Green Jobs
Tracing the evolving landscape of green jobs in 2025
Green jobs are not new, but what counts as a green job is evolving. Typically tied to renewable energy or sustainability roles, the term now captures a broad spectrum of roles that contribute to environmental protection, restoration, or adaptation. While green jobs are often framed around energy transition, we examined sectors like disaster management and films to show how new sustainability roles are emerging where none existed before.
When reel and real stories create impact
New roles are emerging in India’s film industry, as sustainability consultants, renewable energy engineers, and circular economy entrepreneurs work to reduce the carbon footprint of film productions.
Employment News
MGNREGS work demand drops 28% in December after law change
About 18.44 million people sought the typically unskilled work under the MGNREGS in December, down 28.4% from 25.77 million a year earlier. In November, however, only 14.66 million people had demanded work.
Endangered Workers
SECTOR REPORT 2025---RAILWAY WORKERS
For the Indian Railways--which is the largest employer in India after the combined military forces-–and for its employees, 2025 was a difficult year. It saw staff shortages including an acute shortage of loco pilots, a hunger strike by the All India Loco Running Staff Association in different parts of the country to highlight several grievances, delayed recruitment despite the persistence of a large number of vacancies and increased contractualisation to cope with staff shortages. It also saw deaths at work. The human cost of keeping India’s trains running continued to be high.
In December Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw gave Parliament the sanguine news that the Indian Railways has reported a sharp decline in annual train accidents. He informed the Rajya Sabha that these have decreased from 135 in 2014-15 to 31 in 2024-25, and further to 11 in 2025-26 (up to November 2025). This represents a historic low for the network and underscores sustained investments in safety and infrastructure upgrades, including the rollout of the Kavach train protection system, the ministry said.
For workers on the tracks however the year remained one of being regularly killed by trains, but those deaths do not count in the official tally as ‘accidents’. In the course of the year Caravan magazine published a horrific cover story on the lives and deaths of track maintenance workers, titled ‘Blood on the Tracks’. It said track maintainers constitute the largest section of the Indian Railways workforce, doing everything that is essential to the functioning and safety of the 135,207 kilometres of railway track. And it estimated that on an average a 100 track maintainers were dying every year of accidents caused by overwork which diminishes their alertness, and by neglect of locomotive pilots driving trains, who are themselves too overworked and fatigued to remain alert.
When a track maintainer was mowed down in January 2025 in the Maldah Division, the All India Railway Track Maintainers Union (AIRTU) said it was the third incident of the death of a track maintainer in five days. While nearly every cadre across the railways has seen significant downsizing, the work pressure on track maintainers is aggravated by railway officers who misuse them as office staff or domestic workers in their homes. AIRTU estimates that about 15,000 track maintainers are working in offices or are asked to do domestic work in bungalows. The railways bureaucracy makes up for this shortfall by intensifying the labour of those still employed on the tracks.
Deshabhimani reported in August that the Indian Railways was facing a severe crisis due to the acute shortage of loco pilots. It said currently, 33,174 loco running posts, or over 23%, were vacant over 16 zones, with some zones facing shortages of as high as 40 – 45%. Instead of addressing the issue through urgent recruitment, the Railway Board had moved towards appointing retired drivers on daily wages, effectively paving the way for contractualisation of train operations.
In April the Railway Ministry had said it planned to hire signalling and telecom staff on contract, to address increased demand due to network expansion and modern signalling systems. And in December the Railway Board approved the engagement of 5,058 ex-servicemen on a contractual basis as an interim measure to meet operational requirements, until regular candidates were recruited through the Railway Recruitment Cells. The move faced stiff resistance from trade unions, and a CRS recommendation against contractual staff in safety-critical roles. In January 2026 Deshabhimani reported again that Indian Railways continues to delay recruitment despite having 3.12 lakh vacant posts, even as contract staff had risen to 7.5 Lakh.
In December 2025 members of the All India Loco Running Staff Association held a 48 hour hunger strike in different parts of the country to highlight severe grievances. It complained that they are deprived of the legally mandated 16-hour daily rest and 30-hour weekly rest, while being forced to work 12 hours a day, often extended without limit under threat of disciplinary action. In April the Railway Board had rejected the loco pilots' demand for meal and toilet breaks on duty.
The Caravan report said that in recent years the increasing length, weight, speed and frequency of trains and the need for sustained attention to the increasing number of signals have only increased the stress for loco pilots. But rather than reduce shift times and leave time for adequate rest and sleep, the Indian Railways has introduced surveillance devices in loco cabs to track their attentiveness.
The railways has also issued every track maintainer a GPS device that sends their live location and speed to supervisors, to keep track maintainers on the move. The device the workers have been demanding though is called a rakshak—protector— which