Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Unemployment causes social unrest' that was published in Newsband

Unemployment causes social unrest

The lack of adequate employment opportunities was the key reason behind the recent agitations of the Marathas in Maharashtra and the Patels in Gujarat. There is a link between such social unrest and high unemployment rates.  

India needs to create jobs or else there will be social unrest. India produces the least number of jobs per unit of growth. The growth of the country is measured by the quality of jobs, livelihood and jobs that are created.

According to the International Labour Organisation, the global unemployment rate is expected to rise modestly from 5.7 to 5.8% in 2017 representing an increase of 3.4 million in the number of jobless people. The number of unemployed persons globally in 2017 is forecast to stand at just over 201 million – with an additional rise of 2.7 million expected in 2018.

The lack of jobs is not just one challenge for India: Increasing automation will also take away many existing jobs.

The gap between numbers of jobs created and jobs required has widened despite strong GDP growth. Social security in the form of unemployment benefits could be one way of ensuring social stability. Also there should be heavy investment in education and skilling.

The government should try to make extensive employment generating programs over intensive. The example of IT industry and pharmaceutical sectors are examples. The government universities and colleges spend a lot in higher education unlike NIIT institutes which provide job oriented iT training to school and college kids. Naturally they provide more percentage employment when the amount of money spent is considered.

India´s skilled & unskilled workers lack tools for their professional jobs. By setting up shops which rent them will go a long way for improvement of quality, quantity of jobs done without reducing jobs. Also there should a higher level of standardization of products marketed that will help.
Cooperative bodies of young men should be encouraged by giving easy loans. This will at one stroke improve efficiency and remove bottlenecks.

Increasing automation will also take away many existing jobs but will create new type of jobs requiring new skills and we should work on skilling people.