NEW DELHI - Protectionist callsto reserve employment for locals aregetting louderin some Indian states as provincial governments try to combat rising unemployment whileensuring labour mobility, which is essentialfor economic growth.
Many experts fear that such protectionist moves could multiply amid the ongoing economic crisis brought on by the Covid-19 pandemicat a time when migrants are headed back to the cities after being forced to return to their villages by the lockdown imposed in March. While the pandemic dealt a severe blow to the economy, it was already ailing with years of jobless growth. Government data show that labour participation rate in the workforce - defined as the percentage of persons working or seeking work among the population - fell from 43 per cent in 2004-05 to 36.9 per cent in 2017-18. It crept up marginally to 37.5 per cent in 2018-19.
"Because the labour market is stagnating, it has led to this backlash that we all need to look out for ourselves when the pie is not growing," Dr Basole told The Straits Times. Mr Gautam Mody, the general secretary of the New Trade Union Initiative, said such proposals risk aggravating existing divisions in the country.