Unemployment worldwide has reached high proportions, which according to the International Labor Organizations (ILO) report was 185.9 million people worldwide, or 6.2 percent of the global labor force in 2003-04. The rate of unemployment has aggressively created acute problems of poverty and economic instability with political implication.
The ILO 2003-04 report estimates 1.39 billion people in the world work but are unable to lift themselves and their families above US$2 (@44 = Rs.88) a day poverty line. Among them, 550 million cannot lift themselves and their families above US$1 (Rs.44) a day poverty threshold. This means that 49.7% of the world’s workers (over 58.7% of the developing world’s workers) are not earning enough to lift themselves and their families above the US$2 (Rs.88) a day poverty line, and that 19.7% of the employed persons in the world (over 23.3% of the developing world’s workers) are currently living on less than US$1 (Rs.44) a day. This figure is projected to decrease worldwide by 2015 to 40.8 percent.
Since there is the ‘working poverty’ and ‘poverty’ there needed to be created 1.39 billion decent jobs for those who work but still live below Rs.88 a day poverty line; and in addition, the 185.9 million people who were unemployed. This does not include people who remain outside the labor force for involuntary reasons. According to the ILO World Employment Report 2004-2005 report, empirical evidence indicates that providing decent employment opportunity is the best way to take people out of poverty. Nonetheless, it is clear that there exist a large perpetual deficiency of decent work in the world, one that poses a grave challenge in the fight against poverty.
Unemployment is not the result of any one cause. A great variety of circumstances, such as personal factors, economic and political conditions, legislative governance and regulatory conditions have contributed to it. Unemployment caused by labor laws and regulations – or the lack of it – impoverishes people. Therefore, how does one ensure to get the right balance between productivity growth and job creation?
In the Naga context, unemployment is chronic and has resulted into a political disease. This disease is compounded due to the notion that government can provide and improve everyone’s income and working condition through legislation. Hans Sennholz says, “It is an affliction that stems from misinterpretation and misinformation about work and income and from an undaunted faith in collective force and coercion.” He adds, “It clearly reflects the spirit and mentality of our age and unless they give way to the spirit of individual freedom and enterprise, the rate of unemployment is likely to rise.”
Nagas cannot ignore basic economic principles and address unemployment by force and political patronage, which have detrimental consequences to the questions of poverty and unemployment.
