No abstract

The present article studies the impact of migration to the construction sector on rural poverty in India based on field survey. The survey has been carried out in two phases, the first phase involving the survey of construction workers in National Capital Region and the second phase comparing the well-being of migrant households with non migrant households in selected source villages. The study finds that at destination, workers have poor living and working conditions, lack citizenship rights, entitlements and voice. However, at the cost of hardship, low consumption levels, and possibly a smaller working life span, they manage to save a good portion of their income which they remit or take back home. At origin, migrant households report higher expenditure on consumption, residential housing, and children’s education, as well as some other assets. These differences are a result of higher employment and wage incomes among migrants. However, we were not able to control for differences in initial conditions, and life cycle and other issues, which influence both participation in migration, as well as long-term impacts.

The paper examines the nature of the migrant crisis in India after the country-wide lockdown in March 2020 and brings out the types of labour migrants who were severely adversely affected by the lockdown, leading to their exodus towards their native villages. It further assesses the government's response and proposes some key policy imperatives.

No abstract

This paper analyses recent macro employment trends in India. Analysis of recent data shows increasing informalisation and flexibilisation of labour and challenges the notion that casualisation is the only manner in which flexibilisation and informalisation of labour is occurring in India. It argues that the concern with decent work has to be based on analysis of labour conditions in all major forms of employment. The paper also discusses the main strategies proposed for introducing labour standards and decent work in the Indian context. We argue that in the recent post economic crisis period, there is greater acceptability to improving labour standards and income distribution as a way of sustaining long term growth. This has raised the profile of those Indian initiatives which build upon social and economic rights. Although this paper is based on detailed Indian empirical evidence, the trends that it adduces and its policy implications are of much greater general significance.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract