Uttar Pradesh

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The Rise and Fall of the Emerald Tigers: Ten Years of Research in Panna National Park by Raghu Chundawat, New Delhi: Speaking Tiger, 2018; pp ix + 356, `899.

This article portrays the trajectory of Uttar Pradesh’s labour market outcomes between 2011 and 2020 based on the employment and unemployment situation and the Periodic Labour Force Survey data. It finds a deepening employment crisis in the state, worse than what is prevailing in the country; this crisis is severe in rural areas and for women, though even men, in comparison to their status in the past, find themselves in a new low. We find absolute declines in labour and workforce in the state with shrinking self and casual employment. There is an increase in regular salaried jobs, both in absolute terms and proportions. The employment crisis has affected people at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder more, marking a dangerous form of livelihood crisis in the state.

This article critically scrutinises the tall claims of the state government using the official figures of the gross state domestic product, and shows that over the four years of the present government, the per capita income in UP has increased merely by 0.43% as against the claim of 100% growth. The analysis of growth rates at the sectoral level shows that the rates of growth in most of the sectors during the present government are lower than the growth rates registered during the previous government.

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