'More employment doesn't mean better employment'

Rapid economic growth has engineered employment in India but also led to deteriorated working conditions in many sectors, especially manufacturing, an expert said at a conference here Wednesday.

Speaking at "Dialogues on the India Exclusion Report-2014", Ravi Srivastava, a professor in the Centre for the Study of Regional Development in Jawaharlal Nehru University, elaborated how the rapid economic boom (2003-2014) generated employment in the country, but necessarily didn't offer a better work atmosphere.

"More employment doesn't mean better employment," said Srivastava who was speaking on the topic "Exclusion from Decent Work in Labour Markets".

"The work has to be decent, and by decent I just don't mean better remuneration. It also comprises of working hours and rights at work. So, in this period of higher growth, one has seen dramatic rise in the deteriorating working conditions for people, especially labourers," he added.

Srivastava, whose areas of interest include labour and migration, pointed out how agricultural employment in the country has declined because of globalisation and non-agriculture employment increased by 3 to 4 percent.

"There is no doubt that permanent employment grew at a steady rate compared to casual work. But the conditions have become extremely bad," he said.