Bahutva Karnataka, a platform of concerned citizens and organisations, is a forum for justice, harmony and works on promoting constitutional values. In the run up to the state elections in Karnataka in 2023, the group released a series of report cards across various sectors on government performance. This year, with a view for voters to choose wisely, we are releasing a series of reports titled ‘Guarantee Checks’ evaluating the incumbent government’s claims concerning its performance. The approach is to present official claims and juxtapose the claims with evidence from official or other credible sources. We released our first report in this series, titled ‘Employment, Wages and Inequality’, on March 11, 2024.
Some salient features of the first report
All data on employment and wages mentioned in this report are based on publicly available government data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), the now discontinued Employment- Unemployment Survey and the World Inequality Database. The results are representative of 49 crore workers in India.
Employment
Claim
:
Two Crore new jobs will be created every year
The BJP government’s 2019 manifesto said: We will also encourage industries and corporates to generate better employment opportunities for women.
Reality
42% of graduates under the age of 25 are unemployed.
Between 2011-12 to 2022-23, the share of the self-employed in the workforce has risen. More than half of the men and more than two-thirds of women are presently ‘self-employed’. Stagnant household earnings among the poor force more women to work even as unpaid helpers such as working without earnings in family farms or small shops because they cannot find any other remunerative employment.
In the last 5 years, women working as unpaid household helpers has risen from 1 in 4 to 1 in 3.
Many are exercising this option instead of being in dire hunger or death.
Wages
Claim
In their 2019 manifesto, the BJP stated that- “Under our government, there has been a 42% growth in the National Minimum Wage. We will maintain the same direction over the next five years to ensure a respectable living for the workers.”
Reality
Wages, in real terms, have stagnated across all the main categories of employment – regular wage, self-employed and casual labour.
An expert committee on wages, initiated by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, led by Anoop Satpathy in 2019, said that the national minimum floor wages in India should be at least Rs 375 per day which translates to Rs 3,050 per week in 2022-23.
• Nearly 30 crore workers earn less than this threshold amount. 9 out of 10 casual wage workers, 3 out of 5 self-employed workers and half of
the regular wage workers earn less than this threshold. More than 1 in 3 households are earning less than this minimum amount.
All round development
Claim: Sab ka Saath Sab ka Vikaas
Reality
.
In nominal terms, the GDP per capita in the last 10 years has increased by 60%. However, the income share of the top 10% of the population has been increasing and now it is 60% while the incomes of the others is reducing.
. In 2012, 63% of the national wealth was held by the top 10%. This has increased to 64.5% in 2022. In 2012, the bottom 50% held 6.1% of the national wealth. This has further reduced to 5.6% in 2022.
Moving in the Wrong Direction
Given the situation where wages have not been increasing, the government should have ideally taken steps towards the following policy measures.
1. Right to food for all
2. Right to employment with living wages and timely payment of wages for all
3. Right to free and quality healthcare
4. Right to free and quality education
5. Right to pensions
However, from this year’s budget we have seen that the budget allocations are moving towards the opposite direction. The budget allocation of five major social sector schemes (NREGA, NSAP, Mid-Day Meals, ICDS & PMMVY) has only been 0.40% of the GDP.
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