Wages of Distress

Context:

• With India declares to become World’s fastest growing economy, as estimates shows 6.3% growth in the last quarter of the year 2022. But the wages in various sectors shows the contradictory data for growth.

The data shown vs. the reality:

• Recent statistics: The latest estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) suggest that the Indian economy grew by 6.3 per cent compared to last year.
• Flexibility of choosing Base year: The annual growth rates are deceptive as given the choice of base year to the government and hide the reality of an impending economic crisis.
• Average Income as indicator of growth: The same national accounts data shows that average income in India is lower in 2021-22 compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2018-19 with per-capita income declining at 0.25 per cent per annum.

Data related to working groups in India:

• The farmers Income: Against the aim of the government to increase the farmer’s income, it declined by 1.5 per cent per year between 2016-17 and 2020-21.
• The Casual workers: Real wages in non-agricultural occupations between September 2017-2022 declined by 0.9 per cent per annum.
• Organised sector workers: Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) suggest that real earnings of regular workers have declined across categories, male and female, rural and urban.