Faculty Of Law, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh
Sociology Assignment – Tutorial Test
B.A.LL.B. 6TH Semester
Topic :- “Unemployment”
Made Under The Keen Supervision Of :-
Prof. M. Kalimullah
Submitted By :- Hammad Khan
Roll No. :- 19BALLB-127
Enrollment No. :- GL-6835
Section :- B
Session :- 2022-23
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
1
I take it as my honour to express heartfelt gratitude to my esteemed professor of Sociology,
Dr. M. Kalimullah Sir, for his thought-provoking ideas, in depth knowledge, keen interest
and inspiring encouragement in the completion of this tutorial test.
I would also like to thank him for providing me with an amazing topic i.e. “Unemployment”.
I am deeply grateful to my professor for providing me various notes in reference to my topic
and to my family and friends for their cooperation and encouragement in the timely
completion of this tutorial test.
Hammad Khan
19BALLB-127
GL-6835
TABLE OF CONTENT
2
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………4
Definition and Meaning of Unemployment…..……………………………………………….5
Types of Unemployment……….....…………………………………………………………...7
Causes of Unemployment……………………………………………………………………..8
Evil Effects of Unemployment………………………………………………………………...9
Government Initiative to Control Unemployment…………………………………………...10
Conclusion…………………………………………………..………………………………..11
Bibliography……………………………………………..…………………………………...12
INTRODUCTION
3
Expansion of employment opportunities has been an important objective of
development planning in India. Although there has been a significant growth in
employment opportunities over the years, due to fast rising population, volume of
unemployment has been on increase. Unemployment is a normal phenomenon in
all market economies irrespective of their level of development. But in an
underdeveloped economy due to widespread poverty unemployment is not only
painful for the society but also implies wastage of resources, which could have
been used more effectively for the development of the economy. Thus, fundamental
objective for a developing economy like India is to achieve maximum possible
employment.
DEFINITION AND MEANING OF UNEMPLOYMENT
4
In simple words a person, who is not gainfully employed in any productive
activity, is called unemployed. Unemployment could be voluntary or involuntary.
However, there is no scientific treatment with the help of which we can distinguish
between voluntary and involuntary unemployment. Generally speaking people in
the age group of 15-59 years are considered to be in the working population of
a country and the concept of unemployment is restricted to this group of people
only. That is, children and old persons are not included in the definition of
unemployment. However, some economists suggest a broader definition. It should
include (i) all persons (men, women and children) who are working and (ii) those
not working, but are searching for work. There may be a section of society,
which is not interested, in any gainful employment. There may be some people
who may be interested in jobs at wage rates higher than those prevailing in the
labour market. Persons falling in above two categories are called voluntarily
unemployed.
Involuntary unemployment is characterised by a situation in which people are
prepared to work at prevailing wage rate but they are not able to get employment.
In economics the term “unemployment” refers to only involuntary unemployment
and not voluntary employment.
The problem of unemployment in underdeveloped economies is different from
that in developed economies. In developed economies generally unemployment
takes the form of cyclical unemployment or frictional unemployment. Cyclical
unemployment arises due to cyclical movements in economic activities. Frictional
unemployment takes place because of shift to a new technology. Thus, cyclical
and frictional unemployment are temporary in nature.
On the other hand, the nature of unemployment in underdeveloped economies is
basically structural in nature. In an under-developed economy the demand for
labour is less mainly due to agricultural backwardness, undeveloped industries
and small size of the service sector. Although the type of unemployment found
in underdeveloped economies fits into the definition of involuntary unemployment,
is much different from the nature of unemployment found in developed economies.
Unemployment is a situation when a person actively searches for a job and is unable to find
work. Unemployment indicates the health of the economy. The unemployment rate is the
most frequent measure of unemployment. The unemployment rate is the number of people
unemployed divided by the working population or people working under labour force.
Unemployment Rate = (Unemployed Workers / Total Labour Force) × 100
National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) defines employment and unemployment on
the following activity statuses of an individual. NSSO, an organization under MoSPI –
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation measures India’s unemployment on
three approaches :-
1. Daily Status Approach :-
5
Unemployment status of a person under this approach is measured for each day in a reference
week. A person having no gainful work even for one hour in a day is described as
unemployed for that day.
2. Weekly Status Approach :-
This approach highlights the record of those persons who did not have gainful work or were
unemployed even for an hour on any day of the week preceding the date of the survey.
3. Usual Status Approach :-
This gives the estimates of those persons who were unemployed or had no gainful work for a
major time during the 365 days.
TYPES OF UNEMPLOYMENT
6
The types of unemployment are discussed below :-
1. Disguised Unemployment :-
This is a type of unemployment where people employed are more than actually needed.
Disguised unemployment is generally traced in unorganised sectors or the agricultural
sectors.
2. Structural Unemployment :-
This unemployment arises when there is a mismatch between the worker’s skills and
availability of jobs in the market. Many people in India do not get job matching to their skills
or due to lack of required skills they do not get jobs and because of poor education level, it
becomes important to provide them related training.
3. Seasonal Unemployment :-
That situation of unemployment when people do not have work during certain seasons of the
year such as labourers in India rarely have occupation throughout the year.
4. Vulnerable Unemployment :-
People are deemed unemployed under this unemployment. People are employed but
informally i.e. without proper job contracts and thus records of their work are never
maintained. It is one of the main types of unemployment in India.
5. Technological Unemployment :-
The situation when people lose their jobs due to advancement in technologies. In 2016, the
data of the World Bank predicted that the proportion of jobs threatened by automation in
India is 69% year-on-year.
