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Workers Search For Jobs in India's Booming Economy 

India's economy is expanding steadilySundram Fastners, a Madras exporter of
and sectors such as informationcar parts, is one such company. Its
technology are winning new jobs for theradiator cap assembly line employs just
country.33 workers, the same number as a decade
For several years after finishingago, even though production has doubled.
college, 32-year-old Lakshmi NarayanThe factory manager, R. Premkumar, says
looked for a job in an office. When thethat holding the line on hiring has
hunt proved futile, he began driving ahelped the company remain competitive in
delivery van.the global market.
He said he had hoped to do something"We are also relying on automation. We
better, but nothing came his way. Now,wanted to have the overheads come down,"
he does not even try, preferring to holdhe said. "More of reliability is getting
down the job he has.achieved than what could be done by the
For people like Mr. Narayan,pure hand."
headline-grabbing news about informationOthers, such as the Tata group, one of
technology jobs flowing into India fromIndia's largest conglomerates, have cut
Western countries has little meaning.their work forces by nearly one-third in
India's booming IT and software sectorrecent years despite expansion.
employs about two million people. But R.Jayati Ghosh, an economics professor at
Nagaraj, an economist at Bombay's IndiraJawaharlal Nehru University, says the
Gandhi Institute for Developmentsituation is dismal in both urban and
Research, notes that is a fraction ofrural areas. In cities, an estimated 10
the country's work force of 400 million.percent of Indians are employed in the
"These jobs are concentrated in feworganized sector, the rest are in
pockets like Bangalore, Hyderabad andunregulated jobs such as pulling
Gurgaon where they are very visible andrickshaws. And, she says, in rural
these young boys and girls get fairlyareas, most people find work for only
high paying jobs, but these are onlyhalf the year, when crops are sown and
small specks in the ocean of unemployedharvested.
people in towns and villages," he said."In the urban areas, there has been a
"If you go to smaller towns, you findswitch from formal and organized work to
that educated young people do not findunorganized sectors, which means the
adequate jobs."work is more insecure, it is more
With one of the fastest-growingcasual, it is more self-employed and
economies in the world, it may seem oddhome-based work," explained Ms. Ghosh.
that India is struggling with high"They have lost their regular jobs and
unemployment. That is India's paradox,now they are pushing a cart selling a
say economists. Its economy is growingfruit on the streets. Agricultural
fast, but not fast enough to hand outemployment is lower than it was, so you
jobs to 10 million people who enter thereally have a complete stagnation. "
work force each year. And there is aEconomists and government planners say
huge backlog of people who lost jobs inthe problem is huge, but can be tackled.
recent years and have yet to find newMr. Nagarraj at the Indira Gandhi
ones.Institute says India's bulging foreign
The official unemployment rate is aboutexchange reserves of $120 billion and
eight percent of the working population.food reserves offer an opportunity.
Economists, however, say the real rate"Two things we have positive: we have
is much higher, because millions oflarge stocks of foreign exchange and
people have given up looking for jobs orfood grain which we did not have
have never registered as unemployed.earlier, and this can be used
In the decade since India liberalizedeffectively to create employment and
its economy, companies have steadilyindustrial growth," he said. "A
laid off workers as they focused onlarge-scale rural works programs is
efficiency and technology to becomesomething which has to be undertaken to
globally competitive.make any dent in this mass
State-owned businesses pared theirunemployment."
payrolls by offering early retirementThe job shortage was considered a major
plans to employees. The job losses wentfactor in the election defeat of the
all the way from managers to factoryprevious Hindu nationalist government
workers. An estimated 15 percent of alllast May. Aware that it must address the
manufacturing jobs have been lost sinceproblem, the new Congress government
1997.recently introduced a food-for-work
The manufacturing sector is expandingprogram in the country's poorest
but it is not creating new jobs. Manydistricts.
factory managers, discouraged fromBut government officials admit that
taking on new employees by laws thatcreating enough employment for India's
make firing impossible, are usingbillion plus people is a challenge that
automation to avoid adding staff.has no easy or quick answers.



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