Prime Minister Narendra Modi attends the first day of the Monsoon session of Lok Sabha, at the Parliament in New Delhi. (PTI Photo)
Rejecting criticism that the government failed to create enough jobs, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said over one crore jobs were created in the country over the past one year. The PM, during no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha on Friday, mentioned the survey figures by an independent institute. To lend weight to his argument, he referred to employment figures available in the system including EPF, NPS, formal and informal sector. He talked about job growth and employment towards the end of his speech.
The PM said that many lies are being spread over the issue of unemployment in the country. “Again, there is an attempt to trample the truth. There is no information but the opposition is just making baseless talks. Had they thoroughly looked into the matter (unemployment), they would not have committed the sin of playing politics by dashing the hopes of youths of the country,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister announced the government’s decision to publish job data every month. “The government will present before the country all figures regarding employment present in the system, every month.”
This is how he tracked the employment and job growth in the last one year:
Employment in Formal sector- EPF, NPS data, Doctors, CAs, Lawyers
* “There is a way to assess employment in the formal sector- through Employee Provident Fund (EPF),” he said, adding that in the nine months between September 2017 and May 2018, 45 lakh new subscribers had joined the EPFO, out of which 77 per cent were less than 28 years of age.
* The National Pension Scheme had attracted 5.68 lakh new subscribers during the same period. “Taking the EPF and NPS subscribers together, more than 50 lakh jobs were created in nine months,” he said, adding that this figure would reach 70 lakh for the whole year. PM Modi said data from the Employees State Insurance Scheme (ESIC) was not taken into account as Aadhar linking of subscribers was still underway.
* “Besides this, there are a number of professional bodies in the country from where young professionals register themselves and become self-independent. For example, doctors, engineers, architects, chartered accountants, company secretaries. According to the survey by an independent institute, 17,000 new Chartered Accountants have joined in the system. Of them, 5,000 have started new companies. If one Chartered Accountant institute provides employment to 20 people, then around 1 lakh CA’s must have got employment in such institutes.
* “In our country, more than 80,000 postgraduate doctors, dental surgeons, and AYUSH doctors pass out of colleges every year. Of them, even if 60 per cent starts their own practice, then one doctor can provide employment to 5 other people, and this figure will be 2,40,000.
* In 2017, there were around 80,000 new undergraduate and postgraduate lawyers. Out of them, even if 60 per cent may have started their practice and provided employment to 2-3 people, then around 2 lakh new jobs are expected.
* “In these three professions only (doctors, CAs and lawyers), more than 6 lakh people have got employment opportunity in 2017,” PM Modi said.
Informal sector: Transport sector including the sale of commercial vehicles, passenger vehicles and auto-rickshaws
* “Now if we talk about informal sector, then many people get employment in the transport sector. Last year, 7,60,000 commercial vehicles were sold. Even if we suppose that 25 per cent of this was a replacement of old vehicles, 5.7 lakh new vehicles were pressed into service for transporting goods. If one commercial vehicle has two people working on it, nearly 11.40 lakh jobs were created in this sector,” he said.
* If we see passenger vehicles, then this sale figure was 25,40,000. Out of that, if 25 per cent was a replacement of old vehicles, then 20 lakh new vehicles were on the roads. Even if 25 per cent of these new vehicles get a driver and conductor, then 5 lakh new jobs were created.
* Last year, 2, 55,000 autos were sold. Out of them, even if 10 per cent was a replacement of old autos, then around 2,30,000 autos were pressed into service last year. Since autos work in two shifts, three people get employed by 2 autos. In this way, 3,40,000 people got employment through new autos.
* In the transport sector alone, these three categories of vehicles have proved job opportunities to 20 lakh people, the PM said. “If we combine all these figures from EPF, NPS, professions and transport sector, then around 1 crore new jobs were created in the last one year alone. This is conveyed through the survey of an independent institute. I am quoting that institute and not citing government data. Therefore, it is my request to not bury the truth without knowing the facts. There should be no effort to mislead the country in this regard,” the prime minister said in the Lok Sabha.