Which measures have been taken to reduce unemployment and what other measures can be adopted?

The problem of unemployment and poverty is so intense that the measures to be taken for their redressal are not separate. There has been a number of attempts made by the government to eradicate th poverty and unemployment in the economy from the last 40 years. Providing employment through the MNREGA has brought significant improvement in the employment condition of the economy.

The Government of India has taken several steps to reduce the unemployment rates like launching the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme which guarantees 100-day employment to an unemployed person in a year. It has implemented it in 200 of the districts, and further will be expanded to 600 districts. In exchange for working under this scheme, the person is paid 150 per day.

Apart from Employment Exchange, the Government of India publishes a weekly newspaper titled Employment News. It comes out every Saturday evening and gives detailed information about vacancies for government jobs across India. Along with the list of vacancies, it also has notifications for various government exams and recruitment procedures for government jobs.

Unlike MNREGA, many self-employment programmes run parallel for the reducing the unemployment of educated and skilled people. Reduction of unemployment to zero percentage is impossible because of the prevalence of the voluntary and frictional unemployment. Due to unemployment, a nation cannot achieve its highest possible level of product, and it gives a part of the production completely, which it could produce by providing employment.

The following measures will be taken by the government to reduce unemployment:

• There is a high level of coordination between the wages and self-employment programs run by the government and minimum leakage in them.

• Education should be made employment oriented and encouraged youth to be self-employed through training and skill development.

• To accelerate the growth rate of industries in order to increase the employment rate in the economy.

• There should be efficient planning in the government’s investment schemes and expenditures. The policy should be mostly to increase the employment in the economy.