Kunal Patil, Co-founder and CEO, WorkIndia.
“The focus on employment creation was anticipated to be a key aspect of the Union Budget 2023, however, the Central Government has opted for a more comprehensive and long-term approach by emphasizing infrastructure development to counteract the effects of the pandemic and generate opportunities for blue-collar employment. The Central Government’s PM Gatishakti is a commendable effort that has witnessed an increase of Rs 68,000 crore in allocation in the Union Budget of last year, providing ample employment opportunities for blue-collar workers. We are very optimistic about the amendment in the 15-year-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, where citizens have the opportunity to participate in important rural development projects such as road construction, well digging, and infrastructure creation. Participants of this scheme are ensured a minimum wage for a minimum of 100 days each year. The Skill India Digital Platform has been launched to enable demand-based formal skilling while facilitating access to entrepreneurship schemes including MSMEs. This in turn will encourage people to be a part of the blue-collar industry, inducing growth and opportunity. Apart from that, the opening of 157 Nursing Colleges, recruitment of 38,800 teachers for Eklavya Schools, and allocation of INR 79,000 Crores for Prime Minister Awas Yojana will create new job opportunities too.
The budgetary announcements aim to provide the necessary stimulus to the growth of blue-collar jobs, which are essential to alleviate the long-standing issue of unemployment in the workforce. Our survey report at WorkIndia reveals a significant 121.29% increase in job prospects in the blue-collar industry last year with a more than double increase in job opportunities in India in 2022 and a similar trend in major metropolitan cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi. The implementation of Entity DigiLocker is another highlight that promises to have a beneficial effect for MSMEs, which enhances employee verification, and background checks by ensuring digitizing of records of all employees, as and when required, with various regulatory bodies, financial institutions, and other entities. Additionally, building a digital ecosystem for enabling demand-based formal skills is a welcome step to further help 90% of India’s workforce that primarily belong to the informal sector and contribute to a half share of India’s GDP. This budget has focused on job creation in both formal and informal sectors, which will further enhance to scale-up workforce in both these sectors and work towards Amrit Kaal for our nation.”
