Montek paints dismal picture on Employment

New Delhi, Dec 9: Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today outlined before the State Chief Ministers the Eleventh Plan Development Strategy which entails a larger role for them in achieving a nine per cent annual growth rate during the Plan period, reduction of poverty by ten percentage points and creation of 70 million jobs.

Making a presentation at the 52nd meet of the National Development Council here, Dr Ahluwalia painted a dismal picture on the employment front and highlighted the need for greater investments in social sectors, like health and education.

The presentation relating to the Eleventh Five Year Plan(2007-11) was made in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The single most important item on the agenda of the NDC is its approval of the 'Approach to the Eleventh Plan.' A Report of the NDC Sub-Committee on outstanding debt of the States against the National Small Savings Fund has also been brought on the table.

The theme of the next plan is 'Towards faster and more inclusive growth.' To bring accountability on the part of State governments, the document for the first time has set monitorable socio-economic targets.

These include: (a) reducing drop-out rates in elementary education(Class 1 to VIII) from 52.3 per cent in 2003-04 to 20 per cent;(b) reduction of gender gap in literacy from 22 percentage points in 2001 to 10 percentage points;(c) reducing Infant Mortality Rate from 58 per thousand in 2005 to 28;(d) reducing Maternal Mortality Rate from 3 per thousand at the beginning of the Tenth Plan to one per thousand; (e)reducing child malnutrition from 43 per cent in 2005-06 to half this level; and (f) increasing forest and tree cover from 25 per cent in 2007 to 30 per cent by 2011.

Even though the annual employment growth rate moved up from 1.1 per cent in 1993-2000 to 2.8 per cent in 2000=05, employment in the unorgansied sector actually declined. Most of the growth in employment was in the non-agricultural unorganised sector.

He drew attention to the fact that nearly 50 million jobs were created during the Tenth Plan period.

Dr Ahluwalia was of the view that people wanted quality jobs and this will depend on acclerating growth of the manufactring sector, especially in labour intensive sectors. This required creating a favourable climate for the growth of the Small and Medium Enterprises.

Dr Ahluwalia brought out how GDP growth targets have been persistently pushed up. From a 5.5 per cent growth during the Ninth Plan period, it moved up to 7.2 per cent during the Tenth Plan and the aim was to have a nine per cent growth in the next Plan.

The sectoral targets are as follows; Agriculture growth to go up from 1.8 per cent in the Tenth Plan to 4.1 per cent in Eleventh Plan; industry growth to move up from 8.3 per cent in the Tenth Plan to 10.5 per cent in the Eleventh Plan and services growth rate to increase from 9 per cent during the present plan to 9.9 per cent in the next Plan.

UNI

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