Employment Implications Of Industrilisation In India

In the early years of planning the planners accepted the hypothesis that a high rate of growth would bring about a high rate of absorption of labour. But it was found that the backlog of unemployment in each succeeding five year plan tended to increase in spite of massive investment in industrial development. This study critically evaluates the performance of the five year plans in general employment through the programmes of industrial development by going into the various factors which have led to a condition in which a rise in investment and output in the industrial sector has not produced a corresponding effect on the level of employment. It examines in detail the structure of output and analyses the intra-industry and inter-industry product mix and shows that the product mix. In general, has shifted in favour of industries with high capital intensity. The role of the small scale industrial sector which has high potential of generating employment has been studied in great detail and it has been shown that this sector has not been given its due importance in the planning process. The study calls for a reorientation of the development strategy which would reconcile the growth and employment functions in the Indian economy. Here it braes new ground and brings to bear a fresh emphasis on an important problem of the Indian economy. This marks it out from most other studies based on the conventional approach.