Economic Development and Employment Creation in Organised Sector of India

Abstract

Employment has featured as an important item in the development agenda in India. Approaches to the subject have, however, varied in different periods during the last over 50 years. In the initial years of development planning, unemployment was not expected to emerge as a major problem. Yet care was taken to see that employment of a reasonable magnitude is generated in the development process to productively employ the growing labour force. A reasonably high rate of economic growth combined with an emphasis on labour intensive sectors like the small scale industry was envisaged to achieve this goal. The rate and structure of growth rather than technology were seen as the instruments of employment generation. Thus while granting that in an economy with relative abundance of labour, a bias in favour of comparatively labour intensive techniques is both natural and desirable, it was clearly recognised that ‘considerations of size and technology should not be set aside to emphasise employment’ (Planning Commission, 1956, pp. 112-113).