Re-building Great Bharat

Economic and employment status of India: A re-look

The primary need of any individual or society is its economic needs. The bread, cloth, house, education and health are primary but an individual wants something more than this. His desire and aspiration is to live a life full of prosperity and opulence. For that he makes all kinds of efforts. He sets his financial goals. He then makes plans to achieve those goals and makes every effort to implement those plans.

What is applicable to the individual, is applicable to the society and the nation. Society and nation also have desires and aspirations. India’s desire is not only to have an economically prosperous nation, but it also has bigger spiritual goals. But on account of its struggle for freedom for about 1000 years, India has not been able to make provision for basic facilities for its citizens. Once the world’s richest economy, it looked very weak and presented a depressing scenario for India in 1947. India’s poverty rate had reached 72 percent, which means only 28 percent were only able to mobilize the necessary facilities for living. The illiteracy rate was about 75 percent. The food condition remained pathetic. Even, we were not able to grow enough food to provide two meals a day to all the people in our country. We had to import wheat and rice. We had to sign shameful agreements like PL-480 with America on its terms. In the 60’s, the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri Ji had to appeal to the public to give up Monday night’s food, so that to those who are not getting food even one time a day could be helped.

One reason for this was that the model of development adopted by the country was not in line with our expectations, desires and reality. This socialist economy model, also known as the Mahalanobis model, was actually inspired by communism. The Russian economy was its inspiration and an ideal. We all know that by 1989-1990, this model failed in Russia itself, so hence it was to happen in India too. The situation became so serious that in 1991, under Prime Minister, Chandra Shekharji, India had to pledge about 66 tonnes of its gold to international banks.

In 1991-92, India tried to get out of its economic crisis and started adopting its new economic policies based on the model of market economy, the capitalist model which too, was not in accordance with India’s nature, desires, expectations, whose source of inspiration and standard were the economies of America and Europe. Then Dattopant Thengadi Ji, who had given this country big organizations like Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, challenged this paradigm and formed the Swadeshi Jagran Manch. To develop India’s economy according to its nature and expectations, to be safe from the web of multinational companies, he undertook many types of movements and public awareness programs. Today, the same Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Associated Economic Groups, for employment generations undertook a comprehensive initiative known as Swavalambi Bharat Abhiyan.

India had been the oldest and prosperous economy of the world

India is not only the oldest country in the world but also had been the most prosperous country. Not only from the period of Ramayana and Mahabharata but also from the time of Alexander to the Islamic invasions which started in the seventh century and were followed by invasions from the Turks, Mughals, Pathans and then by Dutch, Portuguese, French and finally the Britishers, the most important reason for these invasions was India’s economic prosperity. How much India was prosperous, has clearly been narrated by External Affairs Minister, Jaishankar and M.P. Shashi Tharoor in their research publications. They have described how Britishers in their 200 years of rule have plundered $ 45 trillions worth of gold, silver and wealth in other forms. A World Bank study, led by Professor Angus Madison, remains a topic of discussion around the world. He has revealed in his famous research treatise ‘Millennium Perspective - A 2000 Years Economic History of the World’ that from the first century to 1500 century, about 32 percent of the world’s production was from India alone.

On account of frequent Islamic and later British invasions and loot by them, a strong, decentralized, village-industry based economy of India began to falter, and its share in World’s GDP started falling to 18 percent in 1720, 12 percent in 1820, and eventually below 2 percent in 1947.

Evidences of India’s economic prosperity are not only available in historical records but are also available in the present. When the Thiruvananthapuram temple’s in Trivandrum, which had seven vaults of rich wealth, was opened by an order of the Supreme Court, diamonds, gold and silver worth Rs 1.25 lakh crores was found. Not only this, our present-day Golden Temple of Amritsar, Durgiana Temple and other temples, all are testimony of the fact that India had once been a very prosperous and splendid economy. Not only this, according to a study by the World Gold Council, Indian households have the most gold available, which is more than any other economy in the world. According to this study in 2019, there was about 24 to 25 tons of gold in Indian families whose market price is about $1.5 trillion and is more than 45% of India’s GDP.

India has remained fully employed

India had not only been economically prosperous, but it also had the unique distinction where everyone was employed. The nature of India’s economy was such that every youth was self-driven and involved in the process of production. That is why no one had even heard the word unemployment in ancient India. It can also be inferred from the fact that Sanskrit, the oldest and richest language of India, does not even have any synonyms for unemployment. Why is it so? Because in ancient India, one could be unemployed, it was not even imagined. In every business, industry or agriculture, people used to go naturally. The youth used to receive training from a young age in the business of his family or community and started earning his livelihood.

India has been the most prosperous and civilized society for more than ten thousand years. Testimony to this is found in the manuscripts and records of Indian and foreign writers on regular basis be it the writings of Chinese travelers Fahien or Hsuan Tsang, who visited India during first and second century. The objective of all plunderers started with Alexander in 326 B.C. to 6th century had been to loot India’s gold, silver and rich-wealth.

