tackle Jobless growth:

In the words of the Mahatma,“The brain must be educated through the hand. The teacher must learn the craft and correlate his knowledge to the craft. The craft cannot be separated from education.” Under Skill India Mission, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is implementing a flagship scheme PMKVY with an objective to provide skilling to one crore people across the country for four years (2016-2020).

The impacts of the SKILL INDIA mission in the last 4 years are:

• NSQF recognises prior learning, through which an estimated 20 million school dropouts can get a second chance.
• There is a substantial increase in the number of people who were skilled in FY17 and FY18. Notably, the rise is phenomenal, it has risen more than four times, from over 3.5 lakh people in FY17 to nearly 16 lakh people in FY18.
• About 30% of the skilled persons have found jobs under the mission in FY2018.
• With nearly 55 percent successful placements, the Short-Term Training Program (STT) under PMKVY (2016-20) has successfully trained over 13 lakh candidates.
• Approximately 76 percent of the candidates have been placed in wage employment and 24 percent placed in self-employment/ entrepreneurship.
• Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is designed for those who already have a job or are self- employed and require up-skilling and certification for better prospects. Till date, more than 4.5 lakh candidates have been certified under this component of PMKVY (2016-20).

However, challenges remain:

• The targets allocated are very high and without regard to any sectoral requirement. Everybody was chasing numbers without providing employment to the youth or meeting sectoral industry needs.
• The focus of PMKVY has been largely on the short-term skill courses, resulting in low placements. There has been an over emphasis on this scheme and hence it is seen as the answer to all skill-related issues.
• The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pointed out flaws in the design and operations of the NSDC and National Skill Development Fund which has resulted in falling short of skill development goals. Majority of them also could not achieve the placement targets for the trained persons.
• The Sharada Prasad Committee, held the NSDC responsible for poor implementation of the Standard Training Assessment and Reward (STAR) programme. It highlighted that only 8.5 per cent of the persons trained were able to get employment. That is what has been claimed by NSDC.
• The Report also cites “serious conflict of interests” in the functioning of the National Skill Development Corporation. NSDC has not been able to discharge its responsibilities for setting up sector skill councils (SSCs) owing to lots of instances of serious conflict of interest and unethical practices.
• The skilling courses are not in line with the Industrial Revolution 4.0 which is round the corner.
• There have been apprehensions on how many of the 11.7 million trained in the past two years are really in jobs.

Other supporting measures needed along with SKILL INDIA:

• Improving the labour market information system where emerging demand for skills are spotted quickly and the necessary training and certifications for the same are created.
• Quick improvements in public-private partnership in capturing demand for skills and following through with quick investments in skill-building to match demand with supply.
• Jobs and skills planning should be decentralized and it has to be done at state and district levels, where there is granular information on education, skills and job options.
• Implementing a new model of manufacturing which is high-skilled, and where high-end cottage manufacturing can create employment at the small scale level.
• If urbanization is good and well planned, then job growth will be positive. Government should concentrate on the development of towns and narrow areas and service it with good infrastructure to generate employment alongside development.
• If government starts spending on public goods (schools, hospitals, dams, roads etc.) instead of spending on freebies (deep subsidies on food, farm loan waivers etc.) the capacity of government to create employment increases.

Conclusion:

India needs a new strategy to counter the phenomena of jobless growth. This requires manufacturing sector to play a dominant role. The focus of economic policy must be the creation of jobs and creating an enabling policy for youth to take up entrepreneurship and create more jobs in the market. India does not need five companies worth 5000 crores turnover but needs 5000 companies of 5 crore turnover.