FOCUS-MAY 2021

VOCAL FOR LOCAL NEED FOR A NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT STRATEGY Governance with respect to a democratically elected legislature or parliament, like we have in India, stipulate that it works for the all round development of every area, taluk, district and state within the Indian nation, so also the rounded growth of its citizens by empowering them with sources of income to manage their body and soul. Of course, it is Utopian to think that there is all round growth with infrastructure of every kind in place with higher Human Development Index (HDI) where there is no visible poverty, no hunger, no malnutrition and all school going children are in schools, all lactating infants and growing children are in Anganwadis and there is good health and happiness all over the country, with no unemployment and with each one having his/her own source of income including employment, self employment etc. The reality is India’s HDI ranking as per United Nations Development Programme, is an abysmal 131 out of 189 countries. In Global Hunger Index India ranks 94, while Bangladesh is ranked 75 and Pakistan ranked 88. UN Happiness report informs that India has been ranked 139 out of 149 countries. So the problem of overall lack of development has persisted even after 73 years of post independent India’s tryst with the destiny and 12 developmental plans. There is a large scale migration of people from less developed place to better developed place in search of employment. Thus, if the migration has to be reduced or arrested there should be greater economic development and higher employment generation in their respective areas and states. Every elected government to state assemblies and even central government dream of providing employment to all its employable citizens since employment is the immediate source of income which truly empowers an average individual. Thus, employment and by extension full employment is a sine-qua-non for human developmental issues. But sadly no state government or central government or even Niti Ayog, the planning think-tank, have any strategy or involved seriousness in addressing this very significantly important issue. However in India, towards overall development, every state and even central government, offer incentives of every kind, for industrial and infrastructure development by private sector, like cheap land, single window clearance, financial assistance, tax benefit, tax holidays and many other attractions. These private sector companies, availing these benefits, start industries and open up opportunities for employment during both setting-up period and during productive operation. These employment opportunities are available for all, without any distinction of domicile or language. All over India there is a migrating crowd looking for better pastures in different parts of the country. These migrating employment seekers corner most of the creamy jobs, thus deprive a substantial section of locals the opportunity to get job in their own locality. It could be that these migrating crowd is better equipped with soft skills, which the local candidates with no exposure or less exposure to these soft skills, although qualified and competent, could miss the bus. And they have been missing the bus for all these 7 decades of developmental planning. It also happens that a migrant, once already in an industry will try to get one of his own, may be competent, thus depriving a local candidate possibly getting in. Then you have a person in senior position, a migrant, invariably helping his own kith and kin or people from his state. Growth of Shiv Sena as a socio-political force, in Mumbai in particular, has something to do with this dimension. This was the first vocal for local movement that has grown powerful over decades as a voice of sons of soil and succeeded in articulating their views. Then you have this problem of reservation based on caste factors, which too has affected significantly the open category candidates. So it’s a double-whammy for these youth let down by systemic aberrations. So, if there is a competition among Indian states to pass legislations to make reservation in employment for locals, they cannot be wrong. They will have every kind of argument in support of such an-enactment and with justification. Here we need to recognise that every developmental initiative has to be poverty reduction centric and that is possible only by creating employment opportunities to all sections of population, especially those who have difficulty in migration. To achieve sustained poverty reduction, India must pursue economic growth that involves and benefit poor people. According to ILO (International Labour Organisation) pro-poor growth is crucial for meeting the UNMDG, the Millennium Development Goals. In 2007, MDG added a new target “to make the goals of full and productive employment besides decent work for all, including women and young people, a central objective of our relevant national policies and our national development strategies”. Reaching this target requires specific strategies, programmes and tools such as local resources based approach etc. An increased use of local labour and local material will have backward and forward linkage that can lead to multiplier effect to further stimulate the local economy to provide new economic opportunities for the local poor. And this understanding of basic economics does not need economists from London School of Economics. Besides, employment generation and poverty alleviation forms part of the ILO’s core mandate. Thus for every government worth its name, employment generation for its people should be the most important goal like economist Ajit Ranade says, “There seems to be a sudden epidemic of sorts, to legislate jobs for local, in various states of India”. Among the states that have specific legislation are, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, and Jharkhand. Some are promising such legislation in their election manifesto. So what does this really means? They are only trying to articulate the need for a national strategy to improve the employment situation for its people. It is true that we all need to think of nation first and national priorities. But we have this time tested idiom which was relevant ages ago and continues to be relevant and shall be there in the foreseeable future. And that is CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME. Clearly the government in each state feels that they must prioritise employment opportunities for locals. And there are many takers for that argument. Recently Dushyant Chautala, the deputy Chief Minister of Haryana wrote a piece “The pandemic has shown there is an upside to hiring local employees”. He was generally justifying the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates (HSEoLC) Act 2020. According to him “Local work force is stable and consistent. It also means that there will be less absenteeism, lower dependence on migrant labourers and a reduced crime rate”. As we have witnessed in the first lockdown in 2020 due to Covid-19, those industries that were dependent on migrant employees suffered the most. Thus what Chautala, the Dy CM of Haryana says, makes sense! But of course, the issue of Covid-19 or any pandemic may be passing. Hence cannot be an argument for a long-term policy. But the fact remains, that India has a huge number of employable youth. The demographic composition informs that over 60% of our population is in the 15-64 age bracket. So there is a great need to address the need of employable youth in this group and it’s so huge. With pandemic, the problem of unemployment has grown to gigantic proportion. States, no wonder see it, that they need to interfere with