The first major foreign invasion on India was made by Muhammad Bin Qasim in 712 AD, and after that one invader after another, whether they were Turks, Mughals, or Pathans, continued to plunder India’s immeasurable wealth. India continued to struggle. But in the absence of an all-India effective leadership, we could not defeat the foreigners completely.

Then from the 15th-16th century, the foreign invaders kept coming continuously especially the Britishers, not only did economic looting from India by adopting dastardly methods, but they also disturbed and ruined the economy of India and its different sectors. To establish their permanent rule in India, they promoted the use of English language, started giving jobs to English speaking persons and established them in administration. Agriculture was neglected and ruined. Agro-based industries were destroyed. As a result, India, a very prosperous and fully employed country, became economically poor and oppressed country in 1947, badly suffering from unemployment. Where illiteracy, disorder and all kinds of deficiencies remained. We had old saying in India: Farming-the best; Trade-the medium and Services-the lowest. But the Britishers reversed this process and changed the mentality, where top preference is given to the job, followed by trade and agriculture. This shift of mentality towards professions is so deep rooted in the mindsets of the youth and society that it has become the main reason for the present day crisis.

No self-reliance even after Independence

When India became independent in 1947, it adopted the left inspired model of economic development based on the pattern of Russian economy. This model, which is also known as Mahalanobis model lasted from 1947 to 1990. During this period, the government controlled big projects and industries, remained the basis of the economy. In a country like India, this model of development was not suitable at all and the result was that for making small item to big item, licenses were required and the system came to be known as Permit/quota Raj in common parlance. The result of all this was that there was no development of any kind, neither creation of any economic activity nor employment generation. All this only increased poverty, hunger and unemployment in the country. Rupee continued to depreciate. The rupee which was equal to 13 dollar in 1917 came to 3.30 Rs. In 1947-48, came down to 18 per dollar in 1990 and to 34 per dollar in 1991-92. Its value today is 73-74 per dollar. While ridiculing India’s economic condition in this era, many world economists continued to call this growth rate as ‘Hindu Growth Rate’. Yes! since 1991, the new economic policies based on the principles of globalization, privatization and liberalization followed in India, integrated Indian economy with global institutions and economy and pulled India out of the economic recession. Growth rate (GDP) has increased. There is material development in terms of roads, rails, aircrafts and others has increased.

India towards an economic superpower in the 21st century

The percentage of people living below the poverty line in India, has decreased from 71-72 percent in 1947 to about 20.8 percent, which in fact is commendable. Permits, quota and license raj system is no more in existence. Now, we are in an era of competition. On account of India’s youth power and inherent talent, we have leap frogged in the last 30 years. Today, we have become almost 3 trillion-dollar economy. Today, our growth rate is about 9.5 percent, which is the highest in the world.

Today, 36 km of roads are being built in India every day. Express-ways and world class roads present in the country are an achievement. Not only this, India set the world record in non-oil based electricity generation, when it achieved 40 percent of non-fossil fuel based production in 2021, which was supposed to to have been achieved by 2030. Every village of India has been electrified. The facility of making smokefree food (gas cylinder) has reached to 80 percent of the households. Toilets have been made in 85 percent of the households. In the last 7 years alone, 44 crore bank accounts were opened with zero balance. India’s exports from agriculture have crossed Rs. 2 lakh crore. Today, India alone accounts for 40 percent of the world’s rice exports. India also ranks second in wheat production. India is ahead of any country in milk production. Software and IT exports from India have crossed 165 billion dollars. This is more than the total crude oil production of Saudi Arab. India has also come to be known as the pharmacy-hub of the world, because 20 percent of the medicines, especially generic drugs, are being manufactured in India. The manner in which India has dealt with the Corona crisis is being discussed all over the world. Two-thirds of the world’s vaccines are manufactured in India. America took 38 days to administer 100 million corona vaccines, China took 42 days while India did the same in 34 days. The record of highest single day vaccination is also in the name of India, when 2.65 crore vaccines were administered in a single day on the birthday of Prime Minister. This much is not even the population of 110 countries of the world.

The conclusion is that India with its strong position is poised to become an economic power at the same time the problem of unemployment still haunting it.

Deficiencies of western economic standards

One of the deficiency of the capitalist economy is that it creates inequalities. Second, it destroys the environment and third it increases unemployment. It results not only in social and economic inequalities but also creates many health and mental well-being problems. This has been proved true in America and Europe and hence shall be true in India as well. In America which has 23 trillion dollar economy, 33 lakhs people are getting unemployment allowance. Despite all economic progress, strong IPR system, organized and right economy, America is not free from these diseases and since Bharat is just copying the same western model therefore all such problems are bound to happen in India as well. India presently has the maximum extent of inequalities in the world. Environmental issues are matter of concern at the international level. Corona and other maladies have gripped the whole world in to deep disappointment. As a result despite material progress in last 30 years, happiness among the people is missing. Bharat which is a country of youth has to address its biggest challenge of creating employment in the economy.

