Here is a compilation of essays on ‘Unemployment in India’ for class 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘Unemployment in India’ especially written for school and college students.
Essay on Unemployment
Essay Contents:
- Essay on the Meaning of Unemployment
- Essay on the Types of Unemployment
- Essay on the Underemployment in India
- Essay on the Estimation of Unemployment in India
- Essay on the Causes of Unemployment in India
- Essay on the Remedial Measures for Unemployment
- Essay on the Government Measures to Reduce Unemployment
Essay # 1. Meaning of Unemployment:
Unemployment is a serious problem which underdeveloped countries like India, are facing today. Unemployment indicates a situation where the total number of job vacancies are much less than the total number of job seekers in the country. It means a situation characterised by the existence of able-bodied persons who are willing to work but is not able to get a meaningful or gainful job which ultimately results into huge wastage of manpower resources.
“A man is unemployed only when he is both without a job or not employed and also desires to be employed.” ―Pigou
India is an under-developed though a developing economy where problem of unemployment differs from unemployment in advanced economies. Lord Keynes describes unemployment in advanced economies to be the result of deficiency of effective demand, which means demand for labour falls because the demand for industrial products also falls. But the unemployment problem in India is not the result of deficiency of effective demand but the result of shortage of capital equipment and other complementary resources accompanied by high rate of growth of population.
Essay # 2. Types of Unemployment:
(i) Frictional Unemployment:
Unemployment and unfilled vacancies exist simultaneously because it takes time to match job requirements and the skills of job seekers appropriately. The unemployment that corresponds to unfilled vacancies in the same occupations and the same places is called frictional unemployment. It exists because people move and should be encouraged to move from places, jobs and industries where their productivity is low to places where productivity is high.
(ii) Structural Unemployment:
More stubborn frictions result when the unemployed are mismatched with job vacancies because they do not have right skills or live in places where top opportunities do not exist. Such mismatching creates structural unemployment.
Technological change could lead to a rise in structural unemployment in three ways:
(a) An acceleration of the overall rate of productivity change
(b) An increased concentration of productivity gains in selected group of industries
(c) A change in the qualitative impact of productivity increases on the occupational and skill structure of the demand for labour.
(iii) Seasonal Unemployment:
The term seasonal unemployment is self-explanatory. Seasonal unemployment occurs in such activities as construction, agriculture, canning and tourist trade in which weather or the calendar determines when production can be carried on or when they govern level of demand. For purposes of measuring the business cycle and the strength of the demand in labour market it is normal to use unemployment statistics that have been seasonally adjusted. Thus it can also be termed as under employment.
(iv) Unemployment due to Demand Deficiency:
It occurs when there is not enough aggregate demand to provide work for the whole labour force no matter how it is trained or deployed. This implies that in the economy as a whole there are more unemployed workers than the job vacancies. Formerly known as ‘cyclical unemployment’ demand-deficiency unemployment has the virtue of indicating, that there may not be adequate demand even at a business cycle peak.
(v) Voluntary and Involuntary Unemployment:
Another way of classifying unemployment is to divide it into voluntary and involuntary unemployment. The basic idea of division is that a worker is voluntarily unemployed when he has been offered a job that he could fill but continues to search for a better job at a higher wage rather than accept the offer. A worker is involuntarily unemployed if he would be willing to accept a job for which he is qualified at the prevailing wage or below, but cannot find any job. Thus voluntary unemployment is essentially frictional, while involuntary unemployment is demand-deficiency unemployment.
(vi) Disguised Unemployment:
The term disguised unemployment is used to refer to individuals who are not economically involved to a degree which uses their full capabilities even though there are economic activities to which they apply a part of their time. The departure of such individuals from their place of employment may leave some part of the area’s economic activity unaffected. But their departure might reduce the amount of effort available to the community at critical junctures in the agricultural work cycle and thus erode annual agricultural productivity. Disguised unemployment is also treated as a part of structural unemployment.
