In second term as Goa CM, Pramod Sawant seeks to solve joblessness

Pramod Sawant of
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took oath as the chief minister of Goa,
India’s smallest state, on Monday. The 48-year-old Ayurveda
doctor-turned-politician led his party to victory in the recently-concluded
Assembly elections battling heavy odds. Now, with the CM’s chair within reach,
Pramod Sawant wants to solve Goa’s unemployment crisis.

Speaking from Goa
capital Panaji, Sawant said generating employment in various sectors for the
people of the state will be the government’s priority.

Also Read | Sawant comes out of Parrikar’s shadow

In the five states
that went to polls recently – Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Punjab and
Goa – the smallest state, located by the Arabian Sea, has the worst
unemployment numbers.

Goa’s overall
unemployment rate was at 13% between 2016 to 2021, according to data gathered
by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). During these five years, Goa’s
employment rate has dropped from 49% to 32%.

In 2016, nearly
half of Goa’s working population had jobs. In these five years, Goa’s working
population has gone up from 12.24 lakh to 13.1 lakh and the employment rate has
come down to nearly one in three.

Also Read | Odd polls in tiny state: What’s unusual about Goa election results?

Unemployment was
one of the biggest issues in Goa’s Assembly polls. With nearly 5 lakh Goans
unemployed, according to data cited by the Goa Forward Party, the crisis is
pushing a nativist narrative, the culmination of which could be found in a
political organisation such as the Revolutionary Goans.

In the fray for
the first time, Revolutionary Goans, with their new-age social media campaigns,
their rousing of anger against a broken political system accused of graft at
every turn, have managed to find voters willing to respond to their call for
change.

Pramod Sawant
knows the depth of the unemployment crisis all too well. He also knows the kind
of threat the Revolutionary Goans pose. The BJP’s election manifesto has
promised to resume mining in Goa within six months of coming to power, a tall
ask since the same manifesto has promised to make the state carbon-neutral.

On Monday, Pramod
Sawant took oath as the CM after fighting an extremely high-octane
election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is attended the ceremony as did Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda.