West Bengal's Employment and Social Indicators Earn Praise in NITI Aayog’s Latest Report

PTI, Kolkata, July 14, 2025 : Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that NITI Aayog "officially recognised" that the state performed strongly across key socio-economic indicators, especially in employment.

The NITI Aayog's newly released summary report also highlighted the state's "positive standing" in areas such as literacy rate, life expectancy, sex ratio, as well as quality of life, she said.

"Pleased to share that NITI Aayog has officially recognised West Bengal's strong performance across key socio-economic indicators—most notably in employment. The state's annual unemployment rate for 2022-23 stood at just 2.2 per cent, which is 30 per cent lower than the national average of 3.2 per cent," Mamata said in a post on X.

The report suggested that the literacy rate of West Bengal is 76.3 per cent, above the national average of 73 per cent (as of 2011), she said. "The education outcomes are lower school dropout rates and higher pass percentages in classes 10 and 12 compared to national averages. The life expectancy in Bengal is 72.3 years (2020), higher than the national average," the Chief Minister said.

The sex ratio in West Bengal is 973 female births per 1,000 male births, significantly better than the national average of 889, while the infant mortality rate is 19 per 1,000 live births (2020), and the total fertility rate is 1.6 children per woman (2019-21), both better than national averages, Banerjee said.

"The report notes steady improvement, including higher-than-average household access to drinking water. These achievements reflect West Bengal's continued commitment to inclusive and sustainable development," she said, congratulating all who have contributed to making this happen.

Mamata, a staunch critic of the NITI Aayog, has been calling for "scrapping" the policy think tank for the Centre, claiming that it had little use other than organising annual meetings. In May this year, the Chief Minister skipped the 10th Governing Council meeting of the NITI Aayog, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.