Bahutva Karnataka, a civic rights group, published a report on Monday examining the Union government’s 2019 promises regarding employment, wages, and overall development.
Titled ‘Guarantee Checks,’ the report relies on official data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey, the Employment-Unemployment Survey, and the World Inequality Database to present a clear picture of the current situation.
BJP’s promises during the 2019 election about creating two crore new jobs annually faced a reality check. A significant 42% of graduates under 25 are still unemployed.
The trend of moving towards self-employment in the past decade, especially among women, is concerning. More than half of men and over two-thirds of women are now ‘self-employed,’ often compelled into unpaid roles due to stagnant household earnings, said the report.
“Between 2011-12 to 2022-23, the share of the self-employed in the workforce has risen. More than half of the men and more than two-thirds of women are presently ‘self-employed’. 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,” it said.
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.
The promise of a 42% growth in the National Minimum Wage, as stated in the BJP’s 2019 manifesto, has not been fulfilled, Bahutva Karnataka noted. Their report shows that real wages have remained stagnant across all employment categories.
Even though an expert committee appointed by the Ministry of Labour and Employment In 2019, suggested a minimum daily wage of Rs 375, nearly 30 crore workers earn less than this amount. Nine out of ten casual wage workers, three out of five self-employed workers, and half of regular wage workers earn below this minimum threshold, the report noted.
More than one in three households are struggling to meet this basic income requirement.
Despite the Narendra Modi government’s emphasis on GDP growth, the report indicates persistent income inequality.
Despite a 60% increase in GDP per capita over the last decade, the top 10% of the population now holds 60% of the national wealth, while the bottom 50% sees their share decrease from 6.1% in 2012 to 5.6% in 2022. The report portrays a sombre reality of nominal growth overshadowed by a growing disparity in income distribution.
The report observes that the Union government policies and budget allocations seem to be heading in the wrong direction.
Critical social sector schemes like NREGA, NSAP, Mid-Day Meals, ICDS, and PMMVY receive only 0.40% of the GDP, it noted. This is despite the pressing need for policies such as the Right to Food, Right to Employment with Living Wages, Right to Free and Quality Healthcare, Right to Free and Quality Education, and Right to Pensions.
Bahutva Karnataka said: “Given the situation where wages have not been increasing, the government should have ideally taken steps towards policy measures such as the Right to food for all, Right to employment with living wages, timely payment of wages for all, Right to free and quality healthcare, Right to free and quality education, and Right to pensions. However, from this year’s budget, we have seen that the budget allocations are moving towards the opposite direction.”
