Modi govt. sets up task force for reliable employment data

10 May 2017 10:15 AM | General

428 Report

New Delhi: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has set up a task force headed by NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya to evolve a methodology to generate timely and reliable employment data, signalling, in the process, a key priority of its remaining tenure: job creation.

The NDA starts its fourth year in power on 26 May. India has no reliable jobs data. The little data available is outdated. Employment data will help policy planners assess the impact of policies on jobs.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has personally initiated the project and directed the task force to submit its recommendations at the earliest.

India faces the challenge of creating jobs for a predominantly young population. According to credit rating firm Crisil, around 18 million people enter the workforce every year. The number of jobs created is far lower; between 2011-12 and 2015-16, India created 3.65 million jobs a year, according to industry lobby group Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance coalition which was in power then didn't buy the numbers and some insiders in the government even questioned the veracity of the data.

"Focus should be in capturing informal workers; their work conditions, wages and so on. The data so generated will enable the government to understand the problems and create policies to create good-quality jobs."

Between 2009-10 and 2011-12, there was a pick-up in job creation; 13.9 million jobs were created, though the labour force grew by 14.9 million.Generating jobs data will take some doing, according to Pronab Sen, a former chief statistician.

"We had demanded an increase in the headcount to around 5000 and also that the jobs survey should be expanded and made comprehensive. But the then government (the previous UPA government) did not agree. We need comprehensive jobs data," Sen added.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Modi had asked that all proposals sent to the Union cabinet also state their potential impact in terms of job creation.