A couple of days ago, the Finance Minister Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman presented a White Paper on the Indian Economy as a report card of sorts on how the Government has managed the economy in the last decade. Also, since we are heading into elections in two months, it is an appropriate time to review the performance of the Indian Economy under Modi Government in the last decade.
In this three part essay, I wish to share my views on the state of the four 'castes' in part one, then on the Interim Budget in part two and on the White Paper in part three.
The Four 'Castes'
Prime Minister Modi gave a new 'Caste' formulation: poor, youth, women and farmers. In this part of the essay let us see how these four 'castes' are living under the Modi Government.
1. The Poor
The very fact that the Government is continuing the scheme of providing free ration of 5 kg per person for 80 crore people speaks volumes about the level of poverty. It is unfortunate that the Government is treating this as a badge of honour. Infact, this scheme is an admission of Government's failure in ensuring that the economic growth is inclusive. Why are these people not able to afford basic ration like rice or wheat? It is because of unemployment or low income. In their 10 years in office, the Modi Government has done nothing to address the problem of low income or unemployment.
2. The Youth
While campaigning for the 2014 general elections, Mr Narendra Modi promised to the country that if elected, he would create 2 crore jobs per year. It’s been almost ten years since then and the time is ripe to seek answers from the Prime Minister.
According to the State of Working India report 2023 (of Azim Premji Univesrity), among graduates of age 30-34 years the unemployment rate was 9.8 per cent. The Economic Survey 2018, tabled in the Parliament a day before the Union Budget 2018-19 was presented has this to say about employment:
“Providing India’s labour force with good high productivity jobs will remain a pressing challenge.”
The impact of unemployment can be seen in the rise in levels of internal migration and the rise in crime rate. As per the Government's answer to Parliament in July last year, there were 9,64,359 vacancies in the Government as of March 2022.
The Prime Minister's promise of providing 2 crore jobs has turned out to be nothing but an election jumla.
3. Women
The women of our country are dis-empowered mainly due to patriarchy, financial discrimination and regressive socio-economic practices. According to NCRB report published in December 2023 4,45,000 cases of crimes against women were registered.
Male casual workers earn 48 per cent more than women and male regular-wage workers earn 24 per cent more than women. Labour Force Participation rate for urban women is 24.0 as against 73.8 per cent for men.
Boastful claims & catchy slogans of women empowerment and Nari Shakti is of no use unless these disparities are addressed.
4. The Farmers
Mr Modi came to power promising to double farmer's income by 2022. We are in 2024 now and the farmers income hasn't doubled but the fact is that rural incomes have declined.
Every year, including the years of pandemic, our farmers have produced record breaking quantities of rice and wheat. But they haven't benefited from the increase in production because of low procurement prices. Whenever the prices increased, the Modi Government has ensured that the farmers don't get benefit of it by imposing export restrictions.
The Modi Government has done nothing to address the problems of rising input cost, insufficient MSP, uncertain prices and biased import & export policies. This Government caused one of the biggest farmer protests in the history of Independent India through which the farmers forced the Modi administration to withdraw the three farm laws which were passed without consulting them.
In the next part, I will share my views on the Interim Budget 2024-25.
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