Job Quotas Will Not Do Much To Raise Local Recruitment

Context: Recently, the Haryana government’s job-quota law has gone too far in being vocal-for-local by requiring that 75% of local jobs that pay below Rs50,000 per month be reserved for locals.

Concerns with the job-quota laws:

• Against India’s Constitution: breaches fundamental rights under Articles 14, 15, 16 and 19, covering areas like the freedom to move freely in the country, non-discrimination on the basis of the birthplace, etc.
  • It has been introduced by states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in the past.
  • While some have tried it only for public employment, while others have used a proxy, such as requiring local-language proficiency, to exclude outsiders.
• Driven by populist impulse rather than rational thinking: E.g. Party in power in Haryana promised it in its election manifesto.
  • 63% of respondents (in a Lokniti-CSDS survey 2017) supported job quotas for locals. Proportion was higher in big cities.
• Tendency to blame ‘outsiders’: In the case of Haryana’s law, it has also been justified on two other grounds: (other than unemployment)
  1. To curb the proliferation of slums, and
  2. To contain the outbound migration of its own youth.
• Against the Centre’s labour reforms: which introduced four labour codes (wages, safety, industrial relations and social security) with a focus on moving away from protecting jobs to protecting the worker.

Way forward:

• Focus on job creation instead of job reservation: Migration patterns not only reflect the distribution of economic opportunities but are also a response to disparate ageing and demographics across states.
  • For example, Kerala now offers a free Malayalam literacy programme to migrant workers.
• Focus on providing incentives rather than coercion: for instance, Singapore offers S$15,000 for each local worker hired who was below 40 years of age (S$30,000 for older workers).
  • Provide incentives for employers to impart on-the-job training or to run apprenticeships.
  • Ensure affordable housing facilities (like low-rent dormitory space) to workers, which will reduce the ‘slums’ problem.
• Create an authentic database of jobs: both for seekers and recruiters, which will enable real-time monitoring of the employment situation.