Can Labour Policy Reforms be a Panacea for India's Unemployment problem?

Abstract

Unemployment situation in India has become a matter of serious concern over the last many years. However, it is not the Covid-induced impact on unemployment that is being talked about here. The deterioration of India’s employment scenario began around 2011-12 long before the onset of Covid and by 2017-18 it turned grave. There are some deep-rooted policy issues which are responsible for the deterioration of India’s employment scenario and some fundamental policy changes are required for tackling them. This article takes a look at these issues and tries to assess whether the recent changes in the labour policy can become the panacea by taking care of these issues.