Essay # 3. Underemployment in India:
A situation where a person does not get work according to his capability due to lack of suitable jobs is defined as underemployment. It is also defined as a situation in which a person does not work regularly throughout the year. This type of unemployment is also known as ‘seasonal unemployment’. It is caused by natural circumstances. Underemployment is a more serious problem of India than unemployment. Open unemployment, frictional unemployment or cyclical unemployment is very limited in India. Major problems of Indian agricultural economy are problems of disguised unemployment, seasonal unemployment and under-employment.
Measurement of Unemployment:
Due to conceptual and statistical difficulties, the estimates of unemployment and underemployment are neither accurate nor reliable. These estimates just reflect the trend, none of the agencies could give any dependable quantitative estimate of magnitude of the unemployment problem whether be it Planning Commission, Census Reports Directorate General of Employment and Training (D.Q.E.T), Employment Exchanges or other agencies like CSO or ISI or NSS. To understand the magnitude of unemployment problem in India NSSO (National Sample Survey Organisation) has used three categories of activity status of persons, which are Usual Status (US), Current Weekly Status (CWS) and Current Daily Status (CDS).
In the Seventh Plan, the concept of Usual Status (US) unemployment was adopted. For US, the reference period is 365 days and for CWS, it is 7 days and for CDS, it is each of 7 days preceding the date of survey in each of these cases. The activity status of a person is his activity situation like working (employed), or no working but seeking work (unemployed), or not working and also not seeking work Principal Usual Status (PUS) is the activity status in which a person spends a major part of the 365 days preceding the date of survey. Subsidiary Usual Status (SUS) is the activity status in which a person spends a minor part of the 365 days preceding the date of survey. The unemployment status would be lowest on the PUS basis and the highest on the CDS basis. The three approaches together can provide a wide view of the employment or unemployment situation in India.
Nature of Unemployment:
The problem of unemployment in India may be studied by classifying the problem of unemployment in rural India and in urban India.
(i) Rural Unemployment:
In rural economy the problem of unemployment and under-employment exist simultaneously.
The following are the basic types of unemployment that exists in rural areas of India:
(a) Disguised Unemployment:
In rural areas because of increasing population more than required number of labourers is employed on a particular job, which has contributed to problem of un-utilised labour in the agricultural sector. More than 80% of labourers are involved in agricultural activities in rural India.
(b) Seasonal Unemployment:
The incidence of seasonal unemployment may vary from region to region and even with in the same region over different seasons depending on climate, the cropping pattern and socio-economic factors. Agriculture being the major activity on which majority of rural population is dependent, the seasonal unemployment has become a grave problem of rural India. It has been estimated that a farmer who sows a single crop in a year remains unemployed generally from 5 to 7 months.
(ii) Urban Unemployment:
Urban unemployment is basically the off-shoot of rural unemployment.
(a) Educated Unemployment:
The rate of unemployment is higher among the educated than among uneducated persons. The reason being, the occupations do not grow at the same rate as educated people in urban areas. Educated unemployment is more dangerous for the economy of the country.
“Poverty and unemployment among the educated class collectively give birth to an act of sabotage. It not only renders an individual poor but also wicked.” ―Dr. Radha Krishnan
Educated unemployment can further be classified as:
Technical Unemployment – It is unemployment among people with technical qualification.
General Educated Unemployment – It is unemployment among literate people.
(b) Industrial Unemployment:
Urban unemployment is basically the off-shoot of rural unemployment. The migration of people from rural to urban areas adds to number of unemployed persons in urban area, as supply of labour in urban areas has been more than job opportunities available to them. As a result the volume of unemployment in industrial sector has also increased to a great extent. Also mechanisation and use of labour saving device has aggravated the problem of unemployment in the industrial sector.
During 2007, the Economic Survey had given estimates of employment and unemployment on Usual Principal Status (UPS) basis from various rounds of NSSO survey. In the meantime, the Eleventh Five Year Plan has largely used the Current Daily Status (CDS) basis of estimation of employment and unemployment in the country. It has also been observed that the estimates based on daily status are the most inclusive rate of ‘unemployment’ giving the average level of unemployment on a day during the survey year.
It captures the unemployed days of the chronically unemployed, the unemployed days of usually employed who become intermittently unemployed during the reference week and unemployed days of those classified as employed according to the criterion of current weekly status.
