In the absence of any vision document (for example, a five-year plan) put out by the current Union government, the annual budget is supposed to provide direction to the country and the government’s own departments about the priorities of government policy. The budget’s direction (or vision) becomes even more important in a global pandemic, in which the world economy contracted by 3.1% in 2020 but India’s economy contracted by 7.3% – the worst among major economies.
The global sustainable development agenda demands that countries measure the population living in poverty and reduce it by at least half by 2030. So, in order to monitor progress on this critical development indicator, UNDP and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) compute what is called the ‘Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)’ for most countries including India. This is published along with the Human Development Index (HDI) in the Human Development Report.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held forth on women’s empowerment in Uttar Pradesh before a large audience of women in Prayagraj recently. But women’s participation in labour force in Uttar Pradesh is merely 9%; only Bihar is worse at 5%. In fact, 91% of women are out of labour market in Uttar Pradesh as per official data.
Uttar Pradesh’s per capita income was barely half (Rs 41,023) of India’s average (Rs 86,659) in 2019-20. The per capita income of UP (at 2011-12 prices) is ranked 32 out of 36 states and Union Territories. That the state’s economy has been one of the poorly performing economies of north and east India for decades is well known. Gross Domestic Product growth in India was plummeting even before the pandemic, and UP is no exception.
In response to a question about India’s job crisis back in 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked his interviewer: “If someone opens a pakoda shop in front of your office, does that not count at employment? The person’s daily earning of Rs 200 will never come into any books or accounts. The truth is massive people are being employed.”The prime minister believes that earning Rs 6,000 a month (200 x 30) for a family of five should suffice.
Why Human Development Should Precede Economic Growth in the States This paper presents a conceptual model of the relationship between human development and growth and between them and poverty. It then empirically tests the model. It is argued that to sustain economic growth, improvement in human development and income poverty reduction should be given the topmost priority in Indian states.
The Ministry of Labour and Employment launched the e-Shram portal on August 26, 2021 with the apparent objective of developing a national database of unorganised workers. The ministry estimates that there are 38 crore unorganised workers in the country. After registration on the portal, workers will receive their e-Shram card with a unique 12 digit number and will be able to avail of welfare benefits under social security schemes anywhere in India.
Covid-19 worsened what was already a joblessness crisis in early 2020. The National Statistical Office (NSO) began conducting annual labour force surveys in 2017-18, which hitherto had been undertaken every five years. NSO just released its third annual survey (2019-20), which covers the period until June 30, 2020. In 2017-18, NSO reported that unemployment reached a 45-year high, and youth unemployment tripled between 2011-12 and 2017-18 to over 18%.