enactments to protect the interest of its employable youth. And they are clearly justified. Besides, going by the constitutional provisions, article 41 of the constitution informs that ‘states are duty bound to provide employment to their citizens. And its reliably learnt that the domicile based benefit has been recognized and upheld by the Supreme Court in various states is only an extension of article 21 of the constitution which provides for the right to livelihood. “One of the biggest challenges for Indian policy makers is to ensure that growth of India’s GDP comes along with growth of more opportunities for Indian citizens to earn better incomes through good jobs that enable them to continue to learn and improve their skills. That is the way to make growth more inclusive” wrote Arun Maria, a former member of Planning Commission of India. NR Narayana Murthy was on record, some years ago, stating the need for hiring locals. Amid concerns over the visa curbs set out in the US Immigration Reforms Bill, then Infosys Chairman NR Narayana Murthy has said that Indian IT firms need to hire more locals for their onsite operations. “Whenever the economy is not doing well in a country, it is inevitable that the unemployment levels go up. Therefore, the legislators would be concerned about jobs and therefore the countries will automatically take such decisions that may discourage outsiders from impacting the jobs in the country”, he is reported to have told at the 9th Motilal Oswal Global Investors Conference. But it was the same NRN Murthy, who slammed Karnataka Government for proposing reservation for locals in employment in Bengalooru in particular. His statement on US Immigration Bill was only to protect the interest of Infosys; he gave a damn for Kannadiga’s being preferred in Karnataka, because it suited his Infosys India operations. Here in Bengalooru he is not worried about legislators’ concern, unlike in the US. But the dynamics are same. Here it is pertinent to quote an instance of vocal for local in a public sector undertaking (PSU) in Mangalooru. A senior executive of the PSU was interviewing candidates for civil engineers position. A gentleman on behalf of a local candidate, not from Mangalooru, but from Karwar, approached a member of the board of directors to put in a word to the Senior Executive. The board member, although felt little awkward to disturb the ongoing interview called up the Sr. Executive and requested on behalf of the candidate who was waiting to be interviewed. The Sr. Executive assured the board member that “the candidate does not have to be the best, if he is good enough for the job in question, will take him”. Right enough after a couple of hours the Sr. Executive called up to say “He is not the best candidate, but good enough for us”. This is the kind of approach needed for the enlightened employment policy towards locals. Here it is pertinent to have a look at WTO regulations. Member countries, especially the more powerful ones, want free movement of goods and services to different member countries, without any restrictions. But they do not allow free movement of men and women from other countries looking for employment in these countries. All developed countries of Europe, US, UK want jobs to remain with their own countrymen. The fact Britain broke off from EU only for increasing opportunity for locals cannot be denied. So why not Indian states’ preference to locals provided they are good enough for the jobs on hand! All these references point to the need for protecting the interest of local employable population. Of course in the Indian context, there is a fear of unmanageability of local labour / employees etc. Surely the government in these states must necessarily ensure that there is industrial peace and there is no labour unrest. Reportedly the government in Haryana ‘had some 8 rounds of discussion with industry captains before drafting the HSEoLC Act 2020 and many clauses were added in accordance with their feedbacks,’ informs Dy CM Chautala of Haryana. Hence the proposed legislations from different states are a need of the emerging employment scenario all over the country. Of course, interest of investing entrepreneurs has to be protected. Even public sector companies too must come under the ambit of these ‘Employment for Locals’ legislations. We have witnessed how group dynamics play in recruitment in these PSU companies with established personnel protecting their turf by employing outsiders to the detriment of locals. What is the % of outsiders in Bengalooru in public sector under takings in the city! This attempt at writing on a national employment strategy is not a road map for a future course of action. This is only an attempt at tabling an idea, ‘An idea of which the time has come’. To be debated in the public space that hopefully can lead to some policy initiative at centres of authority. However, literatures available on the allied subjects concerning employment generation throw up views on, how towards greater employment generation, state can work. As a country, the managers of nation’s resources have always divided the country as Urban and Rural. But there is what can be called as semi-urban areas, which could be real engines of growth. Semi urban areas, as of now, can offer space or land at much cheaper price than cities, therefore very ideal for starting industries. Countries like China, Thailand and Vietnam have understood this economic dimension early and hence have been able to spread their manufacturing sector to what was earlier semi-urban areas and therefore became very competitive. So developing infrastructure in semi-urban areas can not only increase employment opportunities in early stages, they can also be engines of growth of GDP as well on long term and better paid employment opportunities for locals. An important aspect that needs to be addressed in these semi-urban areas are, bad roads, over flowing drains, garbage, stagnant water etc. Once the authorities in respective states address these inadequacies there will be sustained interest in investing in such places. Once these semi-urban areas are made better with improved infrastructure, there will be more investors coming and starting their small industries which can lead to clusters leading to aggregation benefits. All these will lead to multiplier effect, of cost benefits leading to cheaper product, better market and greater income. All these will need more people for the end result besides investors, factory hands, service providers and spin offs that would follow likely to have greater need for housing & other services. A key area for employment creation is the maintenance of infrastructure. Maintenance is employment intensive and investment in maintenance preserve the assets created, sustain the benefits created by these assets and provide long term employment and keep the network in good condition delaying more expensive rehabilitation works and keeping transport cost low. A study carried by ILO in Indonesia in 2008, informs that it has a rural road network of about 300,000 kms. Routine maintenance of this network would create around 100000 jobs and the country spends currently about 0.03 percent of its GNP on road maintenance, supposedly the lowest in Asia. And that this employment strategy has made good progress in reducing poverty. Here it is appropriate to recognise the use of labour-based technologies to optimize opportunities for employment creation and income generation while maintaining cost effectiveness and of course the acceptable engineering quality standard. Hope this effort in black and white will go some distance in creating greater interest among thinkers and policy makers as we look forward to the International Labour Day, the MAY DAY.