Unemployment: A cause for Poverty Unemployment or joblessness occurs when people are without work and actively seeking

work. During periods of recession, an economy usually experiences a relatively high unemployment rate. According to International Labour

Organization report, more than 197 million people globally are out of work or 6% of the world's workforce was without a job in 2012. Among the BRICS Economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), India has the second highest unemployment rate after South Africa. Unemployment in India India as a nation is faced with massive problem of unemployment. Some features of unemployment have been identified as 1. The incidence of unemployment is much higher in urban areas than in rural areas. 2. 3. Unemployment rates for women are higher than those for men. The incidence of unemployment among the educated is much higher than the overall unemployment. 4. There is greater unemployment in agricultural sector than in industrial and other major sectors. Causes of unemployment in India 1) Rapid Population Growth: In India, particularly in rural areas, the population is increasing rapidly. Large additional expenditure on their rearing up, maintenance, and education. This has reduced the opportunities of diverting a larger proportion of incomes to saving and investment. Thus, population growth has created obstacles in the way of first growth of the economy and retarded the growth of job opportunities. 2) Limited land: Since, the Indian population increasing rapidly, the land is not sufficient for the growing population. It creates the unemployment situation for a large number of persons who depend on agriculture in rural areas.

3) Fragmentation of land: In India, due to the heavy pressure on land of large population results the fragmentation of land. As land is fragmented and agricultural work is being hindered the people who depend on agriculture remain unemployed. This has an adverse effect on the employment situation. It also leads to the poverty of villagers. 4) Seasonal Agriculture In rural society, agriculture is the only means of employment. But, agriculture in India is basically a seasonal affair. It provides employment facilities to the rural people only in a particular season of the year. It has adversely affected their standard of living. 5) Traditional Method of Agriculture In India, the rural farmers followed the old farming methods. As a result, the farmer cannot feed properly many people by the produce of his farm and he is unable to provide his children with proper education or to engage them in any profession. It leads to unemployment problem. 6) Decline of Cottage Industries: In Rural India, village or cottage industries are the only mans of employment particularly of the landless people. But these are adversely affected by the industrialisation process and lack of power supply. As a result of which the village industries suffer a serious loss and gradually closing down. Owing to this, the people who work in there remain unemployed and unable to maintain their livelihood. 7) Defective education: The day-to-day education is very defective and is confirmed within the class room only. The present educational system is not job oriented, it is degree oriented. Thus, the people who have getting general education are unable to do any work. It leads to unemployment as well as underemployment. 8) Lack of Vocational Guidance and Training Facilities: Our education system is defective as it provides purely academic and bookish knowledge which is not job oriented. The need of the hour is that there must be sufficient number of technical training institutions and other job oriented courses at

village level. Most of the students in rural areas remain ignorant of possible venues of employment and choice of occupation. 8) Inadequate Employment Planning: In India near about 2 lakh people are added yearly to our existing population. But the employment opportunities did not increase according to the proportionate rate of population growth. As a consequence, a great difference is visible between the job opportunities and population growth. 8) Lack of transport and communication: In India particularly in rural areas, there are no adequate facilities of transport and communication. Owing to this, the village people who are not engaged in agricultural work are remained unemployed. They are unable to start any business for their livelihood as they are confined within the village. The modern means of transport and communication are the only way to trade and commerce and are lacking in the rural areas. It leads to unemployment problem among the villagers. 11. Less Means for Self-Employment: Another hurdle in generation of more employment opportunities is that there are inappropriate means for self employment in rural and semi-urban areas of the country. Like other developed countries, most of our engineers, technocrats and other well qualified persons do not possess ample means for self employment. They go about in search of paid jobs. Effects of Unemployment 1. Loss of Human Resources: The problem of unemployment causes loss of human resources. Labourers waste their maximum time in search of employment. 2. Increase in Poverty: Unemployment deprives a man of all sources of income and grows poor. The unemployment generates poverty. 3. Social Problems:

