Jobs problem

Vulnerability in jobs in India

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India has been infamous for the magnitude of informal jobs in the country. Though a significant issue, informality is just a part of the bigger issue, i.e, the increase in the number of highly vulnerable jobs. Vulnerable jobs usually include own-account workers and family members working informally. Basically anyone who does not have a stable contract or flow of income, and are open to exploitation. All informal workers are vulnerable to an extent since they aren’t on any payroll or have a formal contract.

This long standing problem has become significant as the number of vulnerable employees has been increasing in the past few years. As per International Labour Organisation (ILO), 77 per cent of workers in India will have vulnerable employment by 2019. In a country where 92 per cent of the employed population is in informal sector, it is a concern if the ratio of vulnerable jobs increase.

 

Source: World Employment Social Outlook2018, International Labour Organisation

The ILO report also pointed out that

“a significant portion of the jobs created (in India) in the services sector over the past couple of decades have been in traditional low value added services, where informality and vulnerable forms of employment are often dominant.”

It is no solace that the problem is global in nature,

“Globally, the significant progress achieved in the past in reducing vulnerable employment has essentially stalled since 2012. In 2017, around 42 per cent of workers (or 1.4 billion) worldwide are estimated to be in vulnerable forms of employment, while this share is expected to remain particularly high in developing and emerging countries, at above 76 per cent and 46 per cent, respectively. Worryingly, the current projection suggests that the trend is set to reverse, with the number of people in vulnerable employment projected to increase by 17 million per year in 2018 and 2019.”

This is not a surprise as 80 per cent of the casual workers and 31 per cent of the regular/salaried workers in 2016 earned less than the national minimum wage of Rs 66 / day. If looked at on the basis of gender, 95 per cent of women working as casual labour got less than the minimal wage as against 74 per cent men. Lower wages make workers more susceptible to being caught in the low income trap. With income not enough to save and invest, people earning low wages are unable to earn or multiply their money and get stuck at living at basic sustenance levels. The only way to move from the equilibrium is by earning a higher amount and saving it.

With low income levels in the country and substantial number of informal workers, India needs to look at vulnerability within jobs as a criterion in itself while assessing jobs problem. In order improve the conditions, the jobs created in the country need to assure a certain level of stability and redressal mechanisms. More than skilling, the government needs to create avenues for job creation. A good starting point would be to modify the labour laws and reduce the cost of doing business in the country.

Political Will To Solve Jobs Problem

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The recent 12th grade results declared by the Central Board of Secondary Education were a pleasant surprise for the Delhi government where the government schools took a 9 per cent lead in performance over private institutions. Although it is comforting to see that appropriate steps are being taken to improve the education system at school levels, we are yet to look at the larger problem facing us in the next few years- the problem of jobs.

One of the key features for the change was the political will and upfront commitment to bring about the change. Rohan Joshi, who has a vast experience of working in Education and Skill Development sectors, attributed the success to systematic engagement with the external stakeholders. He also mentioned that the political will translating into driving bureaucracy to focus on education quality among other factors have led to the remarkable achievement of Delhi Government Schools. He did, however, flag that while celebrating the achievement, we must also continue tracking progress in the coming years. Typically, 3 years is too short a time to reform an entire education system of a state. Overall, Delhi government has certainly taken the steps in the right direction, the point now is to build further upon this great start.

It is this political will that is required to solve other pressing issues like the jobs problem. With 12 million new people joining the workforce every year in the country for next few years and 29 million labour lying redundant in rural areas, it is the evident that India needs to create around 20 million jobs annually for next few years to satisfy the demand. This problem currently faces two broad issues- lack of political will to create systematic solutions and limited attention given to the quality of the solutions.

The lack of political will can be seen in the redundant attempts being made to redefine the level of unemployment rather than having discussions on increasing the number of jobs. One of the key learnings from the success of the Delhi government is that external stakeholders can have huge impact, if they are given proper targets and feedback. Hence, if there are NGOs incentivised to skill the labour or reduce the labour employee mismanagement, it would go a long way. This, of course, does not take the burden away from the government to create policies that ease up the labour laws and helps promote large manufacturers.

The other problem lies in how little attention is being paid to a problem of such magnitude. The atmosphere created over the years by the Delhi government focused on quality rather than quantity. Hence, the solutions went beyond just throwing money at the issue. With respect to jobs problem, the conversation hasn’t come to a point where the quality of jobs are being discussed. For instance, Prime Minister Modi in his infamous remark claimed that jobs like that of street-food vendor should also be included in the employment numbers. The conversation went back and forth on this paradigm but there is yet to be a substantial remark on the quality of jobs that need to be created for a country with the poverty and demographic levels as ours.

We have to take the conversation beyond just jobs or occupations and talk about sustainable work environment and employment options in the country. For instance, the policymakers should look at creating incentives to increase jobs that provide sustainable wages and decent work environment.

It is evident that enough work needs to be put in to sustain outcomes that the Delhi government saw in this year’s exam results. This one successful attempt has enough learning on how a motivated policy move can show positive results.