Over 163 million Indians can be alleviated from poverty in next twenty years at an accelerated rate of three times. These are some of the findings of a recently released India Labour Report 2008 by TeamLease Services.
"Focused reforms like workforce transition from farm to non-farm, rural to urban, unorganized to organized and subsistent self-employment to decent wage employment can bring down poverty drastically. If we don't do anything, the population living in poverty could decrease in 2025 to 18 per cent but if we implement these reforms we can accelerate the reduction to six per cent in the same period," said Manish Sabharwal, chairman of TeamLease Services regarding the report.
Regarding the labour transitions, the report titled 'The Right to Rise: Making India's Labour Market Inclusive’, states that out of the six lakh villages, one lakh villages have less than 200 people, thereby discouraging job creation clusters and other infrastructure for which labour needs to transit to urban areas for poverty reduction.
Also, 93 per cent of Indians work in unorganised sector who can be moved to organised sector. The report adds that over 50 per cent of Indians are self-employed, highlighting a failure to create employability and non-farm jobs, who should be moved to decent wage employment.
Among the reforms, the report suggests steps like establishment of efficient labour supply channels, employability enhancement and facilitation of skilled labour supply. It further talks about how labour supply channels can meet demand by converting employment exchanges into career forums that offer not only jobs but career counselling and certifications after assessment of candidate’s skill sets.
