Social Infrastructure and Employment

  • Government’s response through ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ packages and other sector-specific initiatives have provided the necessary support to mitigate the adverse impact of pandemic.

Covid Vaccination

India’s National COVID Vaccination Program has been one of the world’s largest vaccination programs. Every month about 250-275 million doses of COVISHIELD and 50-60 million doses of COVAXIN have been produced.

Social Expenditure

  • Government’s spending on social services increased significantly during the pandemic. In 2021-22 (BE), Centre and State governments spending on social service sector saw an increase of 9.8 per cent over 2020-21.
  • Expenditure on health sector increased by 73 per cent. For the education sector, the increase during same period was 20 per cent.

Education

  • Teacher Availability: Availability of teachers, measured by Pupil Teacher Ratio, has improved at all levels continuously from 2012-13 to 2019-20: from 34 to 26 at primary, 23 to 18 at upper primary, 30 to 18 at secondary, and 39 to 26 at higher secondary level.
  • School Enrollment: In 2019-20, 26.45 crore children were enrolled in schools. During the year, schools enrolled about 42 lakh additional children, out of which 26 lakh were in primary to higher secondary levels and 16 lakh were in pre-primary as per Unified District Information System for Education plus (UDISE+) database.

At primary level, enrolment reduced from 13.5 crore in 2012-13 to 12.2 crore 2019-20. This decline in enrolment was because of decline in total number of children in the age group 6-10 years.

  • Gross Enrollment Ratio: GER in primary – enrolment in class 1st to 5th as a percentageof population in age 6 to 10 years - for girls as well as boys have improved in 2019-20.
    • GER for boys and girls in Secondary (9th & 10th) have also improved in 2019-20.
    • Gross enrolment ratio in higher education recorded at 27.1 per cent in 2019-20, slightly higher from 26.3 per cent in 2018-19.
  • Dropouts: Year 2019-20 saw decline in dropout rates at primary, upper-primary, and secondary levels.
    • However, ASER (Rural) report also found that during pandemic, children (age 6-14 years) ‘not currently enrolled in schools’ increased from 2.5 per cent in 2018 to 4.6 per cent in 2021.
    • During pandemic, children in rural areas have moved out of private to government schools in all three age groups because of shut down of low-cost private schools, financial distress of parents, free facilities in government schools, and families migrating back to villages etc.

Skill Development

  • According to Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2019-20 formal vocational / technical training among youth (age 15-29 years) and working population (age 15-59 years) have improved in 2019-20 over 2018-19.

ASEEM Portal

  • ASEEM, a digital platform, created to match supply of skilled workforce with the market demand, acts as a directory of skilled workforce. As on 31.12.2021, 1.38 crore candidates have been registered on the portal including candidates registered on Skill India Portal (SIP).
Pradhan Mantri Dakshta Aur Kushalta Sampann Hitgrahi Yojana (PM-DAKSH)
  • It is a national action plan for skilling of marginalized persons including scheduled castes, backward classes and safai karamcharis. The eligible target groups are being 365 Social Infrastructure and Employment provided skill development training programmes.

Employment Trends

  • With the revival of economy in the subsequent quarters of 2020-21, all three labour market indicators (LFPR, WPR, UR) showed a swift recovery.
  • Latest EPFO data suggests significant acceleration in formalisation of the job market, driven by both new formal jobs and formalisation of existing jobs. During the second-COVID-wave, demand for MGNREGS employment reached the maximum level of 4.59 crore persons in June 2021.

New Employment

  • Between 2018-19 and 2019-20, about 4.75 crore additional persons joined the workforce. This is about three times more than the employment created between 2017-18 and 2018-19.
  • The rural sector contributed much more to this expansion relative to the urban sector (3.45 crore in rural sector and 1.30 crore in urban sector).
  • Amongst the additional workers, 2.99 crore were females (63 per cent). About 65 per cent of the additional workers joined in 2019-20 were self-employed.
  • Of the additional workers joined in 2019-20, close to 90 per cent were in the informal nature of employment and more than 98 per cent were in unorganised sector.
  • Of workers added in 2019-20 shows that more than 71 per cent were in the agriculture sector. Among the new workers in the agriculture sector, females account for about 65 per cent.

Health

  • As per latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5, social indicators such as total fertility rate, sex ratio and health outcome indicators viz., infant mortality rate, under-five mortality rate, institutional birth rates have improved over year 2015-16.

Drinking Water and Sanitation

  • In 2019, out of about 18.93 crore families in rural areas, about 3.23 crore (17 per cent) rural families had tap water connections in their homes.
  • Six states/UTs have achieved the coveted status of 100 per cent households with tap water supply, namely Goa, Telangana, A & N Islands, Puducherry, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu and Haryana.
  • Population living in households that use an improved sanitation facility has increased from 48.5 per cent in 2015-16 to 70.2 per cent in 2019-21.
  • Despite significant improvement, the use of improved sanitation facilities in states such as Bihar (49 per cent), Jharkhand (57 per cent), Odisha (60 per cent), Manipur (65 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (65 per cent), West Bengal (68 per cent), Assam (69 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh (69 per cent) have remained below the national average of 70 per cent in 2019-21.

Rural Development

  • As on 18th January 2022, 2.17 crore houses have been sanctioned and 1.69 crore houses completed against a target of 2.63 crore houses till 2021-22.
  • PMGSY roads have a positive impact on human capital formation in rural India. Children in middle or high schoolhad 0.7 more years of schooling in 2017; share of babies delivered at home decreased by 30per cent in connected habitations; vaccination among children under the age of four increased by 15 percentagepoints, with boys and girls benefiting equally.

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