CM Siddaramaiah Challenges PM Modi on Job Creation Amid Rising Unemployment
In a release here, Siddaramaiah questioned Modi “Where are 2 crore jobs?,” and stated that under UPA rule, employment generation was 75 lakh a year while it has come down to 29 lakh jobs generation under the BJP rule over the country. According to National Crime Record Bureau, the Chief Minister said that two unemployed persons resort to suicides and in Karnataka, as many as 1,129 unemployed persons took drastic steps to end their lives in 2021.
Pointing at Central Government’s Periodical Labour Force Survey from 2019 to 2022, Siddaramaiah said unemployment rose to 22.9 percent during the three years. Among the various age groups, he said, the unemployment rate stood at 43. 65 percent in the age group of 20-40 years, 14.33 percent in the age group of 25-29 years and unemployment rate in the age group of 30-34 was 2.49 percent.
Even the World Bank in its report of 2022 had come out with figures on unemployment in different countries and according to it, India’s unemployment rate was 23.22 percent while unemployment rate in Pakistan was 11.3 percent, Bangladesh at 12.9 percent, Bhutan at 14.4 percent, China at 13.2 percent. Recently, the Chief Minister said the International Labour Organisation (ILO) had stated India ranked lowest in employment generation and lagged behind Myanmar, Bangladesh and Mauritius in employment generation.
Owing to lack of employment generation in the country, Siddaramaiah said that illegal migration of youths from the country to United States of America in search of jobs has gone up and stated that 8027 migrated from the country in 2018-19 and the numbers went up to 19, 883 in 2019-20, another 30, 662 travelled outside the country to United States for jobs in 2020-21 and in 2021-22, the figures stood at 63, 927.
Among the illegal migrants, he said, the majority of them are from Gujarat, native State of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and from Punjab and also pointed to a recent incident of 66 persons caught all from Gujarat by French officials who tried to enter the United States illegally.
The Chief Minister stated that forget generation of new jobs in the country, there are as many as 9.79 lakh vacant posts in various departments waiting to filled-up but no action has been initiated so far to fill-up these vacant posts in the country and pointed out to the incident two youths sneaked into Parliament House and hurled gas emitting objects out of frustration over unemployment.
