NEW DELHI: The Congress on Sunday accused the Modi government of indulging in “statistical jugglery” over the unemployment issue. The party pointed out that the unemployment rate today is the highest it has been in the last four decades.Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said a Union Minister recently derided the ILO’s Employment Report as a symptom of India’s “slave mentality.” “Instead, he made the absurd claim of having added 52 million new formal jobs between FY20 and FY23 based on EPFO, ESI, and National Pension Scheme database,” he said.Ramesh’s remarks were a reference to the reported comments by Union minister Anurag Thakur at a media conclave last week when he had said that India has been relying on international rating agencies for years, but it should now go by the data from domestic ones which are now equally equipped.Ramesh said as many economists have since proved, the whole job creation between FY20-23 was at best 2. 27 crore.”These 2. 27 crore jobs over three years is a far cry from the Modi Sarkar’s original promise of creating 2 crore jobs a year,” he said.However, it now appears that even this 2. 27 crore figure is an overestimation, Ramesh said.The Supreme Court verdict in 2020 required the EPFO to include contractual workers at any establishment which employs more than 20 people, he noted.
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