THE convention declaring ‘Right to Employment’ was held at a time when the slowdown in manufacturing and various other sectors is snowballing into a deep economic crisis and our country is facing an epidemic of unemployment. Inaugurating the convention, noted economist Jayati Ghosh said that unemployment is on a rise and decent wages are declining drastically. She told that around 5-6 per cent of the GDP is given as tax concession to big corporates in a country where the amount allocated to social expenditure is a bare minimum and that too is underspent. Mohamed Riyas presided over the inaugural session.

Nabarun Deb presided over the next session. Dr Ramakumar spoke generally on the causes and remedies of unemployment and particularly on the ‘hide and seek’ game of unemployment data. He also detailed the condition of underemployment, which is the highest in India than sheer unemployment. Provide huge tax concessions and ‘stimulus packages’ to big business houses, handing over public assets and natural resources to private corporations and weakening labour laws to facilitate ruthless exploitation of workers – these are the policies adopted by government for economic growth. All these policies help big business to greatly increase their profits but do not generate employment opportunities for the youth. Government’s refusal to undertake public investment to meet the basic needs compounds the unemployment crisis. Ramakumar also traced an outline of the different topics which were presented in the convention.

Minaxi Mukherjee presided over the next session. Ground reality of MNREGA was presented by Vikram Singh. He furnished data of the real status of NREGS in various states. Highly disturbing facts were presented by Vikram in the convention. In most of the states the scheme is facing a closure. In some places, where there is resistance and in states like Kerala, NREGS is alive. The workers working under the scheme are wary about machines, due to the fear of losing this job too.

AA Rahim presided over the next session. Niyati Singaraju, research scholar from Indian Statistical Institute, presented the topic ‘Discrimination in the job market’. Data available shows that out of 10 working people only six are dalits and only two are Muslim. Youth belonging to dalit, adivasi and minority communities are facing a tough time with employment opportunities shrinking in general. Whatever decent jobs that are available in private sector are out of reach for them since they do not have many social connections among existing personnel. And with virtual recruitment ban in public sector and government departments, reservations are rendered redundant. Only low paid jobs in the informal sector are available to dalits, adivasis and minorities. She concluded that the policies that promote unemployment act to perpetrate caste and religious discrimination too.

Balavelan presided over the next session. Subin Dennis, an economist, presented a rough outline of urban employment guarantee legislation. He argued that the act should cater to the needs of the urban youth and also give employment to youth according to their educational qualification. The census and surveys conducted by central and state governments can be routed through the people registered through this scheme, instead of using already employed teachers and other government officials. Government should appoint educated youth to teach children belonging to backward community, who may be a first or second generation learners may be given teaching assistance, old age care, palliative care etc also can be made part of the scheme.

Approximately 500 delegates attended the conference from 20 states. Preethy Sekhar presented the draft of declaration of the convention on behalf of the DYFI. Placing the declaration she said that unemployment is plunging country’s urban and rural sectors alike. The report of labour ministry itself points that 4 out of 10 Indians in working age group are unemployed. All the government schemes for employment generation have miserably failed. Job creation under MGNREGA has consistently declined after the Modi government came to power.

Schemes like Pradhan Mantri Employment Generation Project (PMEGP), Make in India, Start Up India, Skill India etc yielded no results. Informalisation and contractualisation of jobs are taking place at an increased pace. IT sector is facing huge job losses. Continuing agrarian crisis is making agriculture unsustainable to majority of marginal, small and even middle peasantry, who are forced to sell their land, leading to greater concentration on the one hand and large scale migration of people from agriculture to labour reserve without getting absorbed in gainful employment. Rural unemployment continues unabated and in fact it is worsening. Nearly 1.25 crore household do not have even a single earner in India. The country is going through the worst employment situation in the last five decades.

The convention demanded that all the notified government vacancies should be filled without further delay; stop outsourcing, contractualisation and recruitment of retired employees in permanent jobs; expanding NREGS and fix minimum wage at Rs 600; starting urban employment guarantee programme; unemployment allowance of Rs 5000 to all who have registered in employment exchanges; complete loan waiver to farmers and extending reservation to private sector.

Abhoy Mukherjee, DYFI national general secretary presented the future path of agitations. State wide agitations will be conducted across India demanding immediate recruitment to fill up the vacancies in all central and state government departments, against the selling out of public sector, privatisation of banks, for lifting of recruitment ban in central and state government sectors, abolishing contract labour and outsourcing etc, will be organised in the month of February 2020.

Concluding the convention, PA Mohamed Riyas, DYFI national president said that the basic need of the Indian youth is being ignored by the Indian State. He said that DYFI will take up the issue of implementation of MNREGA and will bring out a draft of the urban employment guarantee legislation. It will be presented as a private bill in the parliament after inviting comments and suggestions from Indian youth. He said that DYFI will arouse the youth of the country against the policies causing unemployment. DYFI will rally millions of youth in the coming days in a massive democratic movement to enforce our right to employment.