India’s high unemployment is a ‘ticking bomb,’ opposition says, as election battle with Modi’s BJP heats up

Apr 23, 2024 12:56 pm

infodivyadelhi

Divya Delhi: The topic of unemployment is becoming more and more prominent in India as the nation prepares for the second round of general elections. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi accuses Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP of turning the nation into "a center of unemployment." India's youth unemployment rate is especially high: according to the "India Employment Report 2024," released last month by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Institute of Human Development (IHD), those between the ages of 15 and 29 account for an astounding 83% of the country's jobless population. "Modi has made the nation's unemployment rate worse. Gandhi declared this on Saturday at a rally in the Indian state of Bihar, in the east: "Those who can create jobs have been devastated due to demonetization and the wrong Goods and Services Tax regime." During his first term in office, Modi made the highly condemned announcement in 2016 that the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes would be demonetized, or cease to be legal money. Manmohan Singh, the predecessor of Modi, called the demonetization policy, which aims to reduce black money, or money obtained via illicit activities that escape taxation, "monumental mismanagement."It did not, however, prevent Modi from winning an even more robust mandate for a second term in 2019.Arun Kumar, an economist and former professor at Jawahar Lal Nehru University in New Delhi, that the unorganized sector of the economy is still suffering from the effects of demonetization and that this is one of the main causes of the high unemployment rate in the nation.The millions of privately owned small companies that comprise India's unorganized sector employ roughly 93% of the nation's workers.The president of India's largest opposition party, the Indian National Congress, referred to the nation's unemployment rate as a "ticking bomb" in an effort to put Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party under pressure over the results.