'Till October 2019, over 2.5 crore applicant households were turned back when they sought work under the rural job guarantee scheme... It would have seemed natural – indeed, imperative – that, as India grapples with a deadly slowdown, with agricultural economy growing only at around 2% and rural joblessness hovering at a shocking 8%, the government would infuse some energy in the implementation of the rural jobs guarantee scheme (MGNREGA).
'Dilshaer Ali, 33, runs a small wood carving workshop in central Kashmir’s Budgam district. After the Valley shutdown to protest the dilution of Article 370 on August 5, Ali didn’t return to his hometown in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Many of Ali’s colleagues and associates from states like UP, Bihar, Orissa and Uttarakhand, who worked in different parts of Kashmir as woodcarvers, plumbers and painters, left the valley in the weeks after August 5. He, however, preferred to stay back with his family in Budgam...
'A recent working paper published by the Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University has contested official claims on employment, showing an “unprecedented” fall in total employment from 2011-12 to 2017-18. Written by Santosh Mehrotra and Jajati K. Parida, the study says employment dropped by 9 million between these years – “for the first time in India’s history”.
'...The Northern India Textile Mills Association (NITMA) – an association of textile mills located in Northern India – estimates 50 lakh job cuts owing to the economic slowdown in India. Several reports indicate that at least three lakh people have already lost their jobs in the automobile sector following a decline in the demand for cars across India. Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp and TVS Group companies Sundaram-Clayton Limited and Lucas TVS have already halted their production... A glimpse at the advertisements issued by NITMA makes it clear where the crisis lies.
'It is now official that the country has indeed been witnessing jobless growth. Months after rejecting the claim by a leaked report that India's unemployment rate had touched a 45-year high, the government admitted the same on Friday with the latest data showing that joblessness had indeed touched 6.1 per cent in the 12-month period from July 2017 to June 2018. The government had earlier brushed aside a leaked official report on the country's poor job scenario and maintained that the unemployment data was yet to be finalised...'
'In the face of a raging jobs crisis, Modi is refusing to learn and continues to repeat fairy tales about so many trucks and so many doctors... Last July, while replying to a no-confidence motion, Modi had quoted figures from the provident fund scheme and pension scheme enrolment, as also numbers of doctors, chartered accountants, lawyers and truck or bus operators to claim that one crore jobs were added in one year. Newsclick had pointed out the fallacies in his claims then. This time round he has done the same, refusing to learn that these figures mean nothing, show nothing...'
'Even though the scheme had been ranked as the world's largest public works programme by the World Bank, it is being systematically undermined with illegal restrictions on its budget allocation, severe payment delays and low wages.... Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has been a tried and tested measure to target rising unemployment and ease rural distress in the country. The Rural Employment programme, which guarantees 100 days of manual work a year to at least one member of every rural household, came into effect on February 2, 2006.
'"Oh, what a tangled web we weave when at first we start to deceive" wrote Sir Walter Scott two centuries ago. The Modi govt.’s attempt to create data on non-existent jobs confirms this truth. Since last year, an increasingly cornered govt. has been marshalling all kinds of half-baked ‘data’ to prove that it is well ahead in fulfilling its election promise of creating 1 crore jobs every year. One of these manufactured arguments is based on monthly enrolment data now being put out by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
