The Aryavarth Express
Agency(New Delhi): The Congress party declared on Wednesday that regardless of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to deflect attention, youth unemployment remains a pivotal concern for the nation in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and they have a tangible strategy to address it. The opposition party asserted that the country is perched on a “ticking bomb” of joblessness, with the youth bearing the brunt of the Modi administration’s indifference.
Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress president, cited the India Employment Report 2024 released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Institute of Human Development (IHD), urging people to remember before voting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pledged to create 20 crore jobs in 10 years but instead “snatched more than 12 crore jobs from the youth”.
Kharge emphasized that the youth are shouldering the burden of the Modi government’s deplorable apathy, as the relentlessly rising unemployment has shattered their prospects. The ILO and IHD report conclusively states that the unemployment problem in India is severe. Kharge remarked, “They are conservative, we are sitting on a ‘ticking bomb’ of joblessness!” He pointed out that the Modi government’s Chief Economic Advisor defends the dear leader by stating that the “government can’t solve all social, economic problems such as unemployment”.
According to Kharge, the ILO report indicates that 83% of jobless Indians are youths, and merely 17.5% of the youth in rural areas are engaged in regular work. The share of people employed in industry and manufacturing has remained stagnant at 26% of the total workforce since 2012. The percentage of youth involved in economic activities decreased from 42% in 2012 to 37% by 2022.
Consequently, compared to the Congress-led UPA government, fewer young people are participating in economic activities under the Modi regime due to an acute scarcity of jobs, Kharge stated. He claimed that youth unemployment has tripled under the Modi government compared to 2012. “That is why the Congress has brought in ‘Yuva Nyay’,” he said.
Kharge enumerated the Congress’s guarantees under ‘Yuva Nyay’, such as filling nearly 30 lakh vacant central government posts. He also highlighted the right to apprenticeship law for degree/diploma holders, which will guarantee them apprenticeship with an assistance of Rs 1 lakh per year. The Congress Party pledges to put an end to paper leaks by enacting a new law and will also introduce a new law for social security and working conditions in the gig economy. A Fund will be established with an amount of Rs 5,000 Cr, which will be distributed among all the districts in the country, with each district receiving 10 Cr from the fund.
Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary, stated that the India Employment Report 2024 presents some extremely concerning facts about the country’s labour market over the last 10 years of ‘anyay kaal’. Citing the report, he highlighted the “failure” to create sufficient employment. Each year, approximately 70-80 lakh youths enter the labour force, but between 2012 and 2019, there was almost zero growth in employment – just 0.01%! In 2022, unemployment was very high among urban youth (17.2%) and rural youth (10.6%). The female unemployment rate in urban areas was extremely high at 21.6%, Ramesh noted.
The report finds that the Modi government increased the percentage of low-paying informal-sector employment without social security, while formal employment decreased from 10.5% to 9.7% from 2019-22. Ramesh pointed out that for the first time in decades, under Modi’s mismanagement, the absolute number of workers in agriculture is increasing, which goes against the very basic concept of economic modernisation that every developed country has gone through.
Nearly one in three youths with graduate degrees (29.1%) are unemployed, Ramesh said, citing the report. He also noted that just 20% of the 1,25,000 establishments registered on the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme portal actually offer apprenticeships. Real wages of regular workers have declined between 2012 and 2022, with inflation being uncontrolled and workers now being able to afford less than they could 10 years ago. Minimum wage laws have not been enforced, with 62% of unskilled casual agriculture workers and 70% of workers in the construction sector getting less than the legal minimum wage in 2022.
Ramesh also accused the government of being a “failure” in empowering young women to work. The Congress has consistently raised these issues and has now put forward the ‘Paanch Nyay, Pachees Guarantees’ to tackle the crises of worsening unemployment, stagnant wages, and poor female labour force participation, Ramesh asserted. He stated that while the PM can keep trying to distort, distract, and divert, youth unemployment is the defining issue for the country in the 2024 elections, and the Congress party has presented a concrete plan of action on unemployment. “The days of Pakoda-nomics will soon be over,” he said in his statement.
AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also slammed the Centre over the issue of unemployment, saying the youth have understood that the BJP cannot provide employment and her party has a concrete plan for providing jobs to them.