Employment by Spending

Employment by Spending IN SPITE of the considerable growth of the various sectors of the economy during the last two decades, all available evidence suggests that the magnitude and intensity of the unemployment problem have increased. The government assigned the task of assessing the extent of unemployment and underemployment and suggesting suitable remedial measures to a Committee in December 1970. The Committee submitted its Interim Report in February 1972. As the sub-title of the Report indicates, the Committee has recommended certain short-term measures for employment. Basic issues likes strategies of development and techniques of production, which are of fundamental importance for a programme of employment generation on a sustained basis, are reported to have come up for consideration before the Committee (as is indicated in the Chairman's letter to the Minister presenting the Report), but they do not find a place in the Interim Report These and other related issues are now being examined by Working Groups of the Committee. While more detailed information and analysis to evolve a fresh approach to the problem would be available to the Committee only after the Reports of these Working Groups arc submitted, the Committee in the meanwhile felt it necessary to submit an Interim Report recommending merely enhancement of expenditure on some of the "labour intensive" programmes of the Fourth Five-Year Plan during the next two years.