India’s Employment Challenge: Towards a Unified National Framework

India’s Employment Challenge: Towards a Unified National Framework

Context:
India’s employment challenge has re-emerged as a national priority. Experts from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) have emphasized the need for a unified National Employment Framework to harness the demographic dividend and address the growing job-skill mismatch in the workforce.

Trends in Employment Opportunity:

Demographic Advantage: India is expected to add 133 million workers by 2050, forming nearly 18% of the global workforce.
Shift to Informal and Gig Sectors: Jobs in the gig economy could reach 9 crore by 2030, but these often lack formal protections such as social security.
Urban Job Distress: Automation and migration pressures have widened rural–urban employment disparities.
Female Participation Gap: Despite rising education levels, the Female Labour Force Participation Rate remains below 35% (PLFS 2024).

Need for a Unified Employment Framework:

Fragmented Approach: Existing skilling, welfare, and employment programmes function in silos, reducing policy coordination and impact.
Demographic Urgency: India’s workforce will peak by 2043; delayed reforms risk squandering the demographic dividend.
Economic Inclusivity: A unified framework ensures job growth that is regionally balanced, gender-sensitive, and technology-driven.
Policy Coherence: Integration of trade, industrial, and labour policies can deliver common, measurable employment outcomes.

Key Initiatives Taken:

Skill India Mission & PMKVY: Targeting 40 crore youth with short-term, industry-linked training programmes.
National Career Service Portal: Provides a digital bridge between job seekers, employers, and career counsellors.
Production-Linked Incentive (PLI): Encourages manufacturing-led job creation through performance-based sectoral incentives.
Labour Codes (2020): Consolidates 29 labour laws to simplify compliance and improve worker protection.
Gig and Platform Worker Schemes: Expands social security and welfare coverage to informal and gig economy workers.

Challenges Involved:

Graduate Unemployability: Academic curricula remain disconnected from industry requirements, particularly for modern technologies.
Implementation Delays: Labour reforms and skill initiatives face uneven execution across states and sectors.
Regional Disparity: Job growth is concentrated in metropolitan areas, widening economic inequality in backward regions.
Gender Gap: Societal barriers and insufficient workplace support reduce women’s labour participation.
Weak Data Systems: Fragmented and outdated employment statistics hinder evidence-based policymaking.

Way Ahead:

Integrated National Employment Policy: Combine central and state schemes under one coordinated employment framework.
Focus on MSMEs and Gig Workers: Strengthen access to finance, digital tools, and social safety nets for these job-rich sectors.
Skill–Industry Linkage: Align higher education and vocational training with emerging fields such as AI, robotics, and green industries.
Inclusive Job Creation: Launch urban employment guarantees and women-centric incentives.
Real-Time Data Dashboard: Establish a unified labour observatory for timely and transparent workforce insights.

Conclusion:

India stands at a critical juncture to convert its demographic dividend into a sustainable growth engine. A coherent, inclusive, and data-driven employment strategy can bridge inequalities, enhance resilience, and make employment a core pillar of economic policy, essential to achieving Viksit Bharat by 2047.

Source : The Hindu