Unemployment breeds many social problems comprising of dishonesty, gambling, bribery, theft etc. As a result of unemployment social security is jeopardized. 4. Political Instability: Unemployment gives birth to political instability in country. Unemployed persons can easily be enticed by antisocial elements. They lose all faith in democratic values and peaceful means. They consider that Government is worthless which fails to provide them work. 5. Exploitation of Labour: In the state of unemployment, labourers are exploited to the maximum possible extent. Those labourers who get work have to work under adverse condition of low wages. Being poor, a person does not make any gainful use of existing resources. Preventive measures to avoid Unemployment 1) Improvement in the agricultural system: The agricultural system in India is backward and underdeveloped. If the unemployment has to removed, the system of agriculture has to be modernized and improved, for this the following steps to be taken: 1) property should be consolidated and made economic. 2) methods of agriculture should be improved and as far as possible farmers should be freed from dependence on nature. 3) system of crops should be planned scientifically and improved. 4) The farmers should be provided with good seed, good fertilizer, healthy animals, modern implements and tools etc. 2) Adequate arrangement of facilities of irrigation: In villages, the agriculture very much depends on nature, ie., rain fail. Methods of irrigation should be made more modern and should be adequate to meet the needs for the cultivation. 3) Increasing the area of cultivable land: Nowadays the area under cultivation is not sufficient to provide food to all the people of this country. Barren land should be made fertile and cultivatable for agriculture. This would remove unemployment in the villages.

4) Setting up and develop the cottage and village industries: In village, people have seasonal employment in agriculture. Industries should be set up in the villages so that those who do not have land are employed in it. Even the agriculturalists should get employment during the off season. Women and landless laborers shall also be able to get employment if industries. 5) Population Control: The population in India is rising at a very high speed. Special drive should be made to make the programme of family planning a good success especially in rural and backward regions of the country. 6) Improving the means of transport and communication: In villages there is need to have proper roads and places where offices and stores for seeds etc, may be set up. Public construction should be undertaken in the villages to provide employment to the idle hands. This would improve the employment position in the village. In addition to that, the village people can send their products to markets for sale. This also provide employment to many persons who shall engage themselves in the task of transporting these people and add to the prosperity of the villages. 7) Organization of the agricultural market: There is need to organize markets for the agricultural product. At present, there is dearth of such market. This situation creates difficulties for the agriculturalists. If markets are organized, they would provide employment to certain hands and also help the agriculturalists to get proper price for their labor. 8) Re-orientation of Education System: As regards the problem of educated unemployment in urban areas, India should reconstruct and overhaul the education system according to the changing environment of the country. There must be vocationalisation of education. Proper education should be imparted to the younger men who will be in position to start certain cottage and small scale industries of their own choice especially at village level. 9) Extension of Social Services:

India is still lagging behind in the sphere of education, medical science and other services as compared to the advanced countries of the West. Therefore, efforts should be made to extend these services to rural folks in the backward regions of the country. 10) Rural Development Schemes In India, the rural sector is dominant and agriculture is the basic occupation, the urgent need of the hour is to introduce rural development schemes. It is correctly believed that there is no other remedy than a massive programme of investment in rural development and massive injection of science and technology into the methods of production followed in rural areas in their agricultural and non-agricultural activities. Government of India has implemented various rural projects to increase employment opportunities. 1. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP): In 1978-79, government of India introduced IRDP to create full employment opportunities in rural areas. Under this programme agriculture, animal husbandry, forests, fisheries, small and cottage industries,

construction of roads and canals etc. are to be developed in all the 5111 development blocks. Moreover, to provide more employment, in the Seventh Plan a sum of Rs. 312 crores was spent on this programme. It benefited 182 lakh families. In 1995- 96 about 21 lakh families have been benefited. 2. Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP): This programme was launched in 70 such districts of 13 states as were prone to drought. The programme has proved fruitful particularly in removing seasonal unemployment. In Sixth Plan, the programme provided 17 crore and 70 lakh man-days of employment. In the same period, a sum of Rs. 301 crores was made on the programme. In Seventh Plan, Rs. 474 crores has been spent for the programme. 3. Training for Self-Employment: This programme was launched on 15th August, 1979 by the Government of India. It is called National Scheme of Training of Rural Youth for Self

