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