On 13 March 2022, during the three-day meeting of its highest decision-making body the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, the RSS passed a resolution calling for a labour-intensive “Bharatiya Economic Model” in view of rising unemployment in the country.

What does the resolution say?

Flagging the issue of unemployment, it asked for society to come forward and participate in building an Atmanirbhar Bharat where the economic model is based on Indian values.

Thrust must be given to Bharatiya economic model that is human-centric, labour intensive, eco-friendly and lays stress on decentralisation and equitable distribution of benefits and augments village economy, microscale, small scale and agro-based industries,” the resolution said.

The resolution underlined thrust areas as rural employability, unorganised sector employment and employment of women as solutions to unemployment. “Efforts are essential to adopt new technologies and soft skills appropriate to our societal conditions,” it said.

It highlighted the decline of the manufacturing sector, and said boosting it could generate a lot of employment. It also urged the youth to come out of the mentality of seeking only jobs.

An environment conducive to encouraging entrepreneurship should be created by educating and counselling people, especially youth, so that they can come out of the mentality of seeking only jobs. Similar entrepreneurial spirit also needs to be fostered among women, village folks and people from remote and tribal areas,” it said.

Why the resolution?

It comes at a time when India’s unemployment rate has been rising, and when the effects of demonetisation and the pandemic have hit the economy and dried up opportunities.

According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data, the unemployment rate went up to 7.91% in December 2021 from 6.3% in 2018-19 and 4.7% in 2017-18. In urban areas, this has gone up to 9.30% in December 2021 from 8.09% in January 2021, and in rural areas, to 7.28% from 5.81%. The manufacturing sector is said to have lost 9.8 million jobs between 2019-20 and December 2021.

The issue has brought the government under attack from the Opposition and now the RSS believes it has to be addressed through a concerted effort. In fact, according to Sangh sources, six organisations affiliated to the RSS that work in the field of economy had a three-day brainstorming session last month on the state of the Indian economy.

The issue that came out for coordination was employment generation. We agreed that it was easy to abuse the government. But without harnessing the strength of the society, it was not possible to generate employment. If governments could end unemployment, there would be none anywhere. And so a campaign by the name of Swavalambi Bharat Abhiyan was launched,” said Ashwani Mahajan, National Co-Convener of Swadeshi Jagaran Manch.

According to Mahajan, the Abhiyan is an attempt to decentralise employment generation and take it to the grassroots level so that all the employment is not concentrated in a few cities.“The resolution encapsulates this idea. The entrepreneurship of our youth is our strength. So why should we think that employment should be only through jobs. This thought of 60-70 years has to change,” Mahajan said.

How will it be implemented?

The RSS aims to implement it by pushing the government to support small and medium enterprises in the manufacturing sector and by working with the youth at the grassroots to “help them engage into entrepreneurial ventures through agri-allied activities and other self-employment opportunities”.

“Our manufacturing used to be 17-18% of the GDP, now it has reduced to 15%. Markets of API, electronics, cycle, toys, all were eaten away by China. Because of the pandemic there is a change in the mindset of the government. Dependence on China is being increasingly minimised. Government has done a lot to boost manufacturing through various ways, including tariff barriers. Now the society too has to rise to the occasion,” Mahajan said.

According to Sangh sources, there are ample opportunities for creation of jobs in rural India through industrialisation, food processing, agri-allied activities such as animal husbandry, bamboo farming, pisciculture etc. “Government can’t achieve this alone. Society has to come forward. Who will organise them? We have taken the responsibility. The ABVP too has been roped in,” an RSS leader said.

According to Mahajan, the Sangh is pushing the idea that only an employment-based growth model is a good model and Atmanirbhar Bharat cannot alone achieve it. “In all of this, if we see any policy of the government is not fitting in, we will tell the government as well,” Mahajan said.

Is it the first time RSS has taken up the issue?

The RSS has always believed that the governments must follow economic models that are seeped in Indian values and take into account India’s social structure and rural life. Some of its most prominent leaders, such as Dattopant Thengadi, consistently articulated a labour-intensive Swadeshi model as being the best suited for the Indian economy. Following the liberalisation of the economy in the early 1990s, the RSS has vociferously rooted for this model.

In 1992, as the Indian economy opened, the ABPS had passed a resolution on “Swadeshi” and “Unemployment”. It said, “The near total dependence on others leading to growing economic slavery and massive unemployment, too, can be directly traced to attempts at fashioning our economic development after a hybrid Soviet-Western model based on capital intensive and labour-displacing technology, completely ignoring the genius, our life values, the present conditions and needs and future aspirations of our people.”