‘Jobless growth’ no more - The Hindu

17th April 2014 - Link

Between 2009-10 and 2011-12, non-agricultural employment grew rapidly:

Non-agricultural employment increased between 1999-2000 and 2004-05 (which coincides with the time the National Democratic Alliance was in power) by 37.5 million over the five-year period

Fall in unemployment rate:
Since 2004-05 fewer people joined the labor force. This meant that fewer people were looking for work, but the number of non-agricultural jobs created was as many as before so the open unemployment rate fell.

Growth of non agricultural jobs

A.Development:

• Development implies that workers leave agriculture for more productive work in industry and services, and total factor productivity increases in the entire economy. Every developing country is supposed to undergo this structural transformation.Since 2004-05, this transformation has been happening for the first time in the history of India.
• During the 11th Plan, agricultural output grew at 3.2 per cent per annum (2007-12) on average, despite crippling drought in 2009-10.
• The share of agriculture in the workforce has been in decline for decades (falling to 49 per cent in 2001-12) --> fewer workers were producing more output in agriculture, farm mechanization increased, and productivity grew.

B.Where did the agricultural-workers go?

1.Construction Employment:

• Unskilled workers who left agriculture flocked to construction employment.
• It was infrastructure (roads, bridges, airports, ports, energy projects) investment which drove most of the employment growth.

2.Rural non-farm construction related employment:

• Rural areas also saw significant growth in non-farm construction-related employment
• Government investment in rural housing for the poor (Indira Awas Yojana) grew, as did rural roads and other rural construction investment (Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act).

C.Rising Wages:

The wages rose between 2004-2005 mainly because of two reasons:

1. MGNREGA and rising minimum support prices for government procured cereals, a floor wage was created in the rural areas. This along with an increasing demand for labor in construction led to a tightening of the labor market, both rural and urban.

2. Demand for labor in construction — which is treated as non-manufacturing industry.

Growth in service jobs

Services jobs grew by 11 million, and manufacturing employment increased by a remarkable nine million in two years alone (2009-10 and 2011-12).

Why?

• After 2004-05, demand for a number of consumer goods has grown sharply, which is reflected in the rise in consumption expenditure to 2011-12. This rise of consumption expenditure shows that the numbers of poor fell(For the first time in the history of India, there was a decline in the absolute numbers of the poor after 2004-05)
• This has driven demand for goods to the bottom of the pyramid, as poor people have emerged out of poverty.
• The new non-poor demand simple manufactured consumer goods: processed food (biscuits, milk), leather goods (shoes, sandals), furniture (plastic chairs/tables, wooden furniture), textiles, garments and mobiles. All these product areas and services saw a dramatic increase in employment.
• Because these simple, low-end products (at least those consumed by the new non-poor) are produced in the unorganized sector, using labor-intensive methods.

Conclusion:

A new inclusive dynamic is in place in the Indian economy, which is difficult to reverse. There is a feedback loop between increasing demand, and production to meet that demand, that generates employment among those who will consume the products that are produced.

The echoing silence of caste - The Hindu

15th April 2014 - Link

Caste in India

Progressive-minded Indians think that caste politics is the bane of India. If it were not for the politicians who are stoking the fire of caste, India would be tearing ahead to be a part of the developed world, à la China

Congress Party manifesto has reservation for the oppressed castes in the private sector. From the fearful prognosis, it seemed that a tsunami of soul-numbing “quotas” was going to be unleashed which would gobble up an otherwise meritorious India, and which would leave nothing but an economic Stone Age in its wake!

The greatest tragedy of India is the shocking silence about caste. Caste in India is like air, it is what you breathe but yet you cannot “see” it

The irony of spewing venom on caste politics is that it is mainly politics that has delivered some limited empowerment and mobility to the oppressed castes, through reservations in Parliament, Assemblies, and in government jobs and public education.

There is a mammoth and unbridgeable gap between caste in the political sphere, and caste in the cultural sphere and the private economic sector

American Parallel

Condition in India:

• Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) survey of 315 important decision-makers in 37 Delhi-based publications and television channels, not one was found to be a Dalit or Adivasi
• Dalit population numbering 20 crore (as large as the population of Brazil!) has hardly “produced” any national cultural icons in the non-political sphere.

Condition in America:

African-Americans have similar histories of slavery and oppression as the Dalits, and even if their general condition is vastly inferior to the white population, American society has provided the conditions for the emergence of black icons who are celebrated across race barriers.

Reason: The colossal scale of our participation in denying them the opportunities, and the complicity in silencing their icons.

Cultural sphere and private sector

Foreign Example:

What could be a better demonstration of the fostering of diversity, by representing the oppressed sections, than the quota system (even with its flaws) in South African cricket?

What needs to be done?

The recognition of the vibrant struggles for empowerment of the oppressed castes has to expand beyond political confines to the cultural sphere and the private sector.

Whats the problem in doing that?

The annihilation of caste is hardly on the agenda as savarna India, especially the youth, rush to embrace neo-liberal capitalist development (now in a heady mix with Hindutva lite) in which concepts like caste-based reservation are anathema.

Solution:

All the moral outrage that is directed against reservations should be targeted at dismantling the caste system.

Then, we would not be holding on to a vacuous notion of merit which means keeping nearly 80 per cent of the population’s talents from flourishing.(Due to reservation)

Conclusion:

• Discrimination does not always mean a deliberate picking of an “upper caste” over a “lower caste,” but a systematic exclusion which results from unequal starting points leading to a grossly unequal competition.
• Destroying caste is not “uplifting” the oppressed castes; it is about liberating ourselves from the labyrinth of caste

‘Development is intrinsic to a secular project’ - The Hindu

14th April 2014 - Link

Model of Indian secularism

1.Indian secularism advocates a particularly distinct stance of separation between state and religion

2.Indian Constitution authorizes active state intervention to protect the freedom of religion for all and to    eliminate caste and gender inequalities sanctioned by religion, as well as complete non-interference      in religious affairs.

• The legal prohibition of un-touchability is the most audacious example of state intervention in religion in a caste-ridden society.
• The provision of state funding of educational institutions, regardless of religious affiliation, is an instance of the commitment to protect the freedom of religion.

In any democracy, on the basis of any interest or identity, people can start a political movement and also form a political party. So, the mere fact that a party says that it stands for Hindu or Muslim interests and takes part in democratic politics does not make such a party communal.

Violation of Indian Secularism

Indian secularism is violated only when religious identity is politicized in a manner that causes injustice to other communities

A party becomes communal if it does not observe the constraints imposed by the secular part of the Constitution.

Indian secularism, within the Constitution, does not encourage any :

• Public expression, or any pursuit of interest of any community which is necessarily at the expense of another community.
• Which articulates its interests in a way which deliberately causes harm to another community.
• Which offends another community in a serious way which will be upheld by the judges of the courts and so on.

Development and Secularism

Development is intrinsic to the secular project in a religiously diverse society, to caste in a caste-ridden society and to class in a class-divided society.

If some communities have been denied the benefits of development on grounds of religion, then we should say that this development is anti-secular.