This is the perspective I am putting before the Hon. House. They say we have to emphasize the growth of the economy. Certainly we do stand for the growth of the economy. Who says we do not stand for the growth of the economy? The growth of economy does not come out of prayer merely. In order to have growth in the economy, we have to raise resources. You cannot say that you go on merely praying for the growth and “there will be growth.” There was God who said “Let there be water,” and there was water. I do not think there is any God to whom Shri Piloo Mody can pray, “Let there be growth” and who will see that there will be growth.
In order to have growth, we have to create resources, and certainly resources can be found out in different ways. Now, our problem certainly is that not only we want to have economic growth, we want to have growth so oriented that it can help us to attack the problem of unemployment which its our most important problem. I quite agree that Government cannot give jobs to everybody Government must create a dynamic economy so that jobs are created for the young, educated people. These are not controversial things. But for that matter certain efforts will have to be made: certain priorities will have to be fixed; certain new approaches will have to be adopted. This is exactly what we propose to do.
Some Hon. Members chose to attack the quantum of provision that we have indicated in my budget speech, viz. Rs. 50 crores for solving the problem of unemployment. It is not our claim that only by an investment of Rs. 50 crores we are going to remove unemployment. It will be very wrong to say so. It is merely a beginning, some sort of a pilot scheme or experiment. We are trying to approach the problem by creating productive rural development work in some of the poverty pockets in different parts of the country and we are trying to see that we succeed in it. We will gain much experience out of it. Some Members said you are going to make a charity to somebody. No, it is not charity. Certainly those poverty pocket areas are untouched by developmental infrastructures that are necessary. Now we will provide those infrastructures there. For that certainly some educated people will be required.
Some Hon. Member said, we have tried to underplay the question of rural unemployment. It is quite the contrary. When we speak of the question of unemployment, really speaking in the major sector of our society, it is the young uneducated man who is before our eyes. This party is particularly grateful to the younger generation of this nation, because it is only with their support that we are here in this House in such numbers, and we shall not forget their problems. We shall always keep them in. Many efforts will have to be made and we have already made a beginning. We have introduced a certain new approach in that direction. Employment-oriented schemes have been introduced in certain educational institutions. Some engineers have been so trained that they can get immediate employment. Of course, we will have to re-examine the whole thing again after some time. Indeed, I was expecting certain specific suggestions in this regard. As far as the approach is concerned, we have a common approach, but I wanted certain specific suggestions. I would welcome such suggestions even now. Mr. Mody has certainly got some experience. I have nothing to do with his politics. His politics is defeated politics and I am not worried about it. But I do care for his experience in industry. He has got very good experience in farming also. I am glad he chose to enter politics, as a result of which he has come into contact with farming and he has made some good experiments. I want certain useful suggestions from him.
