Despite a high rate of chronic unemployment plaguing the State, the issue apparently was not on Finance Minister Pradeep Amat’s focus as the Budget for Financial Year (FY) 2015-16 has chased mostly after high-profile dream schemes like Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana and similar ilk and on the other, it gives only a left-handed compliment to almost all the job-churning sectors in the State.
Consider this. According to the State’s Economic Survey 2014-15, rural unemployment in Odisha is much above the national average. The 2014 labour bureau data on employment-unemployment estimated the rural unemployment rate at around 6 per cent.
But allocations to rural employment intensive departments have been very meagre. For rural employment, the hike in allocation for 2015-16 has been mere Rs 72 crore over that of allocation in 2014-15. This seemingly appears peanut even one goes by the Budget document that has estimated an inflation rate of 4 per cent to calculate the 2015-16 Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).
Similarly, the important department of village and small industries saw a mere hike of Rs 35 crore. Handloom and Handicraft Department saw an allocation of little over Rs 151 crore.
Even, the capital outlay for the Tourism Department has seen a nominal hike of Rs 7 crore only. Dairy development that has the potential to increase the per capita income of farmers and boost productive self employment saw a slash in allocation to Rs 43 crore from over Rs 75 crore in 2014-15. Improving milk yield to boost income is central to higher investment for improving breeding facilities in the State. But by slashing the allocation the Budget shows where its priorities lie.
Moreover, when skill development has been the flavour of the current season, the Budget simply sings paean to it without any concrete roadmap. This sounds little non-rationale as Odisha has only 10 per cent people in rural areas and around 48 per cent in urban areas with the requisite skill to find a job in organised sector. In order to address high unemployment rate, the Niti Ayog has suggested the State to focus on village and small industries that caters to subsectors like handlooms, handicrafts and other agro-based industries. The Budget 2015-16 seems to have no plan for these sub-sectors.
Further, as per the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), the total contribution of tourism to both direct and indirect employment has been estimated at over 8.5 per cent. It said a boost to tourism ‘characteristic’ goods and services like hotels and beverages and tourism ‘related’ products like clothing, garment items, processed foods and gems and jewelleries could work wonder.
But the budgetary support to expand tourism development is quite abysmal as the capital outlay has been pegged at only Rs 100 crore this fiscal. Similarly, the Budget is very short of spelling out precise road map for developing other job intensive industries like export and consumer industries.
The only plan the Budget envisages to generate employment in the State is through infrastructure projects like rural roads and irrigation projects only. Even the much-touted Biju Expressway Yojana saw a mere allocation of Rs 32 crore only. This focus indicates that the Budget is for only casual job creation and lacks any plan to streamline long-term organised sector employment generation in the State.