Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi (MS)

New Delhi, Jan 31: According to the 'Periodic Labour Force Survey' (PLFS) published by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), which gives the accurate picture of unemployment rate of the country, the unemployment rate in India stood at 6.1% in the period of 2017-18, which is a high rate in the last 45 years as quoted by Business Standard.

The central government, however, did not publish this report that was prepared in the month of December 2018. This act of the government angered two independent members of the National Statistical Commission, who tendered their resignation this week. P C Mohanan, a career statistician, and J V Meenakshi, Professor at the Delhi School of Economics, were appointed by the government as members in the NSC in June 2017. Both resigned on Monday, January 28 in protest against the withholding of the NSSO’s first Annual Survey on Employment and Unemployment for the year 2017-18.

P C Mohanan said, “The normal convention is that NSSO presents the findings to the Commission, and once approved, the report is released within the next few days. We approved the NSSO survey on employment and unemployment in December beginning. But the report has not been made public for almost two months.”

“Over a period, it was noticed the government does not take the NSC seriously,” Mohanan added. “NSC was kept out while key decisions were taken. We were unable to effectively discharge our duties.”

The data for this survey was gathered in the period of July 2017 to June 2018. This is the first survey of its kind after the note ban exercise that was carried out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2016. This first annual household survey is published by the National Sample Survey Office.

According Business Standard, which reviewed the documents pertaining to the survey, the unemployment rate was the highest since 1972-73 period on a comparative scale. In 2011-12, the rate stood at 2.2%, when UPA was in power for the second term.

According to the report the unemployment rate of the young generation was highest compared to the preceding years and very much higher in comparison to the overall population of the country.

The picture of rural areas seems to be the worst as per the data mentioned for the same in the survey. Among rural men in the age group of 15-29 years the unemployment rate went up to 17.4% in comparison to the 5% in 2011-12. The corresponding figures for the women folk of rural India stood at 13.6% in 2017-18, which is way higher than the 4.8% reported in 2011-12, mentions the survey. 

The situation of unemployment was pathetic in urban areas in comparison to the rural India. The unemployment rate for young men stood at 18.7% and women at 27.2% in 2017-18.

Another striking factor that is mentioned in the survey is that the unemployment was more among the educated section of the society. In rural India, the rate for unemployment of women who are educated was 17.3% in 2017-18 compared to 9.7%-15.2% during the period of 2004-05 to 2011-12. For rural educated men the figure stood at 10.5% in 2017-18, which is too high compared to the 4.4% for the period between 2004-05 and 2011-12.

There was a decline in the labour force participation rate, which is the proportion of the population working or seeking jobs. This percentage dipped from 39.5% in 2011-12 to 36.9% in 2017-18. This rate is on a downward trend since 2004-05. But the pace was high in 2017-18 in comparison to 2011-12, but slower than 2009-10.