Will Modi’s ‘Ache Din’ Act As A Game-changer For The Unemployed?

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Will Modi’s ‘Ache Din’ Act As A Game-changer
For The Unemployed?
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Ever since the Narendra Modi government took office, there has been an air of expectation in the country. Even the IMF and the World Bank expected a turnaround, predicting a growth rate of 6.4% in 2015. But a survey, which was conducted by the Labour Bureau during UPA’s regime, paints a sorry picture of the state of unemployment in the country.

The latest survey conducted by the Labour Bureau has revealed that the rate of unemployment in the country had increased to 4.9% in FY 2013-14. The major factor behind this rise was increase in unemployment in rural areas in spite of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme. In FY 2012-13, the unemployment rate was 4.7%.

Despite the fact that MGNREGA was beneficial to 93% households in rural areas, the rate of unemployment went up to 4.7% in FY2013-14 from 4.4% in the preceding fiscal. However, the rate of unemployment in urban areas declined to 5.5% in FY2013-14 from 5.7% in the previous year.

Unemployment rate among men rose to 4.1% from 4%, and among women, it grew to 7.7% from 7.2%.

About 49.5% people are self-employed, 30.9% are casual labourers, 16.5% salary earners and the remaining 3% are employed as contractual workers.
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Gujarat had the lowest rate (1.2%) of unemployment in the country, while the northeastern state of Sikkim registered the highest rate.

As many as 1,36,395 households were surveyed by the Labour Bureau, out of which 83,385 were in rural areas and 53,010 in urban areas.

Although the survey was conducted during the UPA regime, it now remains to be seen how Narendra Modi delivers on his promise of ‘ache din’ as far as employment is concerned.