Moa Jamir
On September 16, the Deputy Commissioner of Dimapur, Kesonyu Yhome IAS asked whether Nagaland’s “healthy economic growth” is translating into better quality of life for the citizens. As a part of the state machinery, he mildly suggested that, perhaps it wasn’t so, citing bad road conditions as an example.
Lived experiences and empirical evidences would show that it is a resounding no. While Nagaland has been experiencing an envious growth rate in the recent past, it was a jobless growth - a high growth rate economy without any new job creation or expansion of jobs.
For instance, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) data show the growth rate of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) at current price for Nagaland witnessed 15.03 and 21.98 percentage growth in 2012-13 and 2013-14 respectively. In 2014-15, it was a respectable 10.85. While, it experienced a slow growth of 5.35% in 2015-16, it is set to recover to 9.91% for 2016-17 as per the State Government’s advanced estimate.
Overall unemployment, however, was constantly rising during the period. According to the Fifth Annual Employment – Unemployment Survey (2015-16) released in September 2016 by Labour Bureau, under India’s Ministry of Labour & Employment, the unemployment rate in Nagaland was as high as 8.5% while the All India average was 5%. It increased from 7.3% in 2012-13. The GSDP was growing above 10% all this while.
A close scrutiny of the survey will also highlight other concerns. Nagaland has a Work Participation Rate of 49.24 per cent, or 9.74 lakhs workers against a population of 19.78 lakhs as per 2011 Population Census.
The Usual Principal Status (UPS), considered as chronic unemployment rate, was estimated at 57.4% during the survey period. According to the Nagaland State Economic Survey (2016-17), it implies that the economy could absorb 57.4% of the total workforce available and 42.6% remained unemployed.
The educated unemployment is another big concern. The number of applicants on State's Live Register of Employment Exchanges as of December 31, 2016 was 68,504, increasing from 54,045 persons in 2009.
Out of 1000 persons looking for jobs in Nagaland, 258 of them were graduates, as against 100 in India - 231 due to non-availability of jobs matching with education/skill/experience and 121 due to non-availability of adequate remuneration. Out of 258, there were 226 post graduates degree holders.
For employed, only 417 out of workers (aged 15 years & above) were without job contract, as compared to All India average of 800 reflecting the fact that most employment is in government sector. Consequently, those receiving paid leave and availing social security benefits in Nagaland was 741 persons as against All India rate of 206.
However, another disturbing data was that of contract workers, usually private jobs, where 836 out of 1000 persons were without job contract as against All India average of 678. Most jobs were also in forms of centrally sponsored scheme like MGNREGA, PMEGP, SGSY and SJSRY .
Self-employment is also not an alluring prospect if one look at the earning pattern. Out of 637 per 1000 person, who declared themselves as self employed, nearly 571 were earning below 5000 per month.
If the economy is growing at high rate without the citizens experiencing improvement in tangible infrastructure like roads, education and health care, besides the growing chronic unemployment; the growth in Nagaland is a paradox.
It is imperative to make course correction through urgent policy intervention. Among others, linkages between jobless growth and social unrest are high. High GSDP cannot solely measure the growth of the state. The quality of jobs, livelihood and overall development matters. Who is enjoying the fruit of healthy economic growth in Nagaland?
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