India’s present top priority is employment

In the recent survey conducted before the Uttar Pradesh elections, by ABP News, employment issue has been rated as the number one issue during the election by the public. Prior to that, in the survey conducted by India Today the same thing was revealed. Not only this, it is clear from all the surveys conducted by any agency that not only the youth of India but the entire society expects India to be employable soon. Wherever we go we will find people talking about employment. Whether it is a village in the countryside or a big city college or university, everyone realizes that this is the biggest challenge, which India will have to overcome now. Some economists say that in many parts of India, labour is not available at all for the industry. This is also true to a small extent, it may be true in some parts of the country or in a cluster of industries, but unemployment is a big challenge as a whole.

Today even after doing graduation, post-graduation or engineering, jobs hardly of salary 12-15 thousand per month are available. Manifesto of political parties, NSSO survey or CMIE data coming every 15 days, shows that unemployment is at its peak in India. In the recent survey, unemployment is observed to be up to 19 percent among the youth having graduation and above degrees.

Corona epidemic has led to increase in unemployment

This problem has worsened due to the Corona epidemic. Although it is true that in the last six-seven months, India has made a lot of progress economically and new jobs have also been created, but looking at the size of India, it is like cumin (Jeera) in the mouth of a camel. Therefore, from the common people of India to policy makers, from students to research managers, from industry to farmers, it is imperative to think about how to come out of this unemployment problem. Although unemployment is global in nature, it is prevalent in varying amounts in Europe, America and even China. At present in India about 7 percent of the total work force are unemployed, and presents a frightening scenario. Unemployment percentage is very high in undergraduates and postgraduates.

Causes of unemployment

There are many reasons for unemployment in India. Different economists have reached different conclusions. The model of economic development being adopted after independence itself is being held responsible for the present situation. Industry works on the objective to maximize profit and not employment generation. This system itself is capitalist. Due to this, there is unemployment in countries like Europe, America and China too, so how will India be an exception?

Therefore, India will have to rely on economic policies promoting employment generation. Due to multinational companies, big industries and advanced technologies, the nature of employment keeps changing rapidly. The unorganized sector of a vast country like India cannot change so rapidly. International agreements, especially free trade agreements, also discourage small and medium scale industries and employment generation. India has not only lost billions of dollars not only because of all the major free trade agreements that India has signed so far, whether with South Eastern countries, Korea or Japan, but also because of the shifting of manufacturing to that country, unemployment has also increased.

Apart from this, China is a big challenge. Our trade deficit with China is around 45 billion dollars. The markets of India are full of items made from China. Due to this, if the manufacturing units do not run here, then unemployment is natural. Even the free trade agreements signed with Japan, South East Asian countries, Korea are proving to be only increasing India’s economic loss and unemployment. The absence of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in November 2019 has come as a great relief for India. Otherwise the markets of India would have been completely filled with Chinese goods and small and cottage industries would have to suffer a huge loss, unemployment would only have further increased.

Then the announcement of freebies gifts by many governments and political parties before elections, distribution of money earned in the past also increases unemployment. Money should be used to increase employment opportunities by creating basic necessities and facilities and not for temporary political gains. Politicians are engaged in distributing and transferring capital instead of capital formation to get their votes. Vice President Venkaiya Naidu Ji has also pointed this out in his address on 29 November 2021. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has also indicated something similar.

Social causes of unemployment

Apart from some wrong economic policies of the governments, there are also some social, educational and economic reasons in India which increases unemployment. For example, the wrong definition of employment in the mindset of the youth of India. Generally, youth in India, both boys and girls consider employment synonymous with jobs and that too with government job and to the maximum with a job in a company. They do not consider income from agriculture, self-employment or from small-scale & cottage industries as employment. This thought is strongly ingrained in the mind of our youth but also even in their parents. The other thing related to this is that youth think that and after graduation and post-graduation, only after getting training, they will be eligible for any employment. They do not even think of earning at the age of 18-19 years.

Our youth are facing difficulties due to lack of attention to the importance of labour, skill development, and entrepreneurship. The government’s slow decision-making process, red-tap, difficulty in getting loans etc. also hinder the process of entrepreneurship and employment generation. In India, self-employment, setting up of private enterprises, employment generation from agriculture is not encouraged much by the family and society, which is an essential element for any youth. Not only this, in many places, entrepreneurship and self-employment are discouraged, family, villagers or friends. Whereas in America and Europe, both society and governments are engaged in encouraging small entrepreneurs. Harvard University, Washington continues to support 5000 small entrepreneurs by doing research and in other ways.

From where does India’s employment come?

Before planning to create employment in India, it is necessary to examine from where the employment is presently coming. In India, 40 to 42 percent of the people are mainly engaged in agriculture, although the level of income from agriculture is very low. Apart from this, 28 to 30 percent of employment comes from small or big industries i.e. from manufacturing. And about 32-33 percent of the people get employment in the service sector.

