Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Jobs and votes

Jobs and votes

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Jul 25, 2012   modified Modified on Jul 25, 2012
-The Indian Express

From Nariman Point to Tirupur, from broking firms to ancillary industries — as a two-part series in this newspaper has illustrated — the economy is seeing a steady contraction in employment opportunities. The economic and social cost is sobering but the UPA should also worry about the political implications. Lakhs of jobs are being lost when India is heading for a general election that could be decided primarily by performance rather than sops, glad-handing, identity politics and ideological allegiance. As the economy has evolved, so have Indian voters. In many ways, they now resemble their peers in more advanced economies, where in hard times national elections may be largely decided by economic factors and job prospects. Employment statistics have been headline news in the US ever since the Wall Street melted down, for instance, and promise to remain a leading issue in the presidential election.

Across classes, people are now ambitious and value prospects over the politics of feelgood and subsidies. Millions of families expected better from a UPA government led by a reformist prime minister. They educated their children for skilled jobs, which are being erased in a general slowdown that is visiting layoffs on almost all levels and across industries, from garments to mining, and even in information technology and the services it powers. Only the construction sector shows growth in employment — with grim implications for skill generation. In general, the electorate is having to settle for less. The effects of an indifferent monsoon won’t make things look any happier.

By its own estimation, the rural employment guarantee scheme is the “silver bullet” in the UPA’s election belt, but the rest is just empty loops. The UPA is paying inadequate attention to the urban poor, though the big cities have backed it in two general elections. In the rural sector, NREGA only benefits the landless. The rise in agricultural wages that it has sparked off is hurting landed farmers. Lack of attention to irrigation, power, rural credit and agricultural markets could grow into a serious election issue. J. Jayalalithaa may be echoing a widely shared complaint when she accuses the UPA of ignoring the people while it deals with its domestic squabbles. Indeed, the alliance has suffered internal unrest and stumbled on core reform issues. It is about time it ignores the restiveness among its partners, which will increase as parties catch election fever, and concentrates on creating the vote-getters of a modern polity — wealth and employment. That means economic reform, the only silver bullet the UPA can rely on if it wants to bag another term.

The Indian Express, 25 July, 2012, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/jobs-and-votes/978893/0


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close