Can Kejriwal give 20 lakh jobs in Delhi in five years?

new Delhi

20 lakh jobs in five years. The promises made by the Delhi government in its ’employment budget’ presented last week have left economic experts in the city scratching their heads for the right answers.

What is bothering them the most is the target number – 20 lakh jobs in 5 years means 1000+ jobs a day.

“I saw the budget and was surprised. what is that [Deputy Chief Minister] talking about? It doesn’t make any sense. Santosh Kumar Mehrotra, former professor and president of the Center for Labor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said over 1,000 new jobs every day is an outrage. “It’s not possible,” he said.

Criticism of the government’s promises has ranged from the low quality of potential jobs to new opportunities for those who are already employed.

But experts differed on whether 20 lakh jobs could be created in five years. India’s first chief statistician Pranab Sen said the promise of 20 lakh jobs has a lot of expectations and assumptions and the current details given by the government are not enough to come to any conclusion.

According to Mr. Sen, the “basic idea” of the government is correct. “Delhi is run by the service sector. What they are trying to do is to build on that,” he said.

However, Mr. Sen had another concern. “What the government is saying is that today if the turnover is ₹100, it gives job to one person and if the turnover becomes ₹200, then another person gets employment. This is not necessarily correct, as the first one may even be able to take care of the turnover of 200,” he said.

He said creating 10 lakh jobs is not as black and white as the government says because many factors are at play.

low level jobs

A Delhi government official said that many jobs will be of lower rank but it is the need of the hour as many people employed in such jobs have become unemployed due to the pandemic.

Another official said that they have made proper planning and are confident that they will be able to boost consumption and create more jobs.

In his budget speech on March 26, Delhi Finance Minister Manish Sisodia outlined several schemes through which the government plans to create 20 lakh jobs. These include the redevelopment of five iconic markets, the redevelopment of non-conforming industrial areas, a new electronics city, food hubs and food trucks, and the annual retail and wholesale shopping festival. The government plans to invest Rs 4,500 crore in all such projects over the next five years.

‘Replacement of jobs’

Pro. Mehrotra said that new jobs will be created from Electronics City itself. “Everything else is a shuffle of existing jobs and we will never know how many jobs were actually created.”

“For example, if there are vendors outside my gate right now and if the government makes hubs nearby, some of them will go there. They [government] There is no understanding of how the labor market works. It is a sham to create jobs,” said Prof. Mehrotra.

Mr. Sen said that whenever new jobs come up, people move to them from jobs that are already dying out; This is the nature of all labor markets. But he also said that there could be demand displacement when new hubs are created.

“The real question is, if I am a consumer moving to a market redeveloped by the government, am I going to have extra or am I moving the business that should have gone to someone else (if the hub was not there),” They said .

Mr Sen said if people come from outside to spend money in Delhi because of the government’s investment, it would be an addition. “If it is people of Delhi shifting business from one shopping area to another, then it is no extra. If a business is being shifted, it creates employment at one place but it may lead to loss of jobs elsewhere,” he said.

only unskilled jobs

Pro. Mehrotra said those engaged in unskilled labor also want a regular job with a salary of ₹40,000-₹50,000 and that apart from Electronics City, the jobs proposed in the budget will not attract candidates with bachelor’s or post-graduate degrees.

Mr. Sen also said that most of the jobs as per the government’s plan would be in the unskilled sector, such as carrying goods, but added that there was nothing wrong with that.

“What they’re trying to do is create a cycle. It starts with primary job creation, which will generate income and that will create more jobs.”

However, the Delhi government official said, “The jobs that the government is creating, many of them will be high-level jobs. For example, there are huge wholesalers in Gandhinagar Market and we are planning to help them in exports. This will also create high-ranking jobs.”

Similar to Modi

Pro. Both Mehrotra and Mr. Sen pointed out that there were many similarities between the promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speeches and those made by the AAP government in its latest budget.

“They are doing exactly what Mr. Modi said – we want to transform our youth from job seekers to job givers. Also, as Modi talks of a $5 trillion economy, there is a very strong resemblance to the AAP government’s promise of 20 lakh jobs,” Mr. Sen said.

What should the government do? Doing?

Pro. Mehrotra said that the government should focus on creating new manufacturing hubs. “If the government had talked about creating one manufacturing hub for textiles, one for leather, one manufacturing center for anything else, I would have said there is a chance of creating 20 lakh jobs,” he said.

Mr. Sen said that the basic idea is correct, but to make it effective, the government has to point fingers as to what activities or businesses are actually at a standstill at present.

“For example, if the markets are not currently moving, are they dirty or because they don’t have space? There has to be an analysis of what is stopping them from growing,” he said.

Mr Sen said the government should invest in a “regular source of activity and work” such as the film industry, and not in international film festivals, which have been mentioned in the budget.