Sampoorna Rojgar : Samsya and way out

Sampoorna Rojgar : Samsya and way out
By Anil Javalekar
Introduction
Rojgar samsya is one among others which can be said as man made. The economic model of selfish and one sided materialistic approach leading to accumulation of property and maximisation of profit is the base for destroying the society’s basic fabrics, showing disregard for environment & natural resources and concentration of sources, capital or otherwise, resulting ultimately in exploitation of every possible but un renewable source, inequality, unemployment and poverty. While studying the Sampoorna Rojgar, we may have to remember this because whatever solution we provide or search for should be comprehensive and long lasting .The solution has to come from the self reliant economic system evolved and not from factored programmes or plans, government sponsored or otherwise, including the commercialised development of agriculture, industries or services as is presently being done.
1. Present Unemployment Problem
i. I will not go in statistics as the unemployment problem is visible in every family and every village/town or city. The Planning commission and so many national surveys are doing the job of identifying the unemployed and measuring the number of unemployed though they are struggling to define the unemployment or quantifying it. In simple way we can say that the persons seeking jobs are not getting it. It is agreed by experts and planning commission that the number of persons entering the job market is more than the number of jobs generated.
ii. The unemployment problem is considered as problem but the solution is being searched either through the factored programmes, sponsored or otherwise, or through trickle down economic growth. This way ‘Sampoorna Rojgar’ or full employment has been given a residual treatment and was considered as a byproduct of economic growth and never treated as goal leading the society towards integral humanism.
iii. What has happened through the years or decades is that the employment generation was not enough. The latest NSS results show that the total employment created, according to the usual status, between 2005 and 2008 was only 2.4 million, which was just 0.8 million per year or a mere fraction of the 12 million created per year between 1999-2000 and 2004-05. The total number of workers increased from 457.9 million in 2004-05 to 460.2 million in 2007-08, a growth rate of just 0.17% per year as against the 2.85% per year growth rate achieved between 1999-2000 and 2004-05. This is the lowest rate of em¬ployment generation in the last three decades, even lower than the previous spell of jobless growth of 1993-2000 when employ¬ment increased by less than 1% per year1
iv. The unemployment problem is aggravating with the entry of nuclear family where each member is seeking job. This is truer when we see that more women are entering the job market. Thus making the family as unit for employment is becoming difficult.
v. The current education system created mainly to cater needs of British Empire is still doing the same job and not helping persons to fetch the job in the present global markets as the requirement and available skill are not matching. It is said that when there were about 2945 courses were taught in the world; only 171 courses were taught in India. This has complicated the unemployment issue.
vi. Many consistent efforts were made to develop new entrepreneurship through various training programmes in the hope that youth will take self employment but in vain. Only traditional families are entering successfully in the entrepreneurship or self employment. Therefore policies to promote self employment are not helping to solve the unemployment problem
vii. The efforts through employment exchanges to help unemployed and the industries to match each other requirements have totally failed. The placement agencies in private sector are catering to the needs of higher strata of society as they charge fees and are of limited use or no use for rural unemployed youth.
viii. The policies of recent liberalisation in the name of globalisation closed the doors for Indian youth for self employment and entrepreneurship because of the entry of corporate and big brothers. The corporate entry was not limited to the industrial sector but in agriculture and allied activities as well as small service sector.
ix. The banking and financial sector after nationalisation was initially providing concessional finance to small and village home based industrial or service sector. But this has changed after liberalisation. Now big brothers and corporate get cheap finance compared to small manor unemployed.
x. The government sponsored schemes and programmes meant for unemployed either to get direct employment under NREGS or self employment under schemes like SGSY or SJSRY, are lost in corruption and cannot be considered as reliable solution to the unemployment. Moreover, self employment schemes are subsidy schemes linked with bank loan.
2. Present approach to solve the unemployment problem
One of the objects of the various Indian Plans was to increase employment opportunities and to raise the standard of living of the masses. Various measures were taken in this regard and programmes were implemented accordingly, last being NREGS. Among the measures intended to tackle the problem of unemployment were as under:
i. Foremost consideration was given to the rural sector on account of the magnitude and seriousness of the problem there. Moreover, offer of better employment opportunities in the rural sector was considered to have a salutary effect on the unemployment situation in the urban sector.
ii. It was thought that the large-scale unemployment and under-employment in rural areas can be tackled only by providing ‘the village community with other avenues of employment in addition to agriculture’.
iii. In the beginning, the policy was to expand the Public sector in every sphere of economy so as to help generate employment.
iv. The revival and development of rural industries have found a central place in the rural development programmes.
v. Equal importance was given for the revival of old handicrafts.
vi. The undertaking of public work programmes in slack agricultural seasons was an important aspect in reducing the pressure on employment in rural areas.
vii. Banks were nationalized so that easy and concessional finance is made available to rural people and rural areas
viii. Government and various agencies including banks initiated various programmes for skill development so as to help self employment and established training institutions for the purpose.
ix. Efforts were made to increase the productivity of agriculture so that it help generate income and employment in rural areas.
x. Government initiated various sponsored programmes like SGSY for rural aras and SJSRY in urban areas to generate self employment.