6. Cyclical Unemployment :-
Unemployment caused due to the business cycle, where the number of unemployed heads
rises during recessions and declines with the growth of the economy. Cyclical unemployment
figures in India are negligible.
7. Frictional Unemployment :-
This is a situation when people are unemployed for a short span of time while searching for a
new job or switching between jobs. Frictional Unemployment also called Search
Unemployment, is the time lag between the jobs. Frictional unemployment is considered as
voluntary unemployment because the reason for unemployment is not a shortage of jobs, but
in fact, the workers themselves quit their jobs in search of better opportunities.
CAUSES OF UNEMPLOYMENT
7
The major causes of unemployment are as mentioned below :-
1. Large population.
2. Lack of vocational skills or low educational levels of the working population.
3. Labour-intensive sectors suffering from the slowdown in private investment particularly
after demonetisation.
4. The low productivity in the agriculture sector plus the lack of alternative opportunities for
agricultural workers that makes transition among the three sectors difficult.
5. Legal complexities, inadequate state support, low infrastructural, financial and market
linkages to small businesses making such enterprises unviable with cost and compliance
overruns.
6. Inadequate growth of infrastructure and low investments in the manufacturing sector,
hence restricting the employment potential of the secondary sector.
7. The huge workforce of the country is associated with the informal sector because of a lack
of required education or skills, and this data is not captured in employment statistics.
8. The main cause of structural unemployment is the education provided in schools and
colleges are not as per the current requirements of the industries.
9. Regressive social norms that deter women from taking/continuing employment.
EVIL EFFECTS OF UNEMPLOYMENT
8
The unemployment in any nation has the following effects on the economy :-
1. The problem of unemployment gives rise to the problem of poverty.
2. The government suffers extra borrowing burden because unemployment causes a decrease
in the production and less consumption of goods and services by the people.
3. Unemployed persons can easily be enticed by antisocial elements. This makes them lose
faith in the democratic values of the country.
4. People unemployed for a long time may indulge in illegal and wrong activities for earning
money which increases crime in the country.
5. Unemployment affects the economy of the country as the workforce that could have been
gainfully employed to generate resources actually gets dependent on the remaining working
population, thus escalating socio-economic costs for the state. For instance, a 1 % increase in
unemployment reduces the GDP by 2 %.
6. It is often seen that unemployed people end up getting addicted to drugs and alcohol or
attempts suicide, leading to losses to the human resources of the country.
GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE TO CONTROL UNEMPLOYMENT
9
Several policies have been initiated by the government to reduce the unemployment problem
in the economy. The policies to reduce unemployment are highlighted below :-
1. In 1979 the government launched TRYSEM – Training of Rural Youth for Self-
Employment The objective of this scheme was to help unemployed youth of rural areas aged
between 18 and 35 years to acquire skills for self-employment. The priority under this
scheme was given to women and youth belonging to SC/ST category.
2. The Government launched the IRDP – Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)
in the year 1980 to create full employment opportunities in rural areas.
3. A new initiative was tried namely RSETI/RUDSETI in 1982 jointly by Sri Dharmasthala
Manjunatheshwara Educational Trust, Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank. The aim of
RUDSETI, the acronym of Rural Development And Self Employment Training Institute was
to mitigate the unemployment problem among the youth. Rural Self Employment Training
Institutes/ RSETIs are now managed by Banks with active cooperation from the state and
central Government.
4. The Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) was started in April 1989 by merging the two existing
wage employment programme i.e. RLEGP – Rural Landless Employment Guarantee
Programme and NREP – National Rural Employment Programme on an 80:20 cost-sharing
basis between the state and centre.
5. MNREGA – Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act launched in
2005 providing the right to work to people. An employment scheme of MGNREGA aimed to
provide social security by guaranteeing a minimum of 100 days paid work per year to all the
families whose adult members opt for unskilled labour-intensive work.
6. PMKVY – Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana was launched in 2015. The objective of
PMKVY was to enable the youth of the country to take up industry-relevant skill training in
order to acquire a secured better livelihood.
7. The government launched the Start-Up India Scheme in 2016. The aim of Startup India
programmes was to develop an ecosystem that nurtures and promotes entrepreneurship across
the nation.
8. Stand Up India Scheme also launched in 2016 aimed to facilitate bank loans to women and
SC/ST borrowers between Rs 10 lakh and Rs. 1 crore for setting up a greenfield enterprise.
9. National Skill Development Mission was set up in November 2014 to drive the ‘Skill
India’ agenda in a ‘Mission Mode’ in order to converge the existing skill training initiatives
and combine scale and quality of skilling efforts, with speed.
CONCLUSION
10
As the forgoing discussions reveal, significant efforts have been made, to attack
the problem of unemployment directly. There does not seem to be much wrong
in the formulation of the schemes. But in actual performance of these schemes,
researchers have found that most of these programmes, which were meant to
benefit the weaker sections of the society, were appropriated by the elites. This
is so because, in these programmes, undue reliance is being placed on Panchayati
Raj institutions, which are plagued with severe corruptions. In underdeveloped
economies like India, problem of unemployment is widespread. It is found both
in rural and urban areas. Slow economic growth process, increase in size of
labour force, inappropriate technology and lack of manpower planning are mainly
responsible for their problem. Different types of measurements are used to judge
the extent of unemployment. It is of interest to look at the problem from various
angles, namely education and unemployment, incidence of unemployment among
females and regional dimension of unemployment.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
11
Books Referred :-
=> C. N. Shankar Rao, Sociology, S. Chand Publications Limited
Web Sources :-
=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment
12
