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Video Editor: Varun Sharma
During 1973-74, the country was gripped with an employment crisis. The unemployment rate in rural areas was 6.8percent while in urban areas it was 8 percent. The Indira Gandhi government was in power back then. The then economic survey said:
It went on to say, “There is no other aspect of our development experience which is a matter of greater concern than the failure to generate sufficient employment opportunities. The sharp growth in the number of educated job-seekers during the year is to be particularly regretted because this represents a waste of capital that the nation has invested in education.”
But that was then. Now, in the face of several reports, including the one from the government’s own National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), suggesting a serious employment crisis, the government is in denial mode. We are staring at a severe job crisis despite record food grain production, bulging FOREX reserves, healthy tax collection, very benign global crude environment, and decent domestic and global growth.
In the face of such damning reports, the government’s response has been laughable. While speaking at the Lok Sabha on 7 February, Prime Minister Modi quoted several numbers to suggest a healthy pace of job creation during his tenure. Here are some:
PM sir, suggesting job expansion with the help of such data amounts to insulting all those who are well-qualified to get decent jobs. The least you can do is accept the failure like what Indira Gandhi – yet another very mazboot leader like you – did four decades ago. An acknowledgment of the problem is the first step towards solving it. Blatant denial in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary means brushing the issue under the carpet.
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