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Macroeconomic Reforms and a Labour Policy Framework for India

By Jayati Ghosh

Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, June 26, 2004

This paper is concerned with the interaction of macroeconomic and labour market policies, in the specific context of India. The argument is made that employment-intensive growth is a prerequisite for ensuring decent work for all. By contrast, the Indian neoliberal economic reforms initiated at the start of the 1990s did not make employment generation a priority, which is why poor employment growth has been one of the more adverse consequences of the reform process. The collapse of employment generation in agriculture and the very poor performance of formal sector employment are analyzed, and some areas of new potential, such as IT-enabled services and export-oriented employment are considered.

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