The total labour force of India is currently 51.2 crores. Labour force includes those people in the age group of 18 to 65 years, who want to do employment and are eligible. All types of government jobs, whether it is of state governments or central government, semi government or other small or big, from the watchman to the President of India and in addition to this, Jobs in the corporate sector, which is called the industry, there are about 38 million such jobs, which is about 7.4 percent of the total workforce of 512 million. All government jobs are around 2.5 percent. Those who are on contractual daily wages, irregular and temporary jobs, or have minimum 100 days of employment in a year, they together constitute 20-21 percent of the employment. The remaining 79-80 percent of the society gets its employment from agriculture, self-employment or small & cottage industries.

Contribution of seven big organized sector in employment

If we see the contribution of organized sector in India, then about 40 million people get employment in the textile sector. About 36 million people are employed in infrastructure (construction) sector. Although their contribution to GDP remains 24 percent. About 40 million people are employed in the retail sector, contributing 10 percent to the GDP. General manufacturing, which is contributing 17 percent to the GDP, provide employment to 30 million people. Information technology which is the emerging sector of India has in the last 2 years added new dimensions very to it fast, yet employs less than 33 million people and its contribution to the GDP is 8 percent. Only 20 lakh people get employment in the banking sector. The contribution of real estate to GDP is 11 percent, but only 18 lakh people are employed in this sector. The point to be noted here is that whereas 80 percent of the employment comes from agriculture sector, small enterprises and self-employment category only 20 percent of the budget of is being spent on them, the remaining 80 percent of the budget is spent on sectors which provides remaining 20 percent of the employment.

Agriculture: India’s most important sector for employment

India has about 160 million hectares of cultivable land, which is more than any other country in the world. Although the total land of our country is half that of China and only one-third as compared to America, but India has the maximum arable land in the world. At present 42-43 percent of the people are completely dependent on agriculture. But their income level is very low.

The land holdings per farmer is also very small. 86.2 percent of India’s farmers own less than 2 hectares of land. There farmers are afraid of doing any kind of new experimentation nor they have the ability to do so. Therefore, not only we need to promote cooperative sector in the agriculture sector, but also experiments like cow based natural farming have to be encouraged. As on date the discussion in agriculture sector is confined to Minimum Support Price, but if value addition is carried out then income from agriculture can also increase substantially.

For example, the MSP of wheat at this point in time is Rs. 2015, per quintal, but if it is converted into porridge and sold in packets, then the same can be sold at Rs 3500 per quintal. Kargil brand flour is sold at Rs. 38 per Kg. For this, the farmers and the governments is coordination with each other have to start the process of transforming the agriculture sector.

The price of organic agriculture and natural products is also higher than the declared MSP. A big mass movement among the farmers will also have to be carried out for setting up of FPO so that farmers can find ways to increase their income by marketing and value addition of agriculture and agricultural products.

Small, cottage and domestic industries: Large employment sector

The second major employment sector after agriculture is small, cottage and household industries. But due to the impact of foreign multinational companies and Chinese companies on them, they are not able to move forward. When the target is employment generation, then we have to think of measures to achieve it. The most prominent among them is what Laghu Udyog Bharti and Swadeshi Jagran Manch have always been emphasizing that in household and other general goods, in sectors involving zero technology, in FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) sector, any type of multinational company or Chinese Company should not be allowed to stay. Even India’s big companies should be kept away from these sectors. We should run the campaign ‘only local and swadeshi’ in the whole country. So that in the field of general consumer goods and household consumption items people of the country buy only swadeshi and goods produced by small and cottage industries.

Reservation is useful for small and cottage industries

Till a few years ago, there were 1430 items in the country that were reserved for small and cottage industries (MSME sector), but gradually this list has been abolished by various governments under pressure from MNCs and big companies. On account of this, the units making domestic products in villages and small towns gradually were closed. As a result, unemployment continued to rise. Not only multinational and foreign companies, but large industrial groups of India were given a free hand to work in the field of retail. For example- retail shop is also now run by Reliance, salt is manufactured by Tata, oil is manufactured by any other big company. Similarly the manufacturing of soaps, oils, soft drinks etc. are controlled by multinational companies like Unilever, Lux, Pepsi-Coca-Cola. It is natural that small and cottage industries and shopkeepers cannot compete with them. In the process they get closed and employment opportunities are reduced further.

Therefore, these 1430 or new list of items should be reserved for small and cottage industries. For this, there is no need to be panic about what will happen to multinational companies, international standards or foreign investment.

America also protects its small scale industries and employment

Let us see an example, in America when Donald Trump became president 5 years ago. He made the same assurance to the youth of America that he will create jobs for them and will build a wall in front of Mexico. Because a large number of unemployed people from Mexico were coming to America, reducing the employment opportunities of the local people. Trump also said that China’s currency conspiracy will be stopped (manipulation) and shall sharply reduce the annual deficit of $ 350 billion from China. Even Trump said that India’s H-1B visas will be banned. America was also fast moving in this direction fast during Trump’s regime. From 1933 America has a Buy American Act. In America under Buy American Act, American companies are bound to purchase a specific amount of goods manufactured in America.