3. The leading sectors and employment generation
i. The agriculture and allied activities have been traditionally providing employment to most of rural people. In fact this was ‘Jeevan Nirvah sadhan’ for humans for major period of life after settlement and this is still true for majority of Indians. From the point view of Ekatma Manav Darshan, this kind of employment is desirable because this is a self employment; guarantee the jeevan Nirvah Sadhan and Jeevan Nirvah simultaneously apart from contributing towards satisfaction of society needs. However, the property rights, commercialization and mechanisation apart from land acquisition for industry and urbanization have changed the scenario. The dependability on agriculture has not changed much as the agriculture sector still provides employment for more than 50% workers though its contribution to GDP has come down to 18%.The sector is considered as surplus with labour and cannot be expected to absorb the rising unemployment in rural areas.
ii. The industrial sector has gained importance due to its ability to provide direct guaranteed employment with periodical salary component. It had also potentials for generating more employment opportunities due to growth of subsidiary sectors-industries/services. In India, the employment was generated substantially after independence due to public sector and small scale sector. However, with the recent changes in the policy towards liberalization in the name of globalization, the employment generation in organized sector, particularly public sector has stopped and the existence of SSI sector is at stake due to withdrawal of support. One of the reasons for high level of unemployment is these policy changes.
iii. After agriculture, the service sector is major sector generating opportunities for direct and indirect employment. This sector contributes 55% of GDP and share more than 35% of employment. The services sector is currently the fastest growing sector of the economy, and employment growth in the sector has remained more than 5% per annum since the 1990s as compared with the aggregate employment growth at less than 2%. This sector has the unique opportunity to grow due to its labour cost advantage, reflecting one of the lowest salary and wage levels in the world coupled with a rising share of working age population.
4. How the problem should be viewed
i. The problem of Sampoorna Rojgar must be treated as journey from Jeevan Nirvah to Jeevananand. There should not be any need to create Rojgar opportunities as is presently done, but the economic system should have inbuilt arrangement for assured work and Nirvah sadhan. In the present system of development, both employer and unemployed have to search each other resulting mismatch most of the time. This can be said as main reason for frustration among the youth. If we develop a system, where individual is assured, by the time she approaches the completion of her tender age say 15-16 years, the best suitable opportunity she is capable of, we may probably start our journey towards solving the problem of sampoorna Rojgar.
ii. Indian philosophy or ‘Hindu Arthshastra’, if you call it, never described rojgar concept the way it is described today. In our thinking ‘Rojgar’ is not simply getting employed somewhere and earn some money in return, but it is linked to ‘Jeevan Nirvah’ and ‘Anandi Jeevan’-the concepts goes far beyond employment and earning. The system prescribed was able to first assure ‘Jeevan Nirvah’ to each one and in return each one was able to contribute towards the fulfilment of some needs of society and secondly, directing each one towards ‘Anandi Jeevan’ under the guidance of ‘Dharma’. Therefore, while approaching the problem of ‘Sampoorna Rojgar’, we should remember that each one of us, including the unemployed, is a part of society.
iii. I will not go in to the details of how the Indian ancient system was evolved but would like to highlight some of the thinking and components. First and foremost important thing was that the economic system was not controlled by political system but was inbuilt in the social fabrics guided by integrated human values and had arrangement for fulfilment of basic minimum needs of all the members. It had it needs identified and had made arrangement for meeting the same by way of allotting the work to each family. The family in turn was assured the returns in proportionate to their labour. This way there was no question of berojgar. The education, particularly the skill development, was the responsibility of the family and it was through the family efforts. The political system was to maintain the system. The Indian economic system developed or expanded in the various areas/fields relating to products and trade or services but these basic fabrics remained same.
iv. I will not name it as varnavyvastha or the balutedari etc or propagate it as it will be immediately discarded and I will be branded. We should be open to take what is good and help us to find long lasting solutions for today’s problems. Here I intend to propagate the principle behind the relationship between Demand and supply components of those system-Needs of society and involvement of family as unit to meet the same.
v. In all, the materialistic approach, where everything and anything produced is counted for growth has to be discarded. This materialistic system has no governing authority except the self satisfying interests and profit. The production, distribution and consumption are governed by only these instincts and there is no relevance to social life. In this system everything is available to everybody if the required price is paid irrespective of age sex, place etc. and this is the reason why men women and children are treated as commodities. They are simply placed or displaced according to their utility value to profit. This only leads to employing best and throwing out the worst making the dream of Sampoorna Rojgar unaccomplished. The concepts of growth or development thus need some guiding principles and values of the integral humanism.
