Govt hasn't set any target for job creation, Labour minister Santosh Gangwar says -Swati Mathur

-The Times of India

NEW DELHI: Labour minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar told the Lok Sabha on Monday that the government had not set a target for job creation.

 

In a written response to INLD MP Dushyant Chautala’s question on employment over the past three years, Gangwar said, “No target has been set by the government. However, the employment generation … is the priority concern of the Government (sic).”

The minister said the government has taken steps to generate employment by encouraging private sector, fast-tracking projects involving substantial investment and increasing expenditure on schemes like Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY).

In his question, Chautala referred to an International Labour Organisation report titled “World Employment and Social Outlook Trends – 2018,” which projected India’s unemployed population will rise from 18.3 million in 2017 to 18.6 million in 2018 and 18.9 million by 2019. The report stated the unemployment rate is expected to remain static at 3.5% during the same period.

The government, in its response, quoted annual labour force surveys of 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2015-16. The sharpest increase in unemployment rate was in Himachal Pradesh, from 1.8% in 2014-15 to 10.2% in 2015-16. The other two states with high unemployment rates were Kerala and Tripura, at 10.6% and 10%, respectively, in 2015-16.

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