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| National Conference on
'Making Growth Inclusive With Reference to Employment
Generation',
28-29th June, 2007, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New
Delhi. |
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| Jul
2nd 2007 |
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The
theme chosen for the conference as reflected in the
seminar title is one of the most formidable challenges
facing the Indian economy today, namely the phenomenon
of "jobless growth. This seminar was organised
through the joint efforts of the Indian Institute of
Advanced Studies (IIAS), Shimla and Jawaharlal Nehru
University (JNU), New Delhi .
In
the past 3-4 years, we have been experiencing very high
growth rates in output, which are unknown in our post-colonial
history. However, there is now little debate that such
astonishing output growth figures are not accompanied
by commensurate growth in employment. This makes growth
non-inclusive in a country like India where there are
no unemployment benefits and other social security schemes.
This also happens to accentuate inequality captured
by the standard indicators.
The
seminar was organised in this backdrop to clearly bring
out that growth per say need not solve the problem of
economic development defined broadly in terms of social
opportunities. The sessions had a right blend of theory
and empirics, which substantiated this fact. Its contemporary
relevance can be hardly overemphasised since in the
policy circles and mainstream academic papers as well
as in the media there is a relentless propaganda that
growth is the panacea for all our social problems. The
Eleventh Five Year Plan in fact has set a target of
10 per cent growth rate in output.
The
papers powerfully established that there may not be
any linkage between growth and employment; in fact excessive
growth may itself hinder employment generation. It was
pointed out in this context that the growth rate of
employment in the era of, "Hindu rate of Growth
in India was higher than the present period. Employment
trends in China and India were shown to have unfortunate
convergence. Papers showed that there was growing informal
jobs and casualisation of workforce. Outsourcing was
a common characteristic in the organised sector of the
economy. Field surveys showed that the rural areas are
in disarray with large numbers of people living near
or below subsistence.
In some penetrating studies it was shown that merely
employment generation does not solve the problem. It
is clearly inadequate and focus has to be on raising
the productivity levels of the workforce. This is important
in raising their standards of living. it was identified
that a precondition to that is to invest heavily in
health and education for enhancing the human capital
formation. It was also forcefully established in one
of the papers that the official claim that agricultural
credit has been increased three-fold in the recent past
and has been directed to revive agriculture is totally
false. Firstly it was pointed out that this current
trend in increase of rural credit is a continuation
of past trend and that bulk of the credit was taken
away by large borrowers and even corporations.
Essentially,
the conference brought out the fact that the growth
rate of output can not be an end in itself but only
a means to economic development. Much more direct policy
and programmes are needed for making growth inclusive.
Below is a list of papers that were presented during
the conference, arranged thematically.
Conceptual Issues
Capitalism, Growth and Employment
Prabhat Patnaik
Download
the Paper (Size
:130 Kb)
Aggregate Employment
Trends
Recent employment trends in India and China:
An unfortunate convergence
C. P. Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh
Download
the Presentation (Size
:139 Kb)
Download
the Paper (Size
:154 Kb)
Employment Trends in India: A Fresh Look at
Past Trends and Recent Evidence
Abhijit Sen and Himanshu
Download
the Presentation (Size
:1.44 Mb)
Download
the Paper (Size
: 211 Kb)
Sectoral Issues
Widening Exclusion: Informalisation in the
Indian Economy
Ravi Srivastava
Download
the Presentation (Size
: 436 kb)
Aspects of Income and Employment in Andhra
Pradesh : Preliminary Results from a Survey of Two Villages
Vikas Rawal
Download
the Presentation (Size
: 2.48 Mb)
Rural employment
Inclusive Growth? Focus on Emplyoment
Sheila Bhalla
Download
the Paper (Size
: 204 Kb)
The Question of Employment and Livelihoods
in Labour-surplus Economies
Utsa Patnaik
Download
the Paper (Size
: 81.9 Kb)
New employment sectors
Reaching Inclusive Growth Through Employment
Guarantee Programme: Outline of a Strategy
Indira Hirway
Download
the Presentation (Size
: 99.5 kb)
Female Employment in the Service Sector: Trends
and Patterns
Neetha Pillai
Download
the Presentation (Size
: 140 kb)
Labour under Stress: An Assessment Based on
Primary Information
Sunanda Sen and Byasdeb Das Gupta
Download
the Presentation (Size
: 105 kb)
Credit to employment-intensive sectors: Is
the revival real?
R. Ramakumar
Download
the Presentation (Size
: 412 kb)
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