Estimates on employment and unemployment on CDS basis indicate that employment growth during 1999-2000 to 2004-05 has accelerated significantly as compared to the growth witnessed during 1993-94 to 1999-2000. During 1999- 2000 to 2004-05, about 47 million work opportunities were created compared to only 24 million in the period between 1993- 94 and 1999-00.
Employment growth accelerated from 1.25 per cent per annum to 2.62 per cent per annum. However, since the labour force grew at a faster rate of 2.84 per cent than the workforce, unemployment rate also rose. The incidence of unemployment on CDS basis increased from 7.31 per cent in 1999-00 to 8.28 per cent in 2004-05.
Essay # 4. Estimation of Unemployment in India:
Above table shows that in 2009-10 unemployed numbers was 2.80 crore as against 3.47 in 2094-05. The 66th round of NSSO on unemployment indicates that overall unemployment rate declined to 6.6 per cent in 2009-10 and is expected to decrease substantially by end of 2016-17. According to NSSO country’s unemployment rate fell to 2.2% in 2009-10 (June-July 2010) from 2.3% in 2004-05. Participation of women in labour force also declined.
Labour Force and Workforce Participation Rates:
Male participation remained higher both in labour and workforce, throughout the period between 1983 and 2009-10.Female participation per se in rural areas was much higher than in urban areas. Urban male participation rates (both labour force and workforce) were higher than rural male participation in 1999-2000 and 2009-10.
In urban India, in 2004-05, “trade, hotel and restaurant” sector had engaged about 28 per cent of the male workers while “manufacturing” and “other services” sectors accounted for nearly 24 and 21 per cent, respectively, of the usually employed males. On the other hand, for urban females, “services” sector accounted for the highest proportion (36 per cent) of the total usually employed, followed by “manufacturing” (28 per cent) and “agriculture” (18 per cent). Work opportunities for women in urban services and manufacturing sector probably exist but there is removal of gender associated hurdles like lack of creches, etc.
Unemployment Rates by Level of Education:
NSSO data indicates that compared to 1993-94, unemployment rates for persons of higher education level has declined in rural areas both for males and females in 1999-2000 and it has further declined in 2009-10 compared to 1999-2000. Unemployment rate of graduate and above female population is much higher in rural areas than in urban areas which are indicative of lack of opportunities in rural India combined with lack of mobility of this population segment.
NSSO 66th Round on Employment and Unemployment:
Subsequent to the 66th round in 2009-10 which was a quinqennial round, NSSO conducted an All India Survey (66th Round) of moderately largely sample size on the situation of employment and unemployment in India during the period July, 2009 to June, 2010 as part of the annual series of rounds.
The main findings of this survey are as follows:
Overall unemployment rate for rural areas according to usual status approach was around 2 per cent (3 per cent for male and 2 per cent for females). Urban rates were higher than the rural rates except for the CDS approach in which unemployment rates for rural and urban areas were almost equal (nearly 8 per cent). NSSO Survey reported an increase in work opportunities to the tune to 18 million between 2004- 05 and 2009-10.
The unemployment rate, obtained by any of the approaches, was higher for females than that for males in the urban areas, but it was lower than that for males in the rural areas.
Employment in Organized Sector:
The employment growth in the organized sector, public and private combined, has declined during the period between 1994 and 2005. This has primarily happened due to decline of employment in public organized sector. Employment in establishments covered by Employment Market Information System of the Ministry of Labor grew at 1.20 per cent per annum during 1983-1994 but decelerated to -0.32 percent per annum during 1994-2004. However, the latter decline was mainly due to a decrease in employment in public sector establishments, whereas the private sector had shown acceleration in the pace of growth in employment from 0.44 per cent to 0.58 per cent per annum.
As per the national Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS), which uses different classification of organized/unorganized sector, the organized sector employment has increased from 54.12 million in 1999-00 to 62.57 million in 2004- 05. However, the increase has been accounted for by increase in unorganized workers in organized enterprises from 20.46 million in 1999-00 to 29.14 million in 2004-05. Thus, increase in employment in organized sector has been on account of informal employment of workers.
