New Delhi: The BJP-led NDA government may gloat over the success of demonetisation which was implemented in November 2016. The crux of the matter however is that 50 lakh men lost jobs since demonetisation came into effect according to a report titled ‘State of Working India 2019’ which was released Tuesday by the Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University in Bangalore. The report also states that numbers also will rise substantially if the women who lost their jobs are taken into account.
The report states that unemployment, in general, has gone up steadily since 2011 and the number of highly-educated youth comprise a large segment of the unemployed.
“Whether or not this decline was caused by demonetisation, it is definitely a cause for concern and calls for urgent policy intervention,” the report says. By making this statement, the report has not directly linked demonetisation to the number of jobs lost. However, no one can deny the fact that this trend happened after the Narendra Modi-led government implemented demonetisation.
The report also mentions that the less educated other than losing their jobs, has also seen a huge decrease in job opportunities. It states the numbers demonstrate why unemployment has become such a major topic in the ongoing Lok Sabha election campaigns. All the opposition parties are harping on this subject while the BJP is trying to shoot it down.
“While open unemployment may still be low among the less educated, there has been a marked tendency to drop out of the labour force for this section, presumably due to loss of work opportunities,” the report states.
It should be mentioned here that a government report which became public this year has mentioned that unemployment rose to 45-year high in 2017-18. However, after the report created a huge storm NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar had said it was ‘not verified’ and hence its authenticity cannot be judged.