MPs takes GoI to task on unemployment

Unemployment
Image Courtesy:timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Around 19,200 jobs in airlines, airports, ground handling and air cargo sector were lost in recent years, said the Union Civil Aviation Ministry in response to a question on jobs loss in the private sector.

In answer to a question by MP Dibyendu Adhikari regarding job loss in private sector companies in carrier service and airport operation and maintenance Minister V K Singh spoke about the decline of employees since 2020.

Specifically, he said airline employees in India declined from around 74,800 people on March 31, 2020 to around 65,600 people on December 31, 2021. In the same period, airport sector employees declined from around 73,400 people to around 65,700 people and ground handling sector employees declined from around 30,800 people to around 27,600 people. Only, air cargo sector employees increased from around 9,600 people on March 31, 2020 to around 10,500 people on December 31, 2021.

“The job loss is around 10 percent of the total jobs (around 1.9 lakh) in these sectors. The Government has held discussions with industry participants and stakeholders to address the challenges,” said Singh.

According to the Minister, air traffic during 2020-21 witnessed a massive fall of 66 percent over the previous year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The global pandemic severely affected the revenue streams of businesses including the aviation sector. Singh said that while the government does not establish or regulate airfares under normal circumstances, it introduced upper and lower limit fare bands as a special measure to address the unprecedented circumstances.

“The fare bands serve the dual purpose of protecting the interests of the travelers as well as of the airlines,” he said.

Airline operations were suspended across India in March 2020. Domestic travel was allowed in May 2020 with various protocols for safe air travel. From October 18, 2021 these restrictions were also lifted. Singh said that the vaccination drive in India will hereon allow the revival of air traffic in 2021-22, opening of international flight from March 27, 2022, establishment of new airports, expansion of existing airports and airlines etc. Further, he said the growth of the Indian aviation sector is likely to result in an increase of jobs opportunities in the sector.

This estimated creation of jobs is anticipated in earnest as the Centre was unable to answer similar questions about unemployment on Thursday.

MSME unemployment during Covid-19

Aside from the aviation sector queries, another MP Malook Nagar asked the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Ministry about the number of jobs lost due to coronavirus. To this, Union Minister Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma said that the department does not maintain data on temporary or permanent job loss because MSMEs are present in both formal and informal sectors.

Instead, he said the number of persons employed in MSMEs registered on the Udyam portal during 2020-21 and 2021-22 are 2.78 cr people and 3.52 cr people respectively. The highest registrations were in Maharashtra with 45.68 lakh people in 2020-21 and 45.46 lakh people in 2021-22.

In Uttar Pradesh, there were 21.06 lakh registrations in 2020-21 and 28.35 lakh registrations in 2021-22. In Bijnor, there were 10,957 registrations in the first year and 27,037 registrations in the next year. Similarly, Muzaffarnagar showed a similar surge in registrations from 24,389 people in 2020-21 to 34,223 people in 2021-22. Meerut listed 83,367 registrations and 79,643 registrations in 2020-21 and 2021-22 respectively.

Employment schemes in Maharashtra

Specific to the state, MP Sunil Baburao Mendhe asked about the number of people who applied under the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) during the last three years. Verma presented state-level data that showed a declining trend of applicants from 42,778 registrations in 2018-19 to 28,114 registrations in the next year.

By 2020-21, there were only 27,741 registrations received. Accordingly, it benefitted 5,642 units in 2018-19, then 4,406 units in 2019-20 and 3,104 units in 2020-21. This is in contrast to the national trend that increased from 3.89 lakh registrations (2018-19) to 4.45 lakh registrations (2019-20) to 4.82 lakh registrations (2020-21).

Even in terms of estimated employment generated, 45,136 jobs were created in the first year with a money margin of subsidy of ₹ 15,271.98 lakh, then 35,248 jobs created in the next year with ₹ 11,219.44 lakh and finally 24,832 jobs with ₹ 8,844.3 lakh. Similarly, the PMEGP benefitted 7 self-help groups (SHGs) in 2018-19. In the following year, it benefitted only 3 SHGs that declined to 2 SHGs in 2020-21. Benefits to registered institutions and charitable trusts improved with 3 projects/ units and 2 projects/units respectively in 2020-21.