Unemployment insurance

WITH the adoption in this country of Western industrial and business methods and the closer link-up of India with world markets and commercial and industrial conditions, as well as on account of a host of internal circumstances, political and social, the problem of unemployment has for some time been growing more and more acute. Not the least important phase of this unfortunate matter is the extent of unemployment prevailing among the educated middle class. It is extremely regrettable that practically nothing tangible has been done so far in the matter of removing the root causes of this evil or even prevent it from assuming graver proportions. We have already had something to say about the responsibilities of the State, which though recognised and realised in so many modern countries, are notoriously ignored in this unfortunate land, about finding employment for all its able-bodied citizens who cannot obtain work in spite of their best endeavours to do so. But there is another and more pressing side of the problem which not infrequently causes even more distress and misery than the unemployment of fresh seekers of work. We refer, of course, to the cases of those who are thrown out of work on account of the exigencies of present-day conditions of employment, after having worked for some years and having formed definite habits of life and settled down to a definite scale of social existence with all its attendant liabilities. Assuring to the wage-earner some sort of material assistance in his hour of trouble, brought about through no fault of his own, is the least that the State, which is ultimately responsible for his wellbeing, can do to allay his distress. In most advanced countries, therefore, some system of unemployment insurance exists either under State compulsion or voluntarily on the part of employing agencies assisted by the State.