Employment in Organised sector, Public and Private has increased by 1.9 percent in 2010. The annual growth rate of the private sector was much higher than that of public sector.
Employment in the Eleventh Plan:
The Eleventh Plan envisages rapid growth in employment opportunities while ensuring improvement in the quality of employment. It recognizes the need to increase the share of regular employees in total employment and a corresponding reduction in casual employment. The employment generation strategy of the Eleventh Plan is also predicated on the reduction of underemployment and the movement of surplus labour in agriculture sector to higher wage and more gainful employment in non-agricultural sector.
Agriculture sector is projected to generate no increase in employment during the Eleventh Plan period. Employment in manufacturing is expected to grow at 4 per cent while construction and transport and communication are expected to grow at 8.2 per cent and 7.6 per cent, respectively.
The projected increase in total labour force during the Eleventh Plan is 45 million. As against this, 58 million employment opportunities would be created in the Eleventh Plan. This would be greater than the projected increase in labour force leading to reduction in the unemployment rate to below 5 per cent.
Skill Development:
The Eleventh Plan notes that the growth in various sectors of the economy can be achieved smoothly only if supported by appropriate skill development programmes at various levels. The Eleventh Plan document has spelt out certain deficiencies in the skill development scenario in the country as it exists presently.
The Eleventh Plan thrust will be on creating a pool of skilled personnel in appropriate numbers with adequate skills, in line with the requirements of the ultimate users such as the industry, trade and service sectors. Such an effort is necessary to support the employment expansion envisaged as a result of inclusive growth including in particular the shift of surplus labour from agriculture to non- agriculture.
Demographic Dividend:
The well-known “demographic dividend” will manifest in the proportion of population in the working age group of 15-64 years increasing steadily from 62.9 per cent in 2006 to 68.4 per cent in 2026. For actual tapping of this demographic dividend, the Eleventh Plan relies upon not only ensuring proper health care but also a major emphasis on skill development and encouragement of labour intensive industries. The projected decline in the dependency ratio (ratio of dependent to working age population) from 0.8 in 1991 to 0.73 in 2001 is expected to further decline sharply to 0.59 by 2011.
This decline sharply contrasts with the demographic trend in the industrialized countries and also in China, where the dependency ratio is rising. Low dependency ratio gives India a comparative cost advantage and a progressively lower dependency ratio will result in improving our competitiveness. The Eleventh Plan document rightly points out that if we get our skill development act right, we will be harnessing a “demographic dividend”. However, if we fail to create skills we could be facing a “demographic nightmare”.
Essay # 5. Causes of Unemployment in India:
The following factors are responsible for unemployment problem in India:
1. Backwardness of Agriculture:
There is under-employment and unemployment in rural areas because of heavy pressure of population on land and primitive methods of agricultural operations. About 70% of the population in India is dependent upon agriculture which has low income per worker and per unit of land. The reason being labourers, being poor cannot afford and use improved means of cultivation. Agriculture is a seasonal occupation and also there is absence of alternative employment opportunities.
2. Insufficient Industrial Development.
In India labour is available in abundance. There has been lack of proper technology, scarcity of industrial raw material, erratic power supply, transport bottlenecks and industrial unrest etc. due to which industrial sector could not work to their full capacity and could not absorb enough labour by generating sufficient employment opportunities in the country.
3. Migration of Labour:
Labourers tend to go back to villages after earning money by working in industrial units located in urban areas. After finishing the money they tend to come back to urban sectors. But then employers also hesitate to offer jobs to such migratory labourers because they do not do the jobs on permanent basis. So they are again left unemployed.
4. Emphasis on Capital Intensive Technique:
Industrial development in the country has been based mainly on the adoption of capital intensive technique of production which has failed to generate sufficient employment opportunities. The industrialists in India have been constantly resorting to modernisation, market manipulation, rationalisation, automation mechanisation and other labour saving devices and thus the process of replacing of human labour by machine has been a continuous one. The govt. has been paying a lot of attention on establishment of capital intensive industries, irrigation projects, road building equipment etc. which fail to absorb enough labour force.
