Union Budget 2024-25: Keeping the house in order, to welcome visitors

in this budget, the government aims to address immediate employment needs while building a sustainable framework for long-term skill development and job creation. This comprehensive approach seeks to equip India’s youth with the necessary skills and opportunities to thrive in a rapidly evolving global economy, thereby maximising the nation’s demographic dividend. However, long-standing challenges remain, such as formalising a burgeoning workforce, facilitating job creation in sectors that can absorb workers shifting from agriculture, and ensuring social security benefits for regular wage/salaried employees. As per PLFS 2022-23, 53 per cent of regular wage/salaried employees are not eligible for any social security benefit. Earlier this year, a joint report by the International Labour Organization and the Institute for Human Development said that one in three young people are not in education, employment or training. Young women are more likely to not be in any of these categories than young men, according to ‘India Employment Report 2024’. A key focus of the Union budget is, therefore, generating employment and transitioning large sections of the young workforce, including women from the informal to the formal sector.

The policy initiatives announced aim to solve structural issues that have been impeding the nation from attaining its growth potential. The budget sends a clear message to the private sector to take on the onus of bringing more people into the ambit of formal employment, with the government’s support.