ECONOMY

Spending 5% of GDP per year can ensure full employment, notes a study

The government needs to invest at least 5 per cent of GDP, or Rs 13.52 lakh crore, per year and enact a Right to Work legislation to ensure full employment in the country. These conclusions are drawn by a study by the People’s Commission on Employment and Unemployment. 

The study titled, Right To Work: Feasible and Indispensable For India To Be A Truly Civilized And Democratic Nation, by People’s Commission on Employment and Unemployment, set up by Desh Bachao Abhiyan, was released on Tuesday. 

Full employment could not be achieved through a piecemeal approach as it required drastic changes in the legal, socio-political and economic aspects, the report noted.

It also said that a Right to Work law needs to be enacted to ensure decent livelihood for citizens. 

It also stressed on increasing this expenditure by 1 per cent of the GDP per annum for the next five years to create employment. 

Currently, 21.8 crore people immediately need work, which excludes persons benefitting from the rural employment guarantee scheme, MGNREGA. It pointed out that at present about 30.4 crore workers have proper work. 

Increasing employment would result in greater production as well as demand, it suggested. 

Shortage of resources for achieving full employment was an invalid argument since it could be self-financing, the report said, adding that this ran counter to the elite perception that full employment would be a negative sum game for them. 

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