Topic– Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development, and employment.
5. How do we measure unemployment? Does it capture the true unemployment situation in India? Suggest reforms in this direction. (150Words)
Difficulty level: Difficult
Reference: Indian Express
Why this question
Unemployment has become a chronic problem in India and in recent years the situation has only worsened. There has also been a debate that unemployment measurement doesn’t capture true data esp. for the Informal sector
Key demand of the question.
The question wants us to enumerate the methods of unemployment calculation in India and their efficacy
Structure of the answer
Introduction– Define unemployment and give the latest data on it e.g present some statistics from the Labour reports or any other authentic report like the CMIE report.
Body-
Mention methods of unemployment calculation E.g
- Usual Status Approach
- Weekly Status Approach
- Daily Status Approach
Discuss the issues with this method as well as general discourse e.g
- Employment does not usually figure in the public discourse orchestrated by political parties, either at the Centre or in the States.
- Political parties and politicians have failed in creating gainful employment.
Give suggestion to improve the capture of true unemployment figure e.g. Mahesh Vyas, the CEO of CMIE, advocates using “Employment Rate” (or ER henceforth) to correctly understand what is happening to joblessness in India.
Also, give some government steps to reduce unemployment in India
Conclusion–
Give a fair and balanced conclusion on the given issue.
