Arrest the exodus

Arrest the exodus

News:

1. Gujarat is seeing increasing discontent over the lack of adequate jobs for young people.

Important Facts:

2. There has been an exodus out of northern Gujarat of Hindi-speaking migrant workers due to incident of revenge attack on them as a result of horrific rape of a toddler.
3. Ipsos-Gates Foundation survey found that Indians were most worried about unemployment (48%).

• 6% of those surveyed and actively looking for work in Gujarat were not employed in September 2018.

4. Economic Survey in 2016-17 pointed out that Gujarat is among the States, including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and West Bengal, with the highest net in-migration of workers.
5. States that were relatively better developed were also host to more migrants.
6. It stands to reason that migrants have played a vital role in providing growth in States like Gujarat by providing cheap labor in the many small and medium enterprises in the manufacturing and construction sectors.
7. The Gujarat government has promised to make it mandatory for manufacturing and service sector companies to hire 80% of their workforce from the State’s domiciles and to reserve 25% of hires for residents from the location.
8. Considering the economic role of migrant labor and ensuring job-oriented growth, the State must follow a more holistic policy of creating incentives for firms leading to greater employment, instead of merely dictating higher recruitment of locals.
9. Apart from steps to arrest the violence against the migrants and stop the exodus, the Gujarat government must commit itself to a facilitating role for job-creation.