Employment (TRYSEM). The main objective of this programme is to reduce unemployment among the youth. During Seventh Plan about 11.6 lakh youth were imparted training under the programme. During training period, young men are given financial assistance. On completion of training, they are asked to prepare project report. Arrangements are made to get them financial assistance from the banks. Every trained youth is given a financial help varying from Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 5,000 to start his work. In the Seventh Plan, under this programme, Composite Rural Training and Technical Centres (CRTTC) were set up to impart training to rural youth. In 1995-96 training was to be provided to 2.8 lakh rural youth under this programme. 4. Jawahar Rozgar Yojana: The Jawahar Rozgar Yojana was started on 28th April 1989. The objective of this Yojana is to provide employment to at least one member of each poor rural family for fifty to a hundred days a year at a work place near his residence. A special feature of the scheme is that 30% of the employment generated will be reserved for women. The Central government will finance 80% of the programme and the state government will have to bear only 20% of the expenditure of this scheme. In 1989, National Rural Employment Programme and Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programmes were merged in the yojana. 5. Nehru Rozgar Yojana (NRY): This Yojana was started in 1989. There are three schemes under it. (1) Under the first scheme, subsidy is given to urban poor to set up micro enterprises. In 1995, under this programme, 1.25 lakh families have been benefited. (2) Under the second scheme arrangements have been made for wage-employment to labourers in cities with less than 10 lakh population by providing Indian Economic Development and Elementary Statistic 'them basic facilities. In 1995, under this scheme 93 lakhs man-days of employment have been provided. (3) Under the third scheme, urban poor in the cities are to be provided employment opportunities in jobs like house repairing etc.

6. Employment in Foreign Countries: Government also helps people to get employment abroad. Special agencies have been set up to recruit people to serve in gulf countries like Kuwait, etc. 7. Self-employment to Educated Unemployed Youth: In 1983, a scheme namely self-employment of educated unemployed was initiated. Under this scheme, loans up to Rs. 25,000 are given to those educated unemployed who have no other financial resources. This scheme is enforced by District Industries Centers. Government will give 25 percent as subsidy of the loans given by the banks under this scheme. 8. Small and Cottage Industries: In order to reduce unemployment, government if has made special efforts to develop small and cottage industries. In 1995-96 about 33 lakh persons were employed in these industries. 9. Development of Organized Sector: Many people are getting employment in organized public and private sectors. In 1995-96, nearly 340 lakh persons got employment in large industries. In 1961, organized public sector provided employment to 70 lakh persons; now it provides employment to 1 crore and 92 lakh persons. Likewise, in 1961 organized private sector provided employment to 50 lakh persons; in 2000 it provided employment to 89 lakh persons. 10. Employment Exchanges: Government has set up about 890 employment exchanges offering information on the possible vocational avenues. These exchanges do not provide employment directly but are of great assistance in directing the job-seeker to the possible areas of employment. 11. Employment Guarantee Scheme: This Scheme has been launched in man; states, such as, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Kerala, Rajasthan etc. Under the scheme unemployed persons are given economic assistance. 12. Employment Assurance Scheme:

The Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) was launched in 1994 in 1752 backward blocks in the country. The main objective was to provide 100 days of unskilled manual work to the rural poor who are seeking employment. 13. Prime Minister's Integrated Urban Poverty Eradication Program (PMIUPEP): This programme has been implemented in 1995-96. This programme aims at to provide employment to the urban poor. It will cover 50 lakh urban poor living in 345 towns. The central government will incur an expenditure of Rs. 800 crores this programme during a period of Five years. 14. The Swaran Jayanti Rozgar Yojana: This plan began on December 1, whereas launching of this yojana, previous programmes meant for providing employment to urban unemployed like Nehru Rozgar Yojana and Prime Minister Integrate Urban Poverty Eradication Programme were merged into it. It aims at providing self-employment or wage employment to urban unemployed and under- employ persons. It comprises of two plans: (i) Urban Self- Employment Programme-(USE and (ii) Urban Wage Employment Programme(UWEP). Of the total expenditure on "Yojana, 75 percent will be borne by the centre and 25 percent by the state governments. In the year 1997-98, a sum of Rs. 125 crore was spending on this yojana. 15. Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana: Jawahar Rozgar Yojana has been restructured as Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana with effect from April 1999. This Yojana has been formulated to improve the quality of life of the rural poor by providing the additional gainful employment. 16. Other Programmes: Government of India launched other employment and poverty alleviation programme as under: (i) Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY) (ii) Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (Gramin Awas) (iii) Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana-Rural Drinking water project. (iv) Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) (v) Autyodya Anna Yojana.

(vi) Jai Prakash Rozgar Guarantee Yojana (JPRGY). (vii) Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana (VAMBAY).