Is there a way to arrest job losses and create jobs instead?
I don’t think we have ever planned for something like this. We haven’t got our perspective right. We talk of the number of jobs we have created under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). Do you know what these jobs are? People simply carry mud from one place and deposit it at another place. That is the job they do. What we need to do is plan for job guarantees in the skilled and the urban sector. We will need a National Urban Employment Guarantee Act. I would say that an all-party meeting must be called and a consensus should be reached on the number of days an urban worker can be guaranteed a skilled job, and his minimum wages. Our democracy is often lauded. But we seem to be more of a psephocracy, where everything is geared towards winning an election. Since elections are the most powerful tool in a democracy, what electoral reform does India need to implement? We must link fundamental rights to voting. For instance, passports must be issued only to those persons who
