UNEMPLOYMENT AND REGIONAL DISPARITY FIINOVATION

Unemployment is one of the root causes of poverty across the world. According to Ministry of Labour
and Employment the unemployment rate in India was 5.2 % in 2013. The most obvious, yet the biggest
defining symptom of the state of unemployment in India is the fact that there arent enough jobs. Every
year 12 million new entrants join the existing workforce putting enormous pressure on Indias job
market. The major contributing factor to this problem would be the slow pace of development in the
recent years. Case in point, the decline in manufacturing jobs in the Punjab and the rise in services jobs
in Gurgaon & the NCR. Compounding that is the fact that there arent enough new job vacancies being
created. However, these are not the only issues that need to be tackled. The country is also facing
problems related to youth, still, 12% of the grown up youth are illiterate, and a greater deal more
unable to read and write high-school level English.
Over population of the country is putting a heavy load on the infrastructure of the country which
includes the capitalist and industrial mechanism as well. The growth rate of the population wouldnt be
so bad if a significant portion of them werent inundated by malnutrition, rampant illiteracy and
succumbing poverty. While the economy might be growing by a decent sum, the population, more
importantly the uneducated and unhealthy is growing at a faster rate. This is something we, as a nation
just cant work our way out of.
Fiinovation understands that the state which is severely affected on these problems is Uttar Pradesh. The
population of UP is similar to that of Brazil and the per capita income is similar to that of Kenya. The
population of UP was 199,581,477 in 2011 and the literacy rate was 69.72. If you compare Gross State
Domestic Product and literacy rate, UP is the 2nd worst in the country. The total number of workers
among 16.62 crore people in the state in 2001 was 53,98,382 (39,337,649 main workers) out of
which males were 40,981,558 and females were 13,002,266. The population of illiterate workers was
16,240,899 in 2001. The employment growth rate is only 2.2% over the last decade and the
unemployment rate stood at 8.9% in 2010. As per NSSO predictions UP is expected to have 1 crore
unemployed people that exclude the backlog of around 32 lakh unemployed, who are already in the
queue awaiting their chance.
Though the economy is growing at a higher rate than that of India still the per capita income is one of
the lowest among all the states. The gross state domestic product per labour force participant stood Rs
58,151 which is 52% less than that of India. The labour force participant growth rate is also lower than
that of India. The work participation rate was 32.5% in 2001. The two major reasons of unemployment
in UP are high population and lack of industrial development to absorb the labour force.
There is disparity in income and employment opportunities across the state with western UP being
more developed than eastern UP. Central and state employment guarantee schemes are not able to
reduce the unemployment rate. There is need to create more SEZ to boost the state economy and
provide employment.
Many districts in face problems related to income generation due to regional disparity. For example, the
per capita income of Aligarh is 1/3 of Gautam Budh nagar (has 5 SEZ) and close to that of Ghaziabad.
But the market of Aligarh is equal to Gautam Budh nagar and Ghaziabad combined. The Lock and
hardware industries in the district provide employment to around 12000 people that too in the urban
areas. However, rural areas of Aligarh suffer due to the lack of income generating opportunities.
Population is a big concern, and as many as 51 villages have population more than 5000. The average
village size is 1777 person per village. Majority of the working population engage in agricultural

activities and other occupations like Animal Husbandry. Fiinovation believes one of the many ways to
overcome such issues is to provide skill development training to the unemployed youth these will help
them to get jobs and also start enterprises on their own. Its necessary to explore alternate sources of
income to reduce unemployment as well as provide sustainable income generation.
Drafting a comprehensive plan to develop employment opportunities across the state is the need of the
hour. The focus of the initiatives should not be related to only one particular sector rather looks at
holistic way of development. New initiatives in Agriculture which is the primary occupation are also
important. Drip irrigation, Rain water harvesting, high yield crops, watershed management, climate
smart agriculture approaches are some areas that can be looked at. There is a need to boost
manufacturing in the state. In order to support the locally made products there should a proper value
chain management mechanism and a marketing plan in place. Technological advancements inclusive
of IT hubs like Hyderabad and Bangalore need to come up. Energy is also a hindrance of growth for the
state. Major focus should go towards renewable energy generation to make the state energy a surplus
one. Without energy it will be very difficult for the state to ensure development for all.

By Rahul Choudhury
Media Team Fiinovation