Trump even has cancelled America’s own initiated TPP (Trans Pacific Pact) Agreement which accounts for countries having 42 percent of the world’s GDP, within one month’s of becoming President. He even didn’t cared for friendly country likes India and started making stricter laws on H1B Visa. He even announced America’s exit from COP21(Paris Climate Agreement) which has agreed at by all world leaders. President Donald Trump took series of strict measures to increase employment and reduce trade deficit.

Donald Trump set before him only one objective, which was to provide employment to the people of America and prosperity of America. They didn’t care what the international community, agencies and multinationals have to say. If Donald Trump can do it in America then why India shouldn’t. If by re-reserving the list of items of daily life, small and cottage industries in India grow and millions of jobs again increases, then we must. Not only think over it, but also should garner wider public support in its favour.

India’s biggest capital is its youth power

Every country in the world makes economic-material progress on the basis of its own strength. For example, In USA, which is currently a $ 23.4 trillion economy, 40 percent of its income comes from intellectual property rights. In simple words income from patents or copyrights etc. Because of lot of research work. More than 60 percent of the world’s commercial patents annually comes from USA. Similarly, China still accounts for more than 20 percent of the world’s manufacturing. Earlier its share 28.7 percent. China works on the strength of low cost manufacturing. On account of its governance system, large population and other reasons, China is able to manufacture goods at the lowest cost in the world and that is also its biggest strength.

Similarly, Central and Eastern countries run their economy on crude oil, which according to them is a gift from Allah. On the other hand, Japan considers automobiles and electronics as its strength. At present 65 percent in India, 60 percent in USA cars are Japanese. The same is the case with electronics. Germany’s strength is its high-end engineering. German companies specialize in the world’s top quality engineering products. Russia remains the world leader in defense equipment manufacturing. India bought Russian made missile defense S-400 for Rs 38000 crores and now is in process to purchase.

In such a situation, the question arises, what is the strength of India? Agriculture, yes. Pharma industry, yes that too. Milk production, yes. IT and software, yes definitely it is. But the biggest power that India has today is its youth power. India is currently the largest youth country in the world. It has 37 crore youth in the age group of 15 to 29. The total population of America is 34 crores. Whereas China now has only 270 million people in this age group. The median age of India is 29 years, America - 40 years, China -37 years, Europe - 46 years and Japan - 48 years. And it has also been accepted by the IMF that the youth population of any country is directly related to its GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Because young people not only consume more, but also produce more, this accelerates the economic cycle and increases people’s income.

GDP grows only from young population

When Japan was young (high percentage of youth people) from 1964 to 2004, its GDP also grew by more than 6 percent. Now Japan is old, its GDP has also came down to 2 percent. The same thing is also being applied to Europe and China. India should recognize its great strength, which in common parlance is called demographic advantage (Demographic dividend). India started enjoying this advantage from 2018 and will continue till 2055. The percentage of people in the age group of 15 to 34 in India will start decreasing from 2042 onwards. Therefore, we have to immediately use our youth power to make India’s economic cycle to spin at a fast pace. Not only should they create self-employment, but they should also help in taking India’s economic prosperity to the highest level and reduce the poverty as well. Youth should be put on the highway of entrepreneurship and skill development. To make them move fast, this is the need of the hour. The great challenge of taking today’s youth on the path of entrepreneurship should be accepted by the intelligentsia of India.

Government jobs are not given much preference, in America and Europe. Establishing One’s Own small or big business, is the normal process. Developing our companies, our brands is useful. Today America is the country with the largest number of startups in the world. Most unicorn companies are based in America. It has the highest per capita income. Had youth of America carried the same mindset as Indian have, America would not have seen this progress which it today has.

The quadruple route to full employment

1. Decentralization: Deen Dayal Upadhyay Ji, the great thinker of Indian economics, used to say that if India’s economy has to be accelerated, then only two words are enough - decentralization and swadeshi. Now if the topic of employment generation is to be added to it, then we need to add words i.e. entrepreneurship and co-operation.

At present, whatever plans are made in India, budgets are allocated, their decisions are made at the level of the central government or the state government. It is not appropriate for a huge country like India. Coming down, to the lower level there is no enthusiasm to implement the plan. Then corruption and red-tap increase when money is transferred from top to the bottom and taxes are collected from bottom to the top. Therefore, India has to consider the model of district-centered economy.

In particular, employment generation has to take place only through district centric schemes, so that the unique characteristics of that district, its youth power and the available resources can be utilized in the best possible manner. Planning has to be done for this. Necessary laws will also have to be enacted. However, in 1986, the Constitution was amended to incorporate Panchayati Raj institutions by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi Ji and the subject of decentralization was decided to be taken up at village level. Decentralization directly up to the village level is impractical, hence it has not yielded any meaningful results.

