The Congress on Monday (September 30, 2024) brushed aside as “half-truths” the federal government’s assertions of constructing 8 crore function alternatives between 2021 and 2024 and six.2 crore web subscribers becoming a member of the EPFO database, and stated disagree “spin-doctoring” can remove from the truth that 2014-24 has discoverable “jobless growth”.
Congress Normal Secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh stated that amidst the “U-turns and scandals” that experience marked the utmost few months of this “tottering” Executive, “the non-biological PM and his drum beaters have tried to find some solace in their economic record, claiming to have created eight crore employment opportunities between 2021 and 2024”.
“This claim initially emerged from the RBI KLEMS data, which we had earlier countered on July 15th, 2024. The Government’s spin doctors have now mustered another statistic – that of 6.2 crore net subscribers joining the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) database between September 2017 and March 2024. Both claims are based on half-truths,” he stated in a commentary.
To justify its declare of 8 crore brandnew jobs, the federal government adopts an expansive definition of function, with out registering the constituent and instances of function, Mr. Ramesh argued.
A massive a part of the claimed “employment growth” is recording unpaid family paintings performed through ladies as “employment”, he stated, including that it isn’t brandnew activity settingup. The ’80 million brandnew jobs’ headline additionally elides dialogue at the constituent of jobs, Mr. Ramesh stated.
Amidst the needful financial shape, the percentage of salaried, formal function within the labour marketplace has reduced, he stated and identified that employees are shifting to low-productivity casual and agricultural jobs, which KLEMS is taking pictures as jobs created.
“This is why the KLEMS data shows an increase in employment during the COVID-19 pandemic years, when large sections of the economy fully shut down. While crucial sectors like education saw 12 lakh fewer jobs in 2020-2021, a whopping 1.8 crore ‘jobs’ were ‘created’ in agriculture,” he stated.
Thus, manufacturing unit employees, academics, miners, and so on. who returned house right through COVID-19 and had to go back to farming and agricultural labour are registered as a “job created” in agriculture, Mr. Ramesh argued.
This shift to low-productivity, poorly paid jobs is an financial travesty, which the federal government is touting as an fulfillment, the Congress chief stated.
“Finally, in the absence of a Population Census since 2011, the KLEMS statisticians assumed a population level to arrive at their projections. Several economists have indicated that the population estimate used was too large, resulting in an overestimation of jobs created,” Mr. Ramesh stated.
He additional stated the Executive cites the addition of 6.2 crore web subscribers within the EPFO database to turn file function expansion, with out revealing the overall image.
EPFO best tracks the organised sector which is lower than 10 consistent with cent of general function, he stated.
“The Supreme Court verdict in 2020 required the EPFO to include contractual workers at any establishment which employs more than 20 people. A substantial number of workers who were already employed are now being reflected in EPFO data – these are not new jobs created,” Mr. Ramesh stated.
“Part of the net increase in EPFO has to do with ease of registration – the process is now online, free of cost, and hassle-free, without requiring a visit to the EPFO office. Subscribers can now transfer their PF accounts while changing employers, without having to submit a claim for final settlement,” he stated.
Institutions with 20 or extra staff come below the purview of the EPF work, Ramesh stated and identified that companies which walk from 19 to twenty staff in a single date will unexpectedly seem within the EPFO knowledge as 20 brandnew “jobs” even supposing web activity settingup is a unmarried activity.
“Many retirees do not withdraw their assets from the EPFO because it offers attractive returns – they are captured as being employed in EPFO data,” Mr. Ramesh stated.
“Whatever statistical jugglery they engage in, the truth remains: India’s unemployment rate today is the highest it has been in 45 years, with the unemployment rate for graduate youth at 42%. This crisis is of the Government’s own making, caused by the decimation of job creating MSMEs through the Tughlakian demonetisation, a hastily rushed through GST, an unplanned COVID-19 lockdown, and rising imports from China,” Mr. Ramesh stated.
The general straw has been the PM’s financial coverage of favouring a couple of massive industry teams, which is destroying festival and impacting inflation as smartly, he stated.
“No spin-doctoring can take away from this fact: 2014-24 has seen JOBLOSS growth,” Mr. Ramesh added.
Printed – September 30, 2024 11:52 am IST
