India wants 'more inclusive' globalisation

Warning against social consequences of increasing phenomenon of jobless growth in developing nations, India has said partnerships between governments and private sector can explore means of corporate social responsibility as an instrument for achieving productive employment and decent work for all.

Direct anti-poverty initiatives are necessary as a social protection measure because inequality and high growth do not automatically eventually lead to a greater equality, it said.

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly's Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee on Tuesday, Indian UN Ambassador Nirupam Sen sought 'more inclusive' globalisation and active labour market policies empowering those marginalised from labour market to combat social exclusion.

In this context, he said, a major challenge for a number of developing countries is to counteract jobless growth and reconcile market forces with the objective of a decent work agenda.

Liberalisation of economy, he said, has to follow a certain level of development of economic and scientific capacity. "Sequencing is, therefore, critical but is often ignored."

Stressing on the need to follow proactive policies, Sen said labour force has increased by 438 million to about 2.9 billion in the 1995-2005 decade but unemployment too has risen from 6 to 6.3 per cent during the same period.

Besides, despite the fact that economic output has increased by 3.8 per cent per annum, unemployment continues to increase, giving rise to the phenomenon of jobless growth, Sen added, stressing that sub-Saharan

Africa has suffered a setback in meeting the Millennium Development Goal.

"Continued dependence on agriculture and high demographic growth continue to make the challenge of full employment and decent work much more difficult to achieve in many parts of the world," he told the Committee.

Observing that it is imperative that the persons working in the informal sector are also brought within the ambit of social protection systems, Sen pointed out that India is implementing the measure to provide social security for workers in the unorganised sector.

India's priority, Sen said, is to ensure that the growth process is much more inclusive, "a growth process that raises incomes of the poor to bring about a much faster reduction in poverty, which generates expansion in good quality employment, and which also ensures access to essential services such as health and education for all sections of the community".

Employment growth in India, he said, accelerated to 2.6 per cent during 1999-2005 outpacing population growth.

"Employment generation, on a sustainable basis, has been one of the important objectives of India's planned economic development".

During the Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-07), particular attention was paid to the policy environment influencing a wide range of economic activities with large employment potential, such as construction, real estate and housing, small scale industries, information technology as well as IT Enabled Services and tourism, he added.