Modi govt’s promises on employment, minimum wage remain hollow: Report
Bengaluru: A report published by an Indian civic rights group examining the Modi government’s performance has said that the promises it made in 2019 regarding employment, wages and overall development remained unfulfilled.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the Karnataka-based rights group Bahutva Karnataka in its first report ahead of Lok Sabha polls, ‘Employment, Wages and Inequality’, recalled the BJP’s promise ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to create 2 crore jobs yearly. It said that while the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections promised to create 2 crore jobs annually, the reality is that 42% of graduates under the age of 25 are unemployed
Advocate Vinay Sreenivasa, part of Bahutva Karnataka, said that the report was made based on the data and survey done by the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS). He also said they will release a series of reports titled ‘Guarantee Checks’ evaluating the government’s claims concerning its performance.
The report said stagnant household earnings among the poor force more women to work even as unpaid helpers, such as working without earnings in family farms or small shops because they cannot find any other remunerative employment. In the last five years, the number of women working as unpaid household helpers has increased from one in four to one in three, driven by challenging circumstances, as per the report.
Citing the BJP’s manifesto ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, where it said there had been a 42 per cent growth in the national minimum wage and the trend was to continue for the next five years. However, Bahutva Karnataka, in its report, said, “An expert committee on wages, initiated by the Ministry of Labour and Employment in 2019, said that the national minimum floor wages in India should be at least Rs 375 per day.” “Nearly 30 crore workers earn less than this threshold amount,” the report added.
On the Indian govt’s claim of ‘Sab ka Saath Sabka Vikas’, the report said, “In nominal terms, the GDP per capita in the last 10 years has increased by 60 per cent. However, the income share of the top 10% of the population has been increasing, and now it is 60 per cent while the incomes of the others are reducing”.