Therefore, the district level should be the center of all types of employment and economic creation schemes.

2. Local, Swadeshi: Swadeshi has become a very popular and universally acceptable word nowadays. The Prime Minister of India has also repeatedly called for ‘Be Vocal For Local’ i.e. buy local, buy swadeshi. It is very obvious and simple that the more people buy local and swadeshi products, the more will small and cottage industries get the encouragement and will definitely contribute towards increase employment. Even now, the largest share of India’s employment comes from small and cottage industries apart from agriculture. Therefore, awakening the spirit of Swadeshi, is a great method to generate employment. Medium, small and cottage industries also contribute 48 percent of India’s exports. To the extend India promote import substitution and strengthen its domestic industries, the employment generation to that extent will also increase.

Towards this in last two years, the government has introduced the scheme of PLI (Production Linked Incentive) in 10 big sectors. A few days ago, an announcement of Rs 76000 crore package has been made for the development of domestic semiconductor industry. It is a different matter that multinational companies are planning to take away a large part of it and they will keep doing it. Overall, whether the swadeshi industry is small or big, if Indian companies and Indian manufacturing are encouraged, then employment will definitely increase.

3. Entrepreneurship: The topic of entrepreneurship has come up for discussion earlier also. It is not possible for governments or economic organization or industries to provide jobs to 37 crore youth. So the only way for the set up youth is to establish their own enterprises, self-employment engage in and activities small scale industries, small startups etc. They should do experiments in agriculture, add value to produce from agriculture use information technology and think of working wherever there is a need, not only in India but all over the world. And if they do so then there will be immense employment opportunities available.

To achieve this, they have to adopt various skill development processes and have to be proficient. Entrepreneurship requires that they train themselves, develop their inner talents and their thinking, which will help them to earn big and create wealth. At the same time, India will have to make a big effort to make its youth a job provider instead of a job seeker.

4. Co-operation: Co-operation is another big sector, which can be helpful in solving the problem of unemployment in a country like India. In this regard, the world famous model of India is of Amul, due to which a significant difference in the income of 36 lakh farmers of Gujarat itself has been made. At the same time thousands of direct jobs have also been created and this model has been implemented all over the country, under different names. On account of this, today India not only stands at number one in the world in milk production, but also it is the source of livelihood of millions of people.

Same is the case with IFFCO and many other types of cooperative industries. When capital is used to run manpower, it is called capitalist model. But when manpower collects capital and runs the industry, then it is called cooperative.

There are many successful examples like Indian Coffee House, Lijjat Papad, which are generating quality jobs in large quantities. The uniqueness of this cooperative based industry is that under these inequalities does not increase. According to one study, the difference in income per month in cooperative based industries remains only up to 1: 9 (less difference), i.e. the ratio of the lowest earner to the highest. Whereas in a capital based industry this difference can be as high as 1:2000 or more.

At present, India has come under the category of most unequal income group in the world. Where only the top 10 percent of the people of India hold 57 percent of the capital of the whole of India. And the share of the bottom 50 percent people in the total capital of India is only 13 percent. Therefore, India has to undertake a massive process of cooperative movement and cooperative based industries to create quality jobs. The Government of India has not only constituted a ministry in this regard, but for this the process of creating a separate university has also started.

For quality employment and an equitable distribution process of income, cooperative movement in India will definitely be effective and useful.

Only four ways, decentralization, swadeshi, entrepreneurship and co-operation can turn the cycle of employment in India’s economy at the fastest rate and can bring India in a position to become a global superpower.

Three tier employment generation plan

To make India fully employed, a three-tier plan will have to be worked out. The first is to support, encourage, promote and coordinate the ongoing small employment generation experiments. Meeting of job aspirants with industries providing jobs is essential. Training and self-employment activities in areas like barbing, plumbing, designing, sewing, and laundering needs to be promoted. The second is to establish district-wise employment generation centers and the third is to change the mindset of our 37 crore youth. Mindset of not only the youth but also of whole India needs to be changed. For this a nationwide massive public awakening would be required.

Encouragement of self-employment, cooperation

At present there are 6.25 crore small & cottage industries in the country. Apart from this, the number of self-employed is also in crores. In fact, most of India’s employment is generated from here. In all such projects, there is a need for encouragement and respect to the self-employed, which will have to be completed by all the volunteers engaged in the campaign. They have to cooperate. Listening to their minor problems and trying to solve them is a big task. Then in many places it is heard that industries are not getting workers and unemployed people do not know where they can get jobs. Sometimes skill is also lacking. So we have to introduce the job seekers to the industries providing jobs. Attention has to be given to their skill development. This can be done in coordination with skill development centres. Then training of barber, washerman, plumber, tailoring, design, make-up, etc., hundreds of small jobs and promoting the trend of self-employment can create lot many jobs. Such projects will have to be encouraged and supported everywhere.

