Indian dream of well-paying salaried jobs ended with UPA in 2014: Jairam

New Delhi: Congress on Thursday slammed the BJP government at Centre over the shrinking jobs, saying that the Indian dream of well-paying salaried jobs, with the liberalisation of the economy in 1991, ended with the UPA in 2014.

Congress said that only INDIA alliance government can reverse this disastrous course.

In a statement, Congress General Secretary Communication Incharge Jairam Ramesh said that in 2018, when asked about spiraling unemployment in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi as usual denied there was any problem, callously stating that even opening a pakora shop counts as quality employment.

"Tragically for the country, this is one promise Prime Minister has delivered on," he said taking a swipe at the government.

He said that according to the recently released government data captured in the 2022-23 Periodic Labour Force Survey, the proportion of those forced to take up self-employment is at a record high today at 57 per cent, up from 52 per cent five years ago.

"The proportion of regular wage workers has fallen from 24 per cent to 21 per cent, suggestive of widespread middle and lower middle-class distress. This is a reversal of the near-doubling of the share of salaried workers from 14 per cent (2004-05) to 23 per cent (2017-18) under the UPA. The share of self-employed workers forced to make pakoras under the Modi government is today higher than it was in 2004-05," he claimed.

He further said that in addition, self-employed workers are selling fewer pakoras -- monthly income has fallen by 9.2 per cent over the past 4 quarters, from Rs 12,700 to Rs 11,600.

"Even for casual labourers in rural areas, per-day income has dropped by almost five per cent from Rs 409 to Rs 388. At the same time, the sales of luxury goods and cars are zooming, demonstrating the widening inequality -- an issue that was repeatedly highlighted by Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra," the Congress Rajya Sabha MP highlighted.

Ramesh said that the message for India’s workers is clear: you are on your own. "Flawed Modi policies like demonetisation, a complex GST and a policy bias towards big, capital-intensive monopolies in every sector has contributed to this sorry state," he said.

"The Indian dream of well-paying salaried jobs with the liberalisation of the economy in 1991 ended with the UPA in 2014. Only a future INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) government can reverse this disastrous course," he added.