There’s a growing mountain of scepticism about the economic growth and development data being published for public consumption by the BJP/NDA government in New Delhi. According to official Government of India data, with an annual GDP growth rate of 7.5 percent in 2015-16, India recorded the highest rate of economic growth worldwide last year, and 7.3 percent in the third quarter of 2016, notwithstanding the currency demonetisation bomb blast of November 8.

However this rosy growth data broadcast of the government tomtommed by BJP spokespersons on news channels, isn’t believed by all. According to a report of the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs of the US state department, the BJP’s claim that the Indian economy grew by 7.5 percent in 2015-16 “may be overstated”. Even Raghuram Rajan, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, expressed reservations about the “way we count GDP”.

Likewise, ground zero visual and anecdotal evidence casts a long shadow over data released last April in the Sixth Census of the Union ministry of statistics and programme implementation, that employment has grown in Uttar Pradesh by 79.4 percent in the past decade and the number of economic establishments (2005-13) by 67.4 percent against the national average of 41.8 percent.

In September, the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) received 500,000 applications for 3,142 class IV jobs — of street cleaners and garbage collectors — it advertised with college graduates and university postgrads applying for these jobs which requires class VIII certification. Last year, 368 jobs of office assistants (peons) which required a minimum class V qualification attracted 2.3 million applications, of which 2.2 million were from certified engineers, postgraduates and Ph Ds.

“We are staring at a huge crisis. These (LMC) are contractual jobs and don’t offer benefits like provident fund and job security. Yet the fact that lakhs are willing to do them indicates a serious mismatch between education and the jobs market. Such a huge number of applications will inevitably give rise to increased corruption in the recruitment process,” says P.K. Srivastava, additional city commissioner, LMC, who has the unenviable task of selecting 3,142 personnel from 500,000 applicants.

Even as academics in Lucknow lament this development as a waste of trained talent, Dalit scholar and activist S.R. Darapuri discerns a silver lining. “Quite clearly, rising unemployment and economic imperatives are dissolving caste-job boundaries. But there’s also the danger that Dalits who have traditionally done these jobs will protest this influx into their vocations,” says Darapuri.

In a country which seems to have only recently discovered the importance of clean public spaces, and belatedly taken to heart Mahatma Gandhi’s sentiment that scavenging is “a fine art”, this change of mindset should be welcomed. But Lucknow’s municipal commissioner Uday Pratap says, “it will be very difficult to choose appropriate people for these low-end jobs. A good job cannot be expected from over-qualified applicants.”

However, even as political parties get ready for the next legislative election scheduled for February, the ruling Samajwadi Party minister for education Abhishek Mishra is making all the right noises. “Under the UP Skill Development Mission we have made a massive push for skilling of youth. But it will take some time before results can be seen,” he says.

Among recent government initiatives to address the snowballing unemployment problem in India’s most populous (215 million) state, are MOUs with top notch corporates such as Larsen and Toubro to train 16,000 youth and employ them on completion of training.

In India’s most populous Hindi heartland state in which the majority of the population is illiterate, and the prime objective of the state’s at best quasi-literate politicians is primitive capital accumulation, the urgent requirement is massive investment in education for employment rather than MoUs with capital-intensive corporates. This awareness is conspicuously lacking among all political parties gearing for the imminent assembly election.

Puja Awasthi (Lucknow)