5. Some way out
i. First and foremost important thing is that the issue of Sampoorna Rojgar is crucial one from the point of view of individuals-Men and women and therefore it should get independent and central treatment in the strategy of development and not of residual outcome of economic growth.
ii. The employment policy should be comprehensive enough to accommodate all types of individuals, men-women, the educated-uneducated, skilled –unskilled, young-old etc and create an economy so as to give them a minimum decent work and work culture.
iii. In India, family is still important and it should be given importance along with scope for Self employment. All policies should help the home based economic activities as base of economic model. It should be seen that each family is generating employment on its own at home and contributing to the needs of society. For this, decentralized economic model leading to self reliant family and rural life is must. All policies promoting the production of consumption goods should be restricted to this home based sector. For this purpose a reference may be made to the wage goods model suggested by Dr P R Brahmananda, in 50s.
iv. The education system should be completely redesigned so that the young ones are prepared for the skills required for the home grown industries and entrepreneurship. The specialized and higher education system should be separated from the basic skill development. The basic education in regard to the cultural values and building general capabilities and abilities required for a good citizen or member of society should be designed in such a way that it gets completed by the age 10-12 years and growing of child accordingly should be responsibility of the family. After this a young child of 12- years should be groomed for skills required as per the aptitude and attitude so as to increase their employability. Specialisation should be limited for those who are interested and with bend of mind.
v. The property rights and profit maximization should be revisited as these concepts are destroying the society’s basic fabrics and allowing for disregard for environment and natural resources apart from concentration of sources and exploitation leading to inequality, unemployment and poverty.
vi. There is a need to declare a ‘National Work Availability Programme/Scheme’, for all those capable and willing to work and should become a major central thrust in national development. Various Governments sponsored programmes/schemes need to be combined in one to provide guaranteed work for every willing person below 50yrs of age. This will help boost home sector
a. The scheme should be in rural and urban areas and should be designed in such a way that it should address all types of unemployment.-educated-uneducated, Skilled-unskilled, Young-old, Men-Women, etc.
b. The schemes should be mix up of direct employment as well as self employment.
c. Direct employment schemes should concentrate on building of productive assets with guaranteed wages including food for work. Self employment schemes should guarantee the support for income generation with survival kit with minimum needs fulfilment including food.
d. Self employment schemes should be environment friendly and can be taken up in agro-management e.g., forestry, fruit cultivation, reclaiming of wasteland etc as well as in industrial and service sector.
e. The schemes should be through budget provision and direct instead of through subsidy linked with bank loans.
f. The schemes should be implemented through NGOs/SHGs and politicians and bureaucrats should have no role.
g. The industrial and service sector should be participant in the self employment schemes and their commitments particularly with reference to skill development, marketing support, technical knowhow etc. should be obligatory in nature.
h. The above NAWP should initially be on pilot basis and slowly be extended. All preparatory work on schemes to be taken up (e.g. survey, estimate, drawings, techniques etc.) and must be ready in advance.
vii. The employment exchanges should be revamped so as to become to employment information centres and placement coordination centres and it should further include collection of data on the skill requirements, both present and future, in industry and services. NGO sector also should be allowed to establish such centres for rural youth and specific grants may be provided for the purpose.
viii. A Standing Conference on Employment should be constituted and should include representatives of agriculturists, academia and consumers etc. The conference should deliberate on ways and means of achieving Sampoorna Rojgar as well as improving the quality of Rojgar.
ix. The child labour should not be condemned if they are working with their families. Instead these should be treated as employment grooming centers and should be valued/ assisted accordingly.
x. Efforts may be made to devise “Employment Index” to judge employment contribution of a unit or an industry or a sector to administer reward/ penalty. Government must publish a data for each type of industry giving indicative norms of desired generation of employment per unit of capital (a scarce resource) used. The industrial units should be allowed to choose their combination of labor & capital but any extra use of capital compared to the norm (varying with time), must attract “Employment Shortfall Tax”. This tax amount must go to a fund to be exclusively used for National Work Availability Scheme.


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References
1. Economic and Political Weekly EDITORIALS - 25.09.10
2. Vikalp vedh
3. The Planning Commission Approach -11th Plan
4. Sampoorna Rojgar backgrounder
5. Seminar on sampoorna Rijgar held on 02.10.10 and its Discussions