Employment Strategy in the Sixth Plan

Abstract

For the first time in the history of Indian planning² in the Revised Draft of the Sixth Plan the employment implications of the various production targets have been worked out largely on the basis of labour coefficients. The accuracy of the data on which they are based and the methodology adopted can be subjected to critical scrutiny, but it is difficult to produce more accurate up to date data, and in response to the debate that followed the publication of the Draft Plan, important changes have been made in the methodology, notably regarding additional employment in agriculture. Both these have been explained in Chapter X on Employment and Manpower of the Revised Draft Plan. I shall only draw attention to some of the less well-noted aspects of the problem.

[At the time of the Pune Conference, Professor Lakdawala had very recently ceased to be Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. Eds]