The Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) came into power after a successful victory in the 2014 general election where it won 282 seats with just 31% of the vote. The promise made by the Modi, to bring the moon to the nation is turning into a nightmare. As the 2019 elections come close, PM Modi claims that 7 million new jobs have been created in one year but according to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a think-tank that tracks business and economic data, there are around 31 million unemployed Indians.
The report also stated that the unemployment rate increased to 7.1% in February. The Indian Employment Report 2016 stated that 13 million are openly unemployed, 52 million are in disguised unemployment and the other 52 million are women who don’t work. Which means that the actual number of Indians without adequate work easily crosses 100 million.
To add to this, Minister of State for Labour and Employment Santosh Kumar Gangwar shocked people when he declared in Parliament that the “Modi government has not conducted any nationwide survey to find out the actual data on employment in the country since 2016.” Now that can become a problem for any economy that wants to take part in Asia’s political-economic landscape.
Both educated and uneducated youth are suffering equally. Many educated youth are also unwilling to take up low-grade jobs. At the same time, adequate salaried jobs are also not available.
Demonetisation also backfired in a big way as “5 million people lost their jobs”. Another interesting aspect is that 77% households were reported to have no regular wage or income.
The Modi government requires a massive employment generation booster as the first concrete step towards winning the next general election. The economy needs to be brought back on track, the PM should focus on job creation rather than just giving impressive speeches.