As per the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), India’s working-age population is projected to grow by 133 million over the next 25 years, contributing 18% of the global workforce increase. However, this demographic dividend is time-bound, with the workforce expected to peak by 2043.

Significance of Employment Generation as a National Priority

• Central Role in Equity and Inclusion: Quality employment can lift millions out of poverty and bridge regional and social disparities, ensuring inclusive growth.
• Growth and Economic Resilience: In a consumption-driven economy like India’s, expanding the base of well-paid workers enhances domestic demand, stabilising long-term growth.

Challenges in Employment Generation

• Fragmented Policy Landscape: Multiple central and state initiatives exist, but there is no unified employment framework integrating them.
• Low Employability: A large section of graduates remain unemployable due to skill gaps and misaligned curricula.
• Informal Workforce Dominance: Over 80% of India’s workforce is informal, lacking job security, benefits, and social protection.
• Labour Market Frictions: Barriers such as inter-state migration issues, lack of portability of benefits, and gendered norms restrict mobility.
• Data Deficiency: Employment statistics are often outdated and incomplete, making policy planning reactive rather than proactive.
• Regional Disparities: Job opportunities remain concentrated in urban areas, leaving rural and underdeveloped districts lagging.

Measures To Be Undertaken for Long-Term Job Creation

• Integrated National Employment Policy: A National Employment Policy (NEP)  should be implemented that would identify high-employment-potential sectors, align trade, industrial, education, and labour policies, and address gender and regional disparities while integrating technological skilling in AI and robotics
  • The oversight can be ensured by an Empowered Group of Secretaries, with District Planning Committees handling local-level implementation.
• Strengthening Labour Market Dynamics: There is a need to bridge demand and supply gaps by promoting labour-intensive sectors.
  • The college curricula should be regularly reviewed to improve graduate employability and align them with emerging market requirements.
• Labour Codes and Mobility Reforms: The four Labour Codes should be timely implemented with clear transition guidelines for businesses.
  • The migration policies should be framed to enable smooth worker movement across states, creating “One India for Employment.”
• Sectoral Focus for Job Creation: The sectors like textiles, tourism, agro-processing, healthcare, and real estate capable of large-scale employment should be incentivised.
  • There is a need to strengthen the MSME sector through access to finance, technology, skilling, and markets.
  • The Pilot Urban Employment Guarantee Programmes in select cities should be launched to address urban job distress.
• Harnessing the Gig Economy: The gig economy, employing 80 lakh–1.8 crore workers, could grow to 9 crore by 2030.
  • A National Policy for Gig and Platform Workers should ensure worker protection, fair contracts, and grievance redressal while encouraging sectoral expansion.
• Enhancing Job Quality: There is a need to improve job quality through better wages, safe conditions, and universal social security.
  • There is a need to launch targeted programmes to create jobs in underdeveloped districts through rural internships, local BPO hubs, remote work facilities, and digital infrastructure expansion to bridge the rural–urban divide.
• Women Participation: Measures should incentivise women’s employment through the Employment-Linked Incentive (ELI) scheme, formalise Anganwadi and ASHA roles, and expand childcare and eldercare infrastructure to support sustained workforce participation.
• Robust Employment Data System: A dedicated task force for real-time, high-quality employment data, covering informal and rural workforces to enable evidence-based policymaking should be maintained.

Conclusion

By implementing coordinated reforms, investing in people, and ensuring equitable opportunities, India can convert its demographic potential into a true dividend, realising the vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047.

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