The government has set up a task force headed by NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya to come up with a methodology to generate timely and reliable employment data.
Why was it needed?
- India does not have reliable data on jobs.
- The available data is currently outdated.
- The data on jobs in the informal sector which employs country’s majority of the workforce is not easily available.
- Also, the data released by the Labour Bureau is restricted to the organized sector.
- National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data which is the most comprehensive data available on jobs is generated with a time lag.
- Better data on jobs data will help policy planners assess the impact of policies on jobs and will shed light on the actual size of the informal economy
Facts:
- India’s labour market constitutes of over 470 million people.
- According to CRISIL, around 18 million people enter the workforce every year.
- As per the data with the NSSO, India had created around 59.9 million jobs between 1999-2000 and 2004-05 and created nearly two million jobs between 2004-05 and 2009-10.
- Between 2009-10 and 2011-12, 13.9 million jobs were created in the country.
- CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy) survey found a dramatic rise in voluntary unemployment across the country, where people choose not to work below a certain income level after ‘investing’ in education
Recommendations
- Panel suggested adopting a “pragmatic definition” of formal workers
- Recommended that at least for the purpose of counting, people covered under one of the following be considered as formal workers:
- Workers covered under the Employees’ State Insurance Act,1948
- Workers covered under Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provision Act, 1952 (or other similar social security scheme)
- Government and other public sector employees
- Workers having coverage under private insurance or pension schemes or provident funds
- Workers subject to tax deduction at source on their income through submission of Form 16 or similar Income Tax form.