- The pandemic-induced economic meltdown and the subsequent conflict between Russia and Ukraine have played a significant role in pushing several countries to search for tangible actions to offset the debilitating aftereffects. Many economies have succeeded in tiding over the looming crisis to a great extent and several have continued to struggle to stay afloat from the double whammy. The Indian leadership did a commendable job in ensuring the country’s economy does not simply wither away even though scores of naysayers simply spelled doomsday. India not only managed to thwart the growing challenges from several quarters but also turned a corner in successfully posting remarkable growth in GDP over the last couple of years.
PC: Zazithorn Ruengchinda
- This augurs well for the country as it is poised to be counted as one of the three largest economies in the world in the next few years. But the moot point to ponder over here is whether the employment generation to aid economic growth is commensurate with the growing aspirations of the citizens, especially women who are extremely crucial for the country to scale on expected lines. Let’s delve further to comprehend the matter at hand. Of course, India’s bounce-back from the pandemic’s economic fallout was fast and sharp. However, employment has been a different story. As reported, Azim Premji University’s State of Working India 2023 draws together employment-related data from different GOI statistics to highlight the employment scenario.
- It shows that the resilience of the job market, particularly for women and young graduates has lagged behind that of the overall economy. On the surface, one of the highlights of the employment data has been a sharp rise in both men and women working in the post-Covid phase and a simultaneous decline in the unemployment rate. The unemployment rate in 2021-22 was 6.6%, over two percentage points lower than the same in 2019-20. The upward trend in women’s employment has been notable. However, a fine-grained analysis by the SWI 2023 report showed that there’s been a structural deterioration in women’s employment. The jump in women’s employment has been driven by self-employment, particularly in the category of unpaid work.
PC: Andrey Rudakov
- Further, self-employment is generally a fallback option, which suggests that the job market for women may have worsened corroborated by the inflation-adjusted monthly earnings of the self-employed over the last five years. For sure, the monthly earnings are higher than both 2019-20 and 2020-21. There’s economic stress underlying the increase in women’s participation in the labor force. Little surprise then that political parties are rushing to tailor fiscal policies to provide monthly income support to women in different states. For decades, India’s structural transformation in the job market has lagged the GDP growth. Mind you the contribution of women is critical if India wants to be a developed economy. The policymakers should address this.
