Quality of employment in India

In News 

Recently ,It has been observed that  the quality of employment in India is poor. 

About 

• India’s gravest socio-economic problem is the difficulty a vast majority of citizens have in earning good livelihoods. Their problem is not just employment. It is the poor quality of employment — insufficient and uncertain incomes, and poor working conditions, wherever they are employed.

Data Analysis 

• The government designed a framework for reforms and, since labour is a state subject, it encouraged states to implement changes
• The V V Giri National Labour Institute’s interim report provides insights into the impacts of the reforms so far. 

• Focus of the report 

• The report spans the period 2004-05 to 2018-19. It focuses on six states that have implemented reforms: Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh.

• Highlights 
  • Reforms of labour laws have had little effect on increasing employment in large enterprises.
  •  Employment in formal enterprises is becoming more informal. 
  • Large investors can afford to use more capital and are also employing increasing numbers of people on short-term contracts, while perversely demanding more flexibility in laws.

Other Issues and Challenges

• Employment has not been picking up requisitely and the quality of employment has dropped.
• The vocational training system is not sufficient to cater to the pressing needs of the Indian labour market.
• The absence of a well-planned and well-developed education and training system for the workforce has not only become the cause of increasing unemployment, it has also become the cause of prevailing low productivity, particularly in the unorganised sector.

• The great bulk of jobs in India’s labour market are informal. 
  • In policy circles, a lot of time is spent focusing on policies needed for formal jobs, such as labour rights, etc.
• The illiteracy of workers and lack of training facilities are the main cause of low output and low productivity in the unorganised sector and in small-scale industries.
  • India presents a paradox of skill shortages while being labour surplus.
• The discrimination is more against women employment in a market with poor employment opportunities.
  • Reasons like safety, workplace being far from home, transportation, discrimination against women become more apparent in a market where job opportunities are already shrinking. 

Governments Efforts 

• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)
  • It aims at enhancing the employment aspect of households in rural areas and provides 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to an adult member of the household who volunteers for the unskilled manual labour.
• Sampoorna Rojgar Yojana
  • It has the primary objective of providing skilled employment to improve the skill level in the rural and urban areas.
• Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP)
  • The scheme was announced in 2008 to generate continuous and sustainable employment opportunities in Rural and Urban areas of the country
• Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan
  • It was announced in 2020 and ensures that each migrant worker gets the opportunity to work under the program and will also help them for the development and expansion of their livelihoods for the long-run.
• Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan Yojna (RGSKY)
  • Under this scheme, persons who are insured for a period of 3 or more years are eligible to gain relief when they are unemployed, medical care from ESI hospitals for self as well as family and can also engage in training programmes to upgrade skills.
• National Career Service
  • This is a site ICT based portal under the Ministry of Labour and Employment that provides a platform to people for career opportunities as well as opportunities to hire people to companies and other institutions
• Aajeevika – National Rural Livelihoods Programme
  • Launched by the Ministry of rural development in 2011, this scheme targets rural poor households through self managed Self Help Groups (SHGs) and other institutions to create a livelihood
• E-shram 
  • It is a portal instituted by the Ministry of Labour to create a National Database of Unorganised Workers (NDUW).
  • It facilitates the registration of employees aged between 16-59 years in the unorganised sector like street vendors, workers in construction, freelancers, domestic, migrant, agricultural workers and so on.
• Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY)
  • MUDRA stands for Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Ltd.
  • It is a financial institution set up by the Government.
• Start-Up India Programme: A flagship initiative, intended to build a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation and start-ups in the country to drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities.

Suggestion to handle the existing issues 

• The Central government can easily give a directive and incentive to the industries to train rural and tribal youth in their establishments so that skill training can take place.
• Social security should be provided to the poor, so that people do not die of starvation.
• Along with the right to be heard and dignity at work, these are the minimal “essentials” all employers must provide to all those who work for them, whether in small enterprises or domestic help. 
• The paradigm driving employment and labour policies must also change to enable the generation of better-quality livelihoods for Indian citizens now and in the future.

• The dominant “theory-in-use” to increase employment is to improve the ease of doing business, with the expectation that investments in businesses will improve citizens’ ease of earning good livelihoods.
  •  In this theory, large and formal enterprises create good jobs, and labour laws must be “flexible” to attract investments.