Class 12 Indian Economic Development Notes · CBSE
Government Policies and Employment Generation
Economic and social consequences of unemployment, remedial measures, and government employment programmes: MGNREGA, PMKVY, Start-up India and Skill India. CBSE Class 12 IED notes
Notes
Remedial Measures for Unemployment
The unemployment problem in India can be solved with the help of these measures — reveal them batch by batch.
Accelerating Growth Rate of GDP
The aggregate employment problem can be solved through accelerated growth. Growth rates between 8% and 9% are needed over the next ten years to significantly improve the employment situation.
Control of Population Growth
The rapid growth rate of population should be slowed down so that additional jobs created do not fall short of new entrants to the labour market. Effective family planning programmes are essential.
Development of Agricultural Sector
Acceleration of agricultural growth increases labour productivity and quality of employment. Needed: improved techniques, extended irrigation, reformed land laws, and higher public investment.
Encouragement to Small-Scale Enterprises
The small-scale sector needs liberal finance, technical training, supply of raw materials, infrastructure facilities, and marketing support.
⭐ Skill India — PMKVY
The Indian Government launched Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) or Skill India on 16 July 2015 — a skill development initiative for the recognition and standardisation of skills. Trainees are offered a financial reward and government certification on successful completion of training and assessment. That beautician course your cousin took after Class 10? That was PMKVY — a direct application of measure 9.
Direct vs Indirect Employment
Since independence, the Union and State Governments have played an important role in generating employment — directly and indirectly.
Direct Employment
Government employs people directly in various departments for administrative purposes, and runs industries, hotels and transport companies — railway station staff, government school teachers, and PSU workers are all directly employed.
Indirect Employment
When government enterprises raise their output, private enterprises supplying raw materials to them also raise output — creating more jobs across the economy. A steel plant supplying railway coaches hires more workers every time Indian Railways expands its network.
Employment Generation Programmes
The government has implemented a number of Employment Generation Programmes — MGNREGA being the flagship.
MGNREGA, 2005
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act — the flagship programme
⭐ Aims at enhancing the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
Real-life example
The village pond dug by MGNREGA workers in your grandfather’s village, the rural road repaired by them last summer — those are wage-employment assets built by the Act. Villagers get paid for work, and the village gets an asset.
Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)
Skill India initiative launched 16 July 2015 — recognition and standardisation of skills, with a financial reward and government certification on successful completion of training and assessment.
Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana (PMRY)
Provides self-employment opportunities to educated unemployed youth through financial assistance for setting up micro-enterprises.
Swarna Jayanti Shahri Rozgar Yojana (SJSY)
Urban employment generation programme — supports self-employment ventures and wage employment for urban poor households.
Shared aims of these programmes
All these programmes aim to provide employment, services in primary health, education and rural shelter — and to assist people in buying income- and employment-generating assets, developing community assets, and constructing houses and sanitation facilities. The government aims to alleviate poverty through them.
Conclusions — Trends in Employment
There has been a change in the structure of the workforce in India. Six conclusions emerge:
Key Takeaways
- Service Sector is emerging as a prospective employer — newly emerging jobs are found mostly in this sector. Your first job will likely be here.
- Due to high technology, efficient small-scale enterprises and individual enterprises now work alongside MNCs — a laptop in a village can serve a global client.
- Outsourcing is on the rise: companies contract activities like sanitation and housekeeping to specialised agencies — jobs that were earlier done in-house.
- Work at home has become common — the internet has become an amazing means of work-at-home opportunities, from programming to design.
- The nature of employment has become more informal, with limited social security for workers — the informalisation trend continues.
- GDP has grown rapidly without a simultaneous rise in employment — forcing the government to take initiatives to generate employment, particularly in rural areas.