5. Government Policy towards Private Enterprises:
The policy of the government towards the private enterprises is also not conducive to its growth. Strict government control and regulation is exercised upon private enterprises. Private enterprises are discouraged from starting new ventures and expanding the existing ones as a result of a price wage spiral and as a consequence of inflationary pressures in the economy.
6. Too much Increase in Population:
India has been experiencing a population explosion since 1951-61. During 1951-91, population increased at an annual average growth rate of 2.1 to 2.2%. With such a high rate of growth the labour force has been increasing rapidly over the Plan periods. To absorb this large growing labour force, it has not been possible to generate so many employment opportunities. Consequently, unemployment and underemployment tend to increase.
7. Defective Educational System:
This system was inherited from the Britishers. It imparts general and literary education devoid of any practical content. No effort has been made to develop our educational system in keeping pace with the manpower requirements of the economy. The adoption of the ‘open door policy’ at the secondary and university levels has created more unemployment among the educated.
At present there are 135 Universities in the country. Everybody passing from these universities is contributing towards educated or white collar unemployment. No doubt for some time in the past the trend has shifted towards commerce, engineering, medicines, other technical jobs and vocational education but due to lack of proper manpower, planning unemployment is found among them also to an extent.
8. Lack of National Employment Policy:
Except for mentioning a few schemes and projects in the various plans, no specific policy was laid down to remove unemployment. Rather, the creation of employment opportunities was regarded as a by-product of development in the first three five-year plans. Also, there has been the complete absence of any legal provision to implement employment generating schemes. There has been no serious effort for manpower planning. As a result, in the absence of a clear-cut employment policy, unemployment and under employment tend to increase with each plan.
9. Slow Growth of Indian Economy:
The increase in employment opportunities is ultimately related to the growth of an economy. Despite more than four decades of planning, the Indian economy has grown at the trend growth rate of GDP of 3.71% per annum from 1950-51 to 1989-90. The vast and varied natural resources of the country still remain underdeveloped and un-utilised. The transformation of agriculture has been very slow. The development of the industrial sector has been sluggish. As a result, employment opportunities have failed to develop pari passu with the increase of labour force 10 to 12 points (attached).
10. Decline of Cottage and Small Industries:
The goods produced previously by small and cottage industries are now being produced by large-scale industries thus rendering many artisans and workers engaged in these industries unemployed. Though government of India has made a number of efforts to promote these industries but a large number of workers in rural areas are still unemployed.
11. Caste System and Personal Bias:
India is country with people belonging to large number of castes. Giving employment to people, at times to people of a particular caste brings unemployment to suitable and deserving candidates thus adding to the list of educated unemployed. Personal bias also plays a great role in adding to the problem of unemployment because people belonging to a caste in particular are at times highly recommended.
12. Capital Formation:
Capital formation has direct link with investment and thus employment. The rate of savings in India has been very low thus leading to less investment and hence less capital formation. Even the capital which is available has not been properly invested.
Essay # 6. Remedial Measures for Unemployment:
Keeping in view the causes of unemployment and underemployment the following policy measures are suggested.
They are:
1. Manufacturing Goods Required by Masses:
Employment can be created by changing the pattern of production in India. Emphasis should be laid on the production of goods which use more labour and less capital investments. In fact, such goods should be manufactured which are needed more by the masses so that they have a ready market. Also labour-intensive technique should be employed in big industries.
2. Giving Boost to Small Enterprises:
Under the scheme of self-employment, tiny and small industries should be encouraged. For this, they should be provided liberal finance, technical training, raw materials and infrastructural facilities, including marketing of products. A study of Punjab reveals that Rs. one lakh of investment in fixed assets provides employment to 15 workers in small scale sectors as against 3 workers in the large scale sector. Therefore it is better to give a boost to small scale industries which are employment intensive.
3. Decentralisation Policy:
As a result of lack of gainful employment in small areas people have started migrating to metropolitan cities in search of alternative employment. Since it has created the problem of urbanisation, it is advisable to encourage the setting up of industries in and around small towns preferably relating to local factor endowment i.e. sugar factories in areas growing sugarcane etc. The establishment of agro based, cattle based industries depending upon the nature of local resources available near the rural areas will lead both to the development of area and provide larger employment opportunities to people there.
