Taking a dig at the Centre, the former West Bengal finance minister claimed, “The Central government used tricks to show an increase in employment.” “They included three categories as employed — first, self-employed individuals, second, temporary farm workers and third, which is the most astonishing, unpaid family work. This means that those who work in our houses like our mother, sister or wives, who are not paid, will also be counted as employed. This is the kind of hoax data that the Central government is using to show employment generation,” Mitra said while talking to The Indian Express.
According to Mitra, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has used another false promise on employment generation. “Our finance minister, in her budget speech said that the Central government will generate 10 million internships in the 500 big companies of our country. We can explain that it is completely a false promise. The total work force in these companies is 6.74 million and some of them are working abroad as well. Now, the Central Government is saying they will create 3 million internships in the first phase and 7 million in the second phase; which means, a total of 10 million internships in the next five years or average 2 million per year,” he said.
“This will become feasible only when these companies will be ready to absorb 4,000 interns per year in each company. How will they be ready to absorb such a huge number of interns? Is it feasible? That is why no company till date has come out and welcomed this proposal. This is completely hoax and the Central government is misleading people,” he added.
Mitra, however, proposed a German model meant for training students and helping them find placements in companies. “The Central government can introduce the German model which suggests, ITI trainees should have compulsory 60% classes, which will be practical and that is to be done in a factory where certified trainers will teach them and rest 40% will be theoretical. It will provide opportunities to those students to crack job openings in such companies. The US also has a similar programme, which they call community college. But instead of such a concrete proposal, our Finance Minister gave false promises and misled the people of the country.”
Talking about reverse migration, he pointed out that, “In India, workers are going back to villages, which we can term as reverse migration. In India, 90% workers are in the informal sector. As per the International Labour Organisation statistics, between financial year — 2015-16 to 2022-23 — 1.6 crore have lost their job, went back to villages. Total 63 lakh enterprises have been closed,” Mitra said.
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