Economic Survey 2019-20: Social Infrastructure, Employment and Human Development | 01 Feb 2020

• Employment and Income
  
  • Largest proportion of Indian population depends directly or indirectly on agriculture for employment opportunities as compared to any other sector.
  • The share of regular wage/salaried employees has increased by 5 percentage points from 18% in 2011-12 to 23% in 2017-18.
  • Gender disparity in India’s labour market widened due to decline in female labour force participation, especially in rural areas.
• Government Expenditure on Social Services
  
  • The expenditure on social services (health, education and others) by the Centre and States as a proportion of GDP increased from 6.2% in 2014-15 to 7.7% in 2019-20.
  • Access to health services inter-alia through Ayushman Bharat and Mission Indradhanush across the country has improved and a 10 Year Rural Sanitation Strategy (2019-2029) launched to focus on sustaining the sanitation behavior change and increasing access to solid and liquid waste management.
• Burning of agricultural residues, leading to rise in pollutant levels and deterioration of air quality, is still a major concern, though the total number of burning events recorded reduced due to various efforts taken.
• All urban areas of 35 States/UTs have become Open Defecation Free (ODF) and percentage of waste processing rose from around 18% to 60%.
• The Survey emphasizes on sustainability of food security operations by:
  
  • Addressing the burgeoning food subsidy bill.
  • Revisiting the rates and coverage under National Food Security Act (NFSA).
• Privatization of Education
  
  • The Survey proposes privatization of education at all levels as a policy initiative to fast-track entrepreneurship and consequently wealth creation.
  • It links literacy levels to start-up activity and cites the example of the eastern parts of the country, which have the lowest literacy rate of about 59.6% and also the lowest rate of new firms being set up.