No takers for unemployment landslides, gross mismanagement

In any crisis, the most painful cost rendered is the human one. India’s unemployment problem touched its highest in the last 40 years in 2017-18, standing at 6.1%, according to the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO).

This figure stood at 8.4% in August 2019, which is the highest ever. There is natural unemployment, where new job seekers entering the employment market are unable to find vacancies, which is understandable. 

What is difficult to explain are man-made mass-scale job cuts. It is agonising to see jobs and livelihoods disappearing overnight as a result of judicial intervention because the legislature or the executive, or the corporate masters, did not do their jobs properly. It is not right for the pain to be borne soley by unsuspecting workers and labourers. 

One of the most glaring examples of this is Goa today. It has become the face of massive livelihood loss triggered by judicial intervention. Ever since the Supreme Court abruptly cancelled 88 mining leases in the state on February 7, 2018, life has come to grinding, tragic halt for more than 3,00,000 mining dependents in Goa. 

This is now no longer just an economic slowdown, but a grave humanitarian crisis as well.  As a result of the mining ban, the livelihoods of more than 30% of the state’s population have disappeared with no alternatives insight.  

A ban on an essential source of employment for Goa’s economy, its social fabric has been torn and ripped apart. 

The supportive infrastructure comprising equipment suppliers, logistics and ancillary industry and the very crucial transport sector, have all floundered. 

Goa is the only state with a unique logistical arrangement for movement of iron ore from mines to ports, unlike other states that rely on railway infrastructure for the same.

This channel involves trucks, jetties, and barges, in that order. With more than 12,000 trucks, 150 barges and ancillary units at a standstill, social and financial stress is a way of life for the mining community.

The people who had worked in this logistics chain over the years could never have imagined that overnight the ground under their feet would cave in. Today the owners of trucks and mining equipment are being hounded by banks for recovery of loans, which they cannot repay leading to a huge NPA crisis. 

Among the causes of the sudden loss of jobs en masse, those because of judicial or regulatory action are the most distressing. Others resulting from the collapse of institutions because of financial mismanagement such as Jet Airways, come next. 

In the case of Goa, even when coal mining leases were cancelled in 2014, there were no forecasts, as there was no financial crisis — rather there was financial surplus for the entire value chain.  There are enough studies available to indicate a direct link between crime and lack of livelihood opportunities. Studies have established that India’s Maoist movement is deeply rooted in socio-economic conditions prevalent in those parts of India with large tribal populations. It has mostly affected areas where there is a conflict between the state and the populace on the question of economic deprivation of forest produce and mining such as in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, and agriculture in parts of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. 

In Goa, there were only two major sources of livelihoods — first, mining which has been going on for 400 years, and in recent years, tourism. Without these, Goa has nothing. 

Any social unrest and spike in crime rate can spell doom for Goa’s tourist economy too, which has so far been characterised by friendly service and a self-restrained law and order calm observed by the Goans. 

The purpose of the law is to create a conducive environment for citizens of the state. Goa, however, has become a case where the law and its interpretation have spelt doom for its residents. 

This cannot become a precedent and must be addressed immediately. Situations like these need more complex solutions. It is simplistic to penalise lakhs of people for the actions of a few with the stroke of a pen. Stakeholders must come together to rescue these livelihoods before it is too late. 

The author is president, Public Response Against Helplessness and Action for Redressal or PRAHAR