System formation: District Employment Creation Centres

Apart from public awareness on the five resolutions in employment generation, the second major task is to directly train the youth for employment and entrepreneurship. For this the establishment of District Employment Creation Centers in India is emerging as a successful experiment.

Like we have examined earlier, decentralization and entrepreneurship are essential elements for a strong economy and for employment generation. The District Employment Creation Centers would be the central part of the direct process of employment generation. The district center can be run in association with any university or college. The Center should make arrangements to provide all kinds of information and facilities to the youth. They should be trained to face any kind of challenge they may come in setting up new ventures and providing their solutions. They should be provided with information about all kinds of schemes related to government jobs and employment. There should be a system of getting information about all types of jobs and employment processes in the country and abroad at one place. They should also get inspiration and training to go through the process of Earn While you Learn from these centers. The Centre can be managed by the workers of the college and of the organization together. It can be managed by one coordinator as its Head with a team of 6-7 people.

This center can play a significant role in making accurate studies and planning on the needs of the district, its resources, nature of youth power, status of their education and skill development and the situation of industry in the district etc. Therefore, setting up an employment creation center in each district and planning all kinds of employment generation from there is emerging as a successful experiment.

After setting up and running such centers in all 739 districts of India successfully, it can be considered to establish these centers at the block level also. Overall, a system must be developed that can solve the problem of employment generation and creation of economic activities at the local level itself.

For employment five resolutions for youth

To make India a fully employed country, our youth should take five pledges. First, Earn while you Learn and Start Earning Early. Second, Be Job Provider and Not Job Seeker Third, Think Big, Think New, and Think Out of the Box. Fourth, imbibe five qualities of an entrepreneur – strong will-power, hard-working, courageous, reliable and techno savvy. Fifth, Nation First, Swadeshi Must. A wide mass awakening program have to be started across the country on these 5 points.

Country wide social awareness is the solution

The essence of the first resolution Start Earn while you Learn and Start Earning Early is that our youth first complete their graduation and masters degrees, do some course like B.Ed or other and then think for a job. They do not think of earning before 24-25 years of age. The studies shows that the youth who are in the process of Earn while you Learn, start earning something or the other when they are in the age group of 16-17, they grow up to become successful entrepreneurs and job providers. Warren Buffett started earning at the age of 11 by buying his first share of a company. Similarly, Jamshed Ji Tata started earning at the age of 14 and Bill Gates at the age of 19. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg started earning at 18, and Oyo’s founder Ritesh Aggarwal also started earning at 18. At present, hundreds of such examples are coming to the fore in the country and the world when the youth start their venture or startups at a very young age. Today they are not only earning big but also giving livelihood to thousands of people.

Hence, the best way for our youth is to leave the mentality of doing a job and start their own ventures/enterprises. Entrepreneurship, not only bring out their inner talent fully but they also become part of the solution of the problem of employment creation by providing jobs to many. We have many examples around us where people instead of doing a job or adopting a narrow thinking have set up their enterprises and depicted big thinking.

Two examples of entrepreneurship

The example of Bittu Tikki Wale (BTW) of Delhi has come for discussion many times i.e. how he started with the job of teaching school children in a small village near Ayodhya. But on account of his work and desire to become big in his mind, he came to Delhi. Here he started with small shop of Aloo-Tikki and Golgappa, and later became successful in setting up an industry of 500 crores. Today he is also giving jobs to hundreds of people.

Same is the case with Sachin and Binny Bansal. After doing engineering from IIT-Delhi, he got a job in Amazon. But he had in his mind that doing his own business is the best. That’s why he worked for less than two years, then left it and formed a Flipkart company. After initial difficulties, he became India’s e-commerce giant in just nine years and in 2018 sold it to Walmart for $16.5 billion. Before this, not only in India but in the world no company of such a big e-commerce was sold. Although everyone is sad that company is being sold to a foreign company, but it is a proof of the fact that our youth can do whatever they want. We have so many such examples of this in India and outside.

The third thought “think new, think big, think out-of-the-box” is equally effective which our youth should really adopt. Whoever has become big and earned more, they must have done something new.

The example of Baba Ramdev is in front of all of us in this matter. He had no capital, no major degree, no business background but he has a new thought that Yoga and Pranayama, which we got from sages can also be made a medium of employment generation. This was a new initiative and due to this not only did Indian Yoga got boost across the world, but millions of people got employment and economic activities in crores were created. Today Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali is a company worth Rs. 20,000 crore, and more than one lakh people get direct employment because of him.

Similarly Bindeshwari Dubey, who set up the chain of Sulabh toilets, is an inspiring example. Although he himself belonged to an orthodox Brahmin family, but when he came to know about the difficulty of toilets by the people in the cities, he started the chain of accessible toilets on fee basis by forming an NGO. By thinking something new, he has been able to create more than 6000 toilets across the country due to which more than 25,000 people are able to get employment. New thinking, big thinking, out-of-the-box thinking, it definitely opens new doors of prosperity and employment.

