In 2018, when asked about spiralling unemployment in India, Prime Minister Modi as usual denied there was any problem, callously stating that even opening a pakora shop counts as quality employment. Tragically for the country, this is one promise PM Modi has delivered on.

According to the recently released government data captured in the 2022-23 Periodic Labour Force Survey, the proportion of those forced to take up self-employment is at a record high today at 57%, up from 52% five years ago. The proportion of regular wage workers has fallen from 24% to 21%, suggestive of widespread middle and lower middle-class distress.

This is a reversal of the near-doubling of the share of salaried workers from 14% (2004-05) to 23% (2017-18) under the UPA. The share of self-employed workers forced to make pakoras under the Modi government is today higher than it was in 2004-05. The message for India’s workers is clear: you are on your own.

The Indian dream of well-paying salaried jobs with the liberalisation of the economy in 1991 ended with the UPA in 2014. Only a future INDIA government can reverse this disastrous course. Thursday, October 12, 2023