Obviously, there is a twin challenge here. First, some way has to be found whereby more gainful employment could be provided in the countryside itself and the flow of migration slowed down. Second, steps have to be taken simultaneously to enlarge the scope of job opportunities for the urban masses.
Several official and non-official committees have in the past dilated on the nature and magnitude of unemployment and underemployment in the country. The need is to put into action policies and programmes which would reduce the intensity of the problem. Society owes it to the unemployed and under-employed that schemes be put in operation whereby there is at least some relief in the short period. There is no doubt that in the long run the solution lies in raising the level of investment across-the-board in the economy. As capital formation goes up, there are bound to be growing opportunities for jobs in agriculture as well as outside. But capital formation — and productive endeavour —would themselves depend upon the maintenance of a basic social stability in the initial stages, which would be impossible to have if large numbers are denied opportunities of employment and advancement. We will not be given the time and the leisure to plan for a prosperous economy in the future, if for the present young men and women, pining for jobs and a decent living, are left out in the cold.
The problem and the solutions to it deserve to be thought out together by the Government and representatives of industry and trade. The Government can certainly create the infrastructure and perhaps some additional jobs in the units directly set up by it. The recent decision of the Government to create half a million additional jobs in the country before the end of the current year is an indicator of its earnestness and sincerity in tackling this major national problem. In fact, creation of jobs for the millions will have to be the corner-stone of our development effort in the present decade. But in view of the magnitude of the task, if the goals of self-employment and rural industrialisation are not to be confined to the realm of slogans and are to be translated into operational reality, industry and trade have to be intimately involved in the process.