Five characteristics of entrepreneurs

After examining successful entrepreneurs, it has come to the light that they generally have the following five qualities. Therefore, our youth must take a pledge to adopt these five characteristics. Can a person be successful without ‘strong will power’ or can without ‘hard work’ one can build his business? Leave the industry, even studies or family work are not successful without hard work. Then, those who have taken some ‘courageous’ decisions in life, they only have succeeded. Apart from this, our youth should keep in mind that the essential quality of ‘reliability’ always forms the basis of progress in life and they must also be techno savvy.

At present, our youth are expert in adopting fast changing technology, but they should remove from their mind that new technology destroys employment. Yes, many times it changes the nature of employment, it does not destroy them. Youth should study this subject. Make sure that by transforming and training oneself with the changing technology new opportunities are thrown open. There is no case anywhere in the world where one lagged behind in adopting technology and still prospered.

The fifth and last point is essential. Nation First Swadeshi Must means when you put the nation first, it not only increases your patriotism, but it also creates a security cover of credibility around you. The purpose of any person should not be limited only to his employment, one must engage himself/herself for the progress of the society and the nation. Swadeshi is necessary, it has already been proved.

By adopting these five resolutions, our youth will not only pave the way for their employment, but they will also be very helpful in solving the problem of employment of country and in generating economic value.

India’s goal of zero below poverty line: A noble cause

We not only have to plan or be concerned about the employment generation for our youth, but also have to simultaneously bring down the percentage of people living below poverty line, from about 20 percent at present to zero percent by 2030.

Today, when we are celebrating the 75th year of independence as Amrut Mahotsav, then this theme also makes any patriot to realize the challenge that even after completing 75 years of independence, 20 percent of our people still live below poverty line.

In India, 20 percent means about 28 crore people. Swami Vivekananda once said, “As long as even the dog of my country is hungry, I should not sleep in peace.” On the one hand, our great thinkers have put before us such a challenging goal, on the other statement and on the other hand we couldn’t get 20 crores of the people out of the poverty line.

Considering the employment aspect of our youth, we have to make our action plans in such a way that these brothers and sisters also come above the poverty line. Although good progress has been made on this matter in these 75 years, yet no country can become a superpower with its 20 percent population BPL.

Prosperous India: Our aspiration

Then, according to a discussion in ‘Artha Chintan-2021’, there is a big goal in front of all of us to make India a 10 trillion-dollar economy by 2030. Although India is presently the fastest growing economy in the world, yet lot many efforts shall be required to reach $10 trillion level. We have not only to fully enrich our agriculture sector, but also at the same time have to take India’s emerging new digital power to move forward rapidly. India’s agricultural exports crossed two lakh crores last year, while in 2021-22, India has also exported IT and software worth $175 billion, which is more than the crude oil production of Saudi Arabia, which is the world’s second largest oil producer. It means that the digital sector alone in India has emerged as the major contributor towards employment generation in the last 20 years. A comprehensive approach and plans are necessary to take it to the global level. In the last 7 years, India has risen from being the 11th economy of the world to the fifth place with GDP of $ 2.8 trillion and should soon come to third position. America and China are on the first and second position.

Mass awakening on employment is the only solution

When we discuss India’s unemployment problem, many economists are of the opinion that the government should make change in its policies. They are of the opinion that only government policies can solve the problem of unemployment. This may be true to some extent, but the experience of the last 70 years does not fully support. Many other scholars believe that more the private investment the more would be the employment generation, whether this capital comes from the country or from abroad, it does not matter much to them. This is true to some extent, because in last 30 years GDP has increased on expected lines, but equally true is the fact that this increased GDP could not solve India’s unemployment problem. That’s why it is also called jobless growth.

Some others say that education is the mother of all types of employment generation so education itself, its curriculum, should be changed, made suitable for employment. That’s all right, but we have to take both the long term and the short term view of the problem.

Although, the national education policy-2020 is quite solution oriented to the problem of employment generation but it will take another 20 years for the policy to be implemented the lowest level. By this time India shall complete a substantial part of its demographic dividend period. Therefore, the highest priority is to address the problem in the present.

Therefore, even though all the views given above are correct, yet they are not complete. In fact, for this in a vast country like India, a mass public awareness is the solution, because the level of awareness of the society is the deciding element of the policies of the government. The same also opens the way for private capital investment, developing employment generating policies and participation of socio-economic organizations in the process. It is also necessary for achieving full-fledged public awareness, education, skill development and entrepreneurship. The initiative taken together by the economic organizations with a view to create a wide public awareness in the society is known as Swavalambi Bharat Abhiyan. This campaign has to be taken to every district, every block and to every village of India. It is from this great awakening of India, this epidemic of unemployment, continuing from centuries, shall be resolved and India will be able to rapidly progress on its journey to param vaibhav, emerging as an economic superpower. And this conclusion is as certain as it is true that there will be a sunrise tomorrow.