Guaranteeing urban jobs

There is an urgent need to strengthen urban local bodies and re-imagine their functions as drivers of job creation, skill-building and ecologically sustainable development

Last year, more than 20 million people had applied for just 100,000 jobs in Indian Railways. This desperation for employment was further revealed through the leaked Periodic Labour Force Survey data, according to which India is witnessing its worst unemployment crisis in the last 45 years, with open unemployment of around 20 per cent among the higher educated. In addition to massive agrarian distress, we are also confronted with a shortage of dignified employment opportunities in Indian towns and cities. A large section of the urban workforce is informal and is hence exposed to a variety of risks and vulnerabilities.