4. Rebuilding the Educational System:
For restructuring the education system liberal education should be imparted up to the middle standard and there should be vocationalisation of education in the secondary level. University and college education should be restricted only to those who attain a high level of academic achievement. As far as the requirements of medical, commerce and engineering are concerned; these should be based on a proper manpower planning of economy keeping in view the present and future demand for skilled personnel.
5. Strict Enforcement of Land Reforms:
The number of underemployed and unemployed is very large in the rural sector. They are primarily landless agricultural workers and marginal farmers. This necessitates the strict enforcement of land reforms so that land goes to the tiller. The small and marginal farmers should be encouraged to start subsidiary industries as dairy farming, poultry building, and bee keeping etc. so that their income is supplemented and they remain partly employed.
In areas which are dependent on rains for agricultural operation such rural works programmes as road building, canal digging, soil conservation, afforestation, drinking water schemes, building for schools etc. should be started in slack season. Persons employed should be paid partly in cash and partly in kind.
6. Adoption of Labour-Intensive Technique:
Leaving aside such areas as pertain to heavy industries, defence, chemical, power generation, atomic and oil installments etc. labour intensive techniques should be adopted in new field of production. It may be what Schumacher termed as ‘intermediate technology’ or the adaptation of imported technology to the country’s factor endowments so as to absorb more labour. For the creation of such employment-intensive techniques, Research and Development are requirement large scale.
7. Full Utilisation of Excess Capacity:
The Government should endeavor to remove such bottlenecks as power supply, raw materials and transport so that industries which are working below capacity should produce to their full capacity. This would not only increase output but also generate more employment.
8. Population Stabilisation:
The problem of unemployment in India will be hard to solve unless there is population planning and control. The phenomenal rate at which labour force is increasing in the country can be provided gainful employment by any means. It is therefore, imperative that adequate measures are taken to propagate the need for family planning.
9. Labour Policy & Employment Policy:
National Wage Policy should be framed in such a way that irrational and in-equal disparities in wage and salary levels be removed and institutional mechanism for wage fixation is streamlined. The employment policy should aim at increasing employment opportunities. Special employment programmes which have already been launched, should aim at guarantee of work in future, particularly as a safety net to the poor. ‘Crash employment’ programmes should be avoided as they result more in wastage of resources and do not provide employment on permanent basis.
10. Self-Employment:
Most of the self-employment is found in agricultural sector. It can further be encouraged by Government by providing the farmers with facilities like land, irrigation, manure, credit, seeds at concessional rates. Also self-employment schemes can be framed in sectors like trade, cottage, small scale industry, transport, restaurant etc.
11. Capital Formation Rate:
High rate of capital formation will result in more employment opportunities. It is also important to keep capital output ratio low along with high capital formation. Capital output ratio which is 4:1 currently means to get production worth one rupee; capital worth four rupees should be invested. Increase in rate of capital formation will not generate employment if it is accompanied by high capital output ratio.
Essay # 7. Government Measures to Reduce Unemployment:
Sizeable employment opportunities have been generated by various development programmes adopted since the beginning of planning in India. But rural unemployment has become a formidable problem for the planners. Labour force living in villages is characterised by widespread underemployment with inadequate work and low income. To solve this problem govt. has been introducing started a number of schemes in rural areas from time to time on recommendation of Bhagwati Committee set up in 1972.
1. Food for Work:
This scheme was introduced in 1st April, 1977 (during fifth plan). The food for work programme aimed at creation of additional employment in rural areas on works of durable utility in the form of food-grains as wages.
2. NREP:
In October, 1980 the NREP replace food for work programme. The National Rural Employment Programme envisaged generation of employment opportunities of the order of 300-400 million mandays every year. The main purpose was to provide employment opportunities in lean agricultural seasons through productive activities in rural areas. The programme operates in collaboration with other development programmes. During the seventh Plan there was a provision of Rs. 3,092 crores for this programme and it generated 1,477 million mandays.
3. EGS:
This scheme was introduced in 1972-73 by the Govt. of Maharashtra. Many state Governments are operating special employment programmes in rural areas for skilled labour on the pattern of employment guarantee scheme of Maharashtra Government.
