NO ALL OUT MOVE TO DEAL WITH THE SERIOUS JOB CRISIS IN 2024-25 BUDGET

The unemployment rate has been rising sharply from seven percent in May to 9.2 percent in June, 2024 in our country today according to CMIE. Government is yet to offer way out from the great crisis. Though our economy is under the shadows of immense crisis, the Union budget has almost no plans to resolve the basic problems.

Apart from the revenue and expenditure statements, the budget has almost nothing to offer for the coming fiscal year. It is a perfect example of how politics influences economy, though economy has a stronger influence over politics too, and that has been seen in the annals of history. The states of Andhra Pradesh and Bihar were mentioned immediately after agrarian sector and boosting of employment scenario.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman engaged herself at length towards special provisions made for the states of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, both ruled by the parties with same interest. The chief minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar belongs to Janata Dal (United), while Telugu Desam Party is headed by Chandrababu Naidu and both are members of National Democratic Alliance. Now, both have turned cool towards Narendra Modi over his refusal to meet the demands of hike in the aid from the Centre. They have also shown disagreement
with his non-secular credentials.

To sooth the hurt, Bihar has been given almost the largest share at 59 thousand crore for infrastructural projects, while Chandrababu Naidu got one lakh crore as fund from state and also a special financial support of 15 crore for development of the state’s new capital Amravati. Finance minister also promised to
complete the Polavaram Irrigation project in the name of guaranteeing the food security for even the entire
nation. However the government has failed to provide an equitable distribution of the Union’s finances.

Also among the failures is the restraining of the consistent and sharp rise of unemployment of youth all over the country. In informal sector, 16.45 lakh jobs were lost in over seven years only. In Budget for 2024, it has come out that unemployment among women is much higher than men. Rural unemployment has also started to rise. There is available more vocational and training facilities, but two third of the population of working age still stands unemployed. Our country must strengthen the manufacturing sector. Budget for 2024-25 has not mentioned in detail the needs of the MSME and the unavailability of means to meet them.

The unemployment issue needs to have a visionary approach to meet the cause. Productive to remunerative jobs that help to supply basic essentials to handle the basic concerns is missing in the budget, hence the fast growth of joblessness.

Before the budget was announced, the themes like manufacturing and rural business activities were brought to focus and given prime signal in the meeting of prime minister with the economists held on July 11, 2024. But it remained stuck in the beginning itself. Prime minister talked about the Centre and state relations and the issues involved. He also said that it has to be brought in the Budget discussions, especially about the
Centre funding for projects and schemes. He said that states are not inclined to assume complete accountability over implementation of these programmes and projects on the ground.

Among the issues that Narendra Modi primarily had his focus was unemployment. Speaking about the key agenda he came to the goal of becoming a developed nation by 2047, one of the first steps was to move towards job creation. Stress was also on rural economy and manufacturing.

So far as debate on economy is concerned, it would not be complete without getting into rural issues. The wages here are almost stagnant and hence demands have also been tepid. But where is the positive approach and the steps to follow them? The historic kisan strike has been celebrated since then, but what about the concrete steps that were to be taken in this direction? Their main demand was related to the MSP, but it still occupies the space where it was. Speaking about rural economy without moving further has remained a thorn in the flesh.

About unemployment, prime minister spoke about ‘dignity of labour’, but that would carry any dignity only if those who labour are not starving. In its report on hunger, it was brought out by CMIE that two to nine months old babies have also got used to go hungry for twenty four to even more hours as their mothers could not have time for them.

India ranks 111 in Global Hunger Index among 125 countries. India criticized these results saying that there were mistakes in the methodology itself! Indian government has raised objections to the report findings. India was placed as one above the last. India was one among forty countries with serious health issues and
suffering from eternal hunger. The overall GHI (Global Hunger Index) score of India according to current report is 28. 7. Children dying before the age of five number 3.1 percent, yet India has been categorized as ‘low risk country’. We have about 16.6 percent of the total population that goes undernourished, with a label
of ‘medium’. There has also been identified a category called “Zero Food”. All together, in the death of under six children India has been placed at third highest rank among.