50 lakh people lost jobs since demonetisation, says Azim Premji University report

Around 50 lakh people lost their jobs since the Narendra Modi government launched demonetisation in November 2016, an Azim Premji University report has revealed. The latest report on jobs has come at a time when employment is one of the biggest issues in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Contrary to the BJP-led government's promise of providing over 1 crore jobs, the 146-page research report says that though 50 lakh people lost jobs between 2016 and 2018. However, no direct relationship could be established between job loss and demonetisation, the report. It also says the higher educated people are the most unemployed in India, with the majority of them in the age bracket of 20-24 years.

The report was formed using data from the Consumer Pyramids Survey of the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE-CPDX) to understand the employment situation between 2016 and 2018. CMIE-CPDX, a nationally representative survey, covers about 160,000 households and 522,000 individuals.

The report says unemployment, in general, has risen steadily after 2011. "Both the PLFS and the CMIE-CPDX report the overall unemployment rate to be around 6 per cent in 2018, double of what it was in the decade from 2000 to 2011." It added that women were much more affected than men when it came to jobs with higher unemployment rates and lower labour force participation rates.

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"Among urban women, graduates are 10 per cent of the working age population but 34 per cent of the unemployed. The age group 20-24 years is hugely over-represented among the unemployed. Among urban men, for example, this age group accounts for 13.5 per cent of the working age population but 60 per cent of the unemployed," says the report.

The report reveals that the less educated (and likely, informal) workers have also seen major job losses and reduced work opportunities since 2016.

Citing the report, the Congress party has hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of employment. Former finance minister P Chidambaram, in a series of tweets, said on Wednesday that the report by Azim Premji University was "another confirmation that lakhs of jobs were lost after demonetisation". He said: "PM claims there is no unemployment in India. This is the problem if the PM will fly around the world but will not drive on the roads of India or walk on the streets of small towns and villages."

Edited by Manoj Sharma

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