This scheme provides employment to rural unskilled labour, by raising durable community assets like roads, canals, bunds and soil conservation schemes. The scheme guarantees right to work at a wage of Rs. 6 per day for skilled labourers. Similar schemes have been started in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, M.P. Karnataka, A.P., Rajasthan and Kerala as well.
4. TRYSEM:
The scheme of Training Rural Youth for Self-Employment (TRYSEM) was introduced in 1979 with the principal objective of removing unemployment among the rural youth. The target was to train about 2 lakh rural youth every year at the rate of 40 youths per work of the country. It aimed at equipping rural youth with skills which would make them self-employed.
A rural youth from a family having an income of less than Rs. 3500 per year was eligible for selection. Preference in selection was given to these who had aptitude for innovation and entrepreneurial activities. Priority was also given to members of SC/ST and women. The mode of training was through institutions under master trainers. During the seventh Plan 10 lakh rural youths received training under TRYSEM and about 50% of them have taken up self-employment in industry, agriculture and service sector.
5. RLEGP:
The Rural landless employment guarantee programme (RLEGP) was introduced in August 1983. The basic objective of the plan were – (a) to improve and expand employment opportunities for rural landless with a view to providing guarantee of employment to atleast one member of every landless labour household upto 100 days in a year, (b) creation of durable assets for strengthening the rural infrastructure which will lead to rapid growth of the rural economy. Assistance under the programme was provided to state/UT Government on 100% grant basis. Only 85 percent of target of this scale was realised.
6. There are numerous schemes to assist in the development of khadi, village and small scale industries, including handloom, handicraft agriculture etc. These are likely to provide employment to an additional 9 million persons.
7. The operation Flood II Dairy Development Project is expected to benefit 8 million milk producing families while other diary development schemes would benefit about 5 million additional families.
8. Fish Farmer’s Development Agencies have been designed to help fishermen families in adopting modern techniques and training in fisher’s culture.
9. Moreover, various components of the Minimum Needs Programme are meant to generate additional employment in infrastructure and social services in rural areas.
10. Besides, there are irrigation, flood control and C.A.D (Command Area Development) Programmes which provide large employment opportunities in rural areas, particularly for the weaker sections like the landless labourers.
The activities which offer large employment opportunities under irrigation and C.A.D. sectors are:
(a) Construction of canals where medium and large projects of dam construction are substantially complete.
(b) Complete on-farm development works, field channels and drainage channels of C.A.D works
(c) Miner irrigation works
(d) Flood control embankment and anti-erosion works to protect river banks.
11. IRDP:
This programme was introduced on 2nd Oct. 1980. The Integrated Rural Development programmes aimed at rising poorest of the poor people above the poverty line by providing productive assets and employment financed by banks and government. The Seventh five year plan was expected to cover 18 million families in all the blocks of the country. An amount of Rs. 3,316 crores was spent in the plan for this programme and govt. was asked to provide further assistance by extending Rs. 5,372 crores by way of loans.
12. Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY):
In 1989-90 NREP and RLEGP were merged to form the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana. Its aim is to generate additional employment by taking up productive works in rural areas for the rural poor. During the seventh Plan these wage employment programmes generated 3497 million mandays of employment.
For the urban educated unemployed the scheme for self-employment to the educated unemployed youth was introduced in 1983-84 for matriculates and above in the age group of 18-35 years belonging to families with income not exceeding Rs. 10,000 per annum. The scheme involved giving a loan of Rs. 25,000 for setting up ventures in industry.
JRY generated 7,373 million mandays of employment during the first ten years. JRY has been restructured and renamed as Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY) with effect from April 1999. The wage employment is provided to persons below poverty line.
According to this scheme 22.5 per cent of annual allocation must be spent on schemes for the benefit of scheduled caste/scheduled Tribes and 3 per cent on creation of barrier free infrastructure for the disabled. During 2000-01, with central allocation of Rs. 1,650 crores, 88.5 million mandays of employment were generated.
13. Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS):
EAS was introduced in rural areas in 1,778 blocks of 261 districts from 2nd Oct. 1993. The average employment provided per person was only 41.3 days in a year as against the target of 100 days of employment to rural poor. The employment of 100 days of unskilled manual work to the rural poor includes all men and women over 18 years and below 60 years of age.
14. Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana (PMRY):
PMRY was introduced in Oct. 1993 as a part of Eighth five year plan. This scheme aimed at providing self-employment to more than a million educated unemployed youth by setting up of seven lakh micro-enterprises in industry, service and business. During Eighth Plan, loans in 770 lakh cases were sanctioned while actual disbursement of loans was done to 5.76 lakh cases. Till 2002, 60 lakh youth were given employment.
15. Nehru Rozgar Yojana (NRY):
The scheme was launched in Oct. 1989 with the objective of providing employment to unemployed and underemployed urban poor. The scheme was applicable only to persons living below poverty line in urban slums with special preference to scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe and women. Total mandays of employment created under this scheme was 140.5 lakh in 1992-93, 123.7 lakh in 1993-94, 92.9 lakh in 1995-96 and 44.6 lakh during 1997-98 against the target of 135.8 lakh. This scheme was withdrawn and integrated with Swaran Jayanti Sahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY).
16. Swaranjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY):
In April 1999 SGSY, a single self-employment programme was introduced as a result of restructuring and integrating IRDP, TRYSEM, Million Wells Scheme (MWS), Development of Women and Children of Rural Areas (DWCRA). Supply of Improved Tools Kits to Rural Artisans (SITRA) and Ganga Kalyan Yojana (GKY) is a scheme on cost sharing ratio of 75: 25 between Centre and States. The basic aim of this Yojana is to help the rural poor in self-employment by organising them into Self Help Groups (SHG).
Till Dec. 2002 Rs. 4,336 crore were allocated by Centre 6f State under SGSY. Bank loans & subsidies will be provided under this scheme for starting small enterprises in rural areas. The amount of subsidy will be 30 percent of the project cost subject to a maximum of Rs. 7,500 and for SHG it will be 50 per cent of the project cost subject to a maximum of Rs. 1.25 lakh.
17. Swaran Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY):
This scheme is the result of amalgamation of schemes like Nehru Rozgar Yojana (NRY) and Prime Minister’s Integrated Urban Poverty Eradication Programme (PMIUPEP) which was started in Dec. 1997. The basic aim of the scheme is employment to urban unemployed or under employed urban poor for which two schemes have been formulated, which are Urban Self Employment Programme (USEP) and Urban Wage Employment Programme (UWEF). And UWEP has been successful in generating 1,587 lakh mandays of unemployment during the year 2002.
18. Sampoorna Gram’s Rozgar Yojana (SGRY):
Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yozana (JGSY) and Employment Assurance Scheme integrated into a single SGRY on 1st Sep. 2001 with a major objective of employment opportunities to surplus labour. This scheme has centre and state sharing expenditure in ratio of 87.5: 12.5.
19. Other Schemes:
Many other schemes for reducing unemployment and underemployment have been launched by government from time to time like for Development of Small & Cottage Industries, Development of Organised Sector, setting up of more Employment Exchanges and employment under Agriculture extension training programme. Special Agencies have been set up for recruitment of people to serve in different foreign countries as well.
20. Information and Technology Sectors (IT):
This IT sector has opened large avenues to educated unemployed youth of the country.
The government is giving due importance to IT Sector as it has great scope for educated unemployed youth. Even education system in the country is becoming IT based education and also ‘Operation Knowledge’ campaign has been launched to universalise IT education in the country. It is estimated that IT enabled services will provide 11 million jobs by the year 2008 and generate a revenue of US $ 17-18 billion.
Conclusion:
To achieve the 8 percent target of GDP growth for the Tenth Plan and removing unemployment by the end of the decade, India should economies the use of capital and adopt a more labour-intensive pattern of production so that targets of employment in the tenth plan (5 crore additional employment opportunities with in a period of 5 years of 2002-2007) can be achieved along with growth rates.
For this a committee under the chairmanship of Dr. S.P. Gupta was formed which has suggested different measures to achieve the target of employment of the Tenth Plan-like encouraging labour intensive industries and private sector enterprises in organised sector etc.