New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday said employment generation and economic schemes in Jammu and Kashmir are central to its strategy of integrating the region’s youth into the national mainstream, with the government citing rising formal employment, entrepreneurship and credit support in the Union Territory.
The government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is working to bring the youth of Jammu and Kashmir into the national mainstream and prevent them from going on the wrong path, Minister of State for Labour and Employment Shobha Karandlaje said in the Rajya Sabha.
Replying to supplementary questions in the Upper House during the Question Hour, she said there was a time when incidents of stone pelting were commonly seen in Jammu and Kashmir, but the Union Territory is now moving towards creating employment.
“For the first time in the country, in the last seven years, new EPFO subscribers have joined, and in Jammu and Kashmir, 1.6 lakh new subscribers have joined. This is a very big thing in Jammu and Kashmir,” she told the house.
“We are working under the leadership of the Prime Minister in bringing people of Jammu and Kashmir into the national mainstream and to ensure that they do not go on the wrong path.”
Karandlaje said the people of Jammu and Kashmir are being brought to the national mainstream, and we will continue to do this, whatever the Opposition may say.
“You have always come in the way and created hurdles. But our purpose is to save the youth of Jammu and Kashmir and provide them with new employment,” she said.
The Modi government is working to take Jammu and Kashmir forward with different schemes, Karandlaje said.
“For the first time, Jammu and Kashmir Bank has given nearly Rs 14,490 crore under the credit guarantee scheme. This is the highest in the country.
“We have also created nine separate clusters for the manufacture of cricket bats in Jammu and Kashmir,” the minister noted.
“I can give you one example, when I met a girl on a flight, she said that in the country’s history, a prime minister is thinking about the children of Jammu and Kashmir,” she noted.
Prime Minister Modi was present in the Rajya Sabha during the Question Hour on Thursday.
The minister said our government is working towards bringing formalisation of jobs for the youth of Jammu and Kashmir, and EPFO shows this. As many as 1,60,000 people have come to EPFO in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Out of the total 12 crore registrations in the country, as many as 12,297 people have got registered under the PM Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojna. In Jammu Kashmir, 8.2 lakh units have been registered, and 32.3 lakh people have set up units there in the last five years, and the number is increasing,” she said.
Under the credit guarantee scheme, she said, Rs 12 lakh crore worth of loans have been given to entrepreneurs across the country, and in Jammu and Kashmir, loans have also been given.
Under the PM employment generation scheme, the minister said nearly 10.5 lakh crore entrepreneurs have been given a subsidy worth Rs 29,000 crore and assisted one crore units.
In Jammu and Kashmir, 73,349 units are assisted by the subsidy and low-interest loans worth 4,394 crore loans, including 1,530 crore subsidy, she said.
Replying to another supplementary, she said that under the Prime Minister’s Vishwakarma Yojna, “Our aim was to register 30 lakh people in four years, but in two years alone we got 30 lakh people registered and gave training to 22 lakh people. We have also given them toolkits”.
On gig workers, she said the government has signed agreements with 12 companies and 25 lakh people are working in such online platforms to bring them under ESI and EPFO, and our Labour and Employment department is working in this regard and has signed MoUs.
In his written reply to the question on unemployment rate in Jammu and Kashmir, Minister of Labour and Employment Mansukh Mandaviya said the data on Employment and Unemployment is collected through Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), which is conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) since
2017-18.
“As per the latest Annual PLFS reports, the estimated Unemployment Rate (UR) on usual status for persons of age 15 years and above has decreased from 4.8 per cent in 2019-20 to 3.2 per cent in 2023-24 in the country and from 6.7 per cent to 6.1 per cent during the same period in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
“Further, the estimated Worker Population Ratio (WPR) indicating employment on usual status for persons of age 15 years and above has increased from 50.9 per cent in 2019-20 to 58.2 per cent in 2023-24 in the country and 52.5 per cent to 60.4 per cent during the same period in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” the minister said. (With inputs from PTI)
