Rising unemployment? Blame education, women empowerment

Prepare yourself for bad news on the jobs front.

According to the draft 12th Five Year Plan, manufacturing has lost five million jobs between 2004-05 and 2009-10, while employment in agriculture fell by 14 million.

Though unemployment rate has come down from 8.28 percent in 2004-05 to 6.60 percent in 2009-10, the total employment grew only by three million in the last five-year period.

There’s more. The data from the Registrar General of India also shows that in the 2000s work participation rate for women decreased significantly in rural areas. In the urban areas, though it has increased, the aggregate figure shows a fall.

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The numbers are definitely not great. But, according to an article published in the Business Standard today, analysts say there are many reasons to explain the employment scenario.

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Why people don’t want to become farmers anymore:

The article explains that agriculture employment is down largely because cultivators have sold their land and become property brokers. Why? Becoming a broker is definitely more lucrative than the low-paying, tough farmers’ job and it seems the youth have figured that out. Analysts, the article says, argue that improved education has helped them realise selling land is more profitable than growing crops.

And because brokers are not counted as employed, agricultural employment has been reduced by such large numbers.

Blame women empowerment for fall in women workers:

The article further points out that women are celebrating their “newly-found empowerment by staying at home.” The article also suggests that TV serials and movies have inspired women to opt for higher education instead of working.

“Since there is an unstated objective that to achieve a developed country status, it is imperative that women work for income, the UPA government needs to reserve jobs for women under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act; give an additional income subsidy; or additionally tax their husbands/sons/fathers. It is also being debated that since empowerment is the cause of the problem, women’s disempowerment may actually solve the problem,” says the article.

You can read the Business Standard article here.