Unemployment has been a concern in all the Third world countries, throughout the globe, and it is not easy for any individual nation to reverse the impact of a global trend. Unemployment and underemployment are the global fall-outs of IMF stabilisation policies of liberalisation, globalisation and urbanisation. India cannot be far behind. But what has been alarming in the Indian context is that the problem of unemployment had already reached an alarming proportion by the nineties decade. When the stabilisation measures have been superimposed upon these trends, the problem simply aggravated. After the fifteen-month-old rule by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the problem further reached heights. Today the probability of an educated or uneducated youth in India has reached to a minimal level.

The problem is well known to the Central Government as well. The problem has so much accentuated that the government had refused to divulge the exact figures of unemployment for the last two years. The government publishes a pre-budget Economic Survey each year. One cannot find the official unemployment figures for unemployment in that survey. However, in spite of attempts by the government to hide the proper figures, the figures speak for themselves. One can infer the extent of employment and underemployment from the rest of the figures of the Indian economy from government as well as non- government sources. Truth is always revealed in spite of government’s best efforts to hide it.

The Planning Commission in one of its latest reports has revealed that the pool of unemployed would be further swelling up in years to come. Due to a massive increase of population in India during the seventies, the number of people willing to work will further increase in the decade of the nineties. In a very short while, the number of unemployment will reach record heights. This is the warning bell tolled from the Planning Commission itself. The figures speak out for themselves.

In the beginning of the Eighth Five year plan, the pool of unemployed was estimated to be 2.3 crores. The estimated of National Sample Survey in 1997 put the figures at 3.7 crores. Almost all the sources reveal that there has been a growing mismatch in the economy between the rate of growth of economically active population and the rate of employment generation. The latter is falling far and far behind with each passing year, and with each passing plan. According to Planning Commission’s own estimates, if the rate of employment generation cannot exceed 10 percent, we cannot decrease the level of unemployment in our country. Ironically, the rate of employment generation is only a meager figure of 2.2 per cent at present. This implies that it requires to create at least 1.2 crores of new jobs each year to cope with the pool of unemployed. However the present BJP government has always paid a deaf ear to these recommendations. Instead of creating new jobs, it has retrenched workers from their old jobs.

The faulty policy prescription of the government has been reflected in annual 25 per cent growth rate of unemployment in the country. The rate of decrease in the proportion of working population in the total population through the last few years also speaks of the dangerous trend. In 1996-7, the number of registered unemployment stood at 3.76 crores. In 1998-9 this stands at 3.92 crores. If we recall that the majority of the unemployed is unregistered and the registered account for only a minor share of the unemployed, the danger speaks for itself.

During the BJP regime we have always seen a lessened importance on the cause of employment generation. In the last year’s presented annual budget, the government had actually proposed to reduce the expenditure incurred on urban employment generation. In 1998-99, the government actually spent an amount of RS. 635.67 crores on industrial development including generation of industrial employment. This was proposed to be further reduced to Rs. 402.15 crores in the year 1999-2000. In rural employment generation, the amount of actual; expenditure was Rs. 6933.08 in the previous year. This was also proposed to be reduced to Rs. 6902.22 in the current year. If one recalls the inflation rate, the real expenditure will be further reduced. This reflects the government’s attitude towards the problem.