I don’t believe media reports about unemployment being on the rise in India. According to some published a few weeks ago, the country’s unemployment rate crept up to nearly 8 per cent in December. Think tanks then pointed out that it was more than 7 per cent in 2020 and for most of 2021. Apparently, our rate exceeded emerging economies like Bangladesh (5.3 per cent), Mexico (4.7 per cent) and Vietnam (2.3 per cent), which is obviously impossible because we all know that India fares better than Bangladesh, Mexico, and Vietnam. We may not have facts or figures to back this argument, but that shouldn’t stop us from believing it to be true.

There have been warnings not just about how bad things are but how they might get worse. Three-quarters of our workforce are self-employed and casual, apparently, and also lack social security benefits. Only 9 per cent of the country’s workforce has access to formal jobs with social security like healthcare, retirement savings schemes, or maternity benefits. I laugh at these warnings because they are so far from the truth.