The Jobs push :Recruitment of 10 lakh people in “mission mode

In Context

Recently ,The Centre announced plans to recruit 10 lakh people in ministries and departments over the next one-and-a-half years. 

• The recruitment drive will ostensibly be directed towards the youth. 

Major Issues 

• India has a jobs problem that is beyond debate and it is worsened by the underlying structure of the Indian economy. 
• The rapidly growing services sector tends not only to be less employment intensive, but is also more geared towards absorbing the skilled sections of the labour force. 
• The gig economy, which does employ the unskilled, simply doesn’t create enough jobs for the millions entering the labour force each year. 
• The challenge has been the inability to facilitate the creation of a labour intensive manufacturing sector that is able to absorb the low and semi-skilled sections of the labour force.
• Over the last few years, the central government has been going slow on recruitments to regular posts. 

Data Analysis 

• According to the report of the 7th Pay Commission, the total sanctioned strength of the central government fell from 41.76 lakh in 1994 to 38.9 lakh in 2014.
•  Between 2017-18 and 2021-22, the staff selection commission and the union public service commission recruited only 1.74 lakh and 24,836 candidates.
• On February 3, 2022, Minister of State in the DoPT told Rajya Sabha that as on March 1, 2020, as many as 8,72,243 positions were vacant in the central government. 

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.
  • The main focus is on providing employment to the unemployed youth looking for jobs and those that have a desire to do manual and skilled labour in and around their village or locality.
  • The person gets fixed payment and incentives based on their performance
• Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP)
  • The scheme was announced in 2008.
  • The primary objective of the scheme is to generate continuous and sustainable employment opportunities in Rural and Urban areas of the country
• Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan
  • It was announced in 2020 with a mission of 125 days covering 116 districts of six states namely; Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Jharkhand.
  • These states received back the maximum number of migrant workers.
  • It 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.
• Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY)
  • This is a scheme where the government provides an incentive to the employers in the form of EPS Employee Pension Scheme and EPF Employee Provident Fund for generating new employment.
  • By doing so, there are more employment opportunities and the incentive will motivate the employers to provide the same
• Atal Beema Vyakti Kalyan Yojana
  • This scheme was introduced in 2018 for a period of 2 years but was extended considering the pandemic.
  • It provides relief to insured persons at the instance of their unemployment
• 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
• Aam Admi Bima Yojana
  • The name of this scheme translates to “Common Man’s Insurance Scheme”.
  • The scheme provides monetary aid for death or disability.
  • The people who are eligible for this scheme are the ones who are not on payroll like fishermen, auto drivers, etc.
• 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.
  • Under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY), banks provide collateral-free loans up to Rs 10 lakh.
  • These loans are given to non-farm small/micro enterprises for income generating activities.
    • Launched in 2015 
• 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.

What more needs to be done ?

• Unemployment and inflation are the two biggest economic issues today, the government appears to be now moving to tackle them with some urgency.
• There is a lack of proper education, training, and skill development in the country. 
  • The programs must be aimed at providing higher-paying jobs and to perpetually attract the young demographic of the population towards attractive jobs.
• With roughly 12 million individuals entering the working age population each year, around 6 million jobs need to be created each year, assuming a labour force participation rate of 0.5. 
  • This requires creating jobs at a scale which only the private sector can do efficiently.
•  The employment objective and the output objective can be achieved, if greater investment is directed to small enterprises rather than to large enterprises.
• It is necessary to organise the Rural works Programme. 
  • Failure of implementation of the Rural Works Programme underlines the relatively low importance given to the rural sector to provide additional employment to millions of landless labourers and small and marginal farmers.