Decent work

India is among the worst performing countries in this respect in the Asia-Pacific region

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) released its first Asia-Pacific Employment and Social Outlook last Friday. The report presents a rather grim picture of the labour markets in the region. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow well at 5.6 per cent in 2018 and 2019 compared to a global growth rate of 3.9 per cent. Unemployment rate is expected to remain stable at 4.1 per cent. But, vulnerable employment is expected to increase.

Vulnerable employment includes people who are self-employed or those who are unpaid family workers. A fairly high proportion -- 48.6 per cent of the people employed in the Asia-Pacific region were vulnerable by this definition. Worse, the report expects this ratio to inch up to 48.9 per cent by 2020.

India is among the worst performing countries in this respect in the region. 82.2 per cent of the employment in India is classified as vulnerable. In the Asia-Pacific region, only Lao PDR is worse than India in this respect at 83.8 per cent. In south Asia, in Afghanistan the ratio of vulnerable employment was 79.5 per cent, in Pakistan and Bangladesh it was 62 per cent and in Sri Lanka it was 42 per cent.

Employment should preferably be wage employment, which yields a salary at the end of a fixed period such as a month. In Hong Kong 90 per cent are salaried employees. In Japan, 87 per cent are salaried employees, in South Korea the ratio is 71 per cent and in Singapore it is 86 per cent. In Australia and New Zealand it is 82 and 84 per cent, respectively. In India, it is a pathetic less-than 17 per cent!

Further, 40 per cent of the employees in India feel they are underpaid. This ratio is less than 15 per cent in Hong Kong and less than 18 per cent in Thailand and less than 20 per cent in Australia. Pakistan and Bangladesh turn out to be worse at 52 and 54 per cent, respectively.

The main discussion in the report is on Decent Work. Former Director General of the ILO had defined the primary goal of the ILO was to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.
 

The definition is explained more broadly by the ILO now as follows: Decent work sums up the aspiration people have for their working lives. It involves opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men.

This is ambitious. But, that is the way it should be. We cannot be satisfied with our deceptively low unemployment rates and awfully low labour participation rates. We need to raise the bar and aim to meet the greater aspirations of the young.

The ILO report provides the template for a public debate around our aims and objectives for employment and decent work. 

Aiming to merely achieve a target of providing, say, 10 million jobs a year is not good enough. And those jobs certainly cannot be about frying pakoras or pushing a cart of bananas. With due respect to the trade, it would not be far from the truth to say that this is not the aspiration of any young Indian today. We need decent work.

In this light it is also imperative that our statistical system is able to measure and report indicators that reflect quality of work. In this respect, the ILO report discusses one noteworthy measure -- youth NEET, or youth not in employment, education or training. The global youth NEET is 21.8 per cent.

Among Asia-Pacific countries, Japan and Singapore have a youth NEET of about 4 per cent while it is over 25 per cent in India. Countries with high NEET rates are in the south Asia region "due primarily to the large number of young women excluded from education and labour market."

Female youth NEET in India is close to 50 per cent. Only Pakistan is worse than India in this respect. It is very likely that India's NEET and particularly female NEET has worsened substantially compared to these statistics because these statistics are all before demonetisation hit female labour participation in India. We have a lot of catch-up to do to deliver decent work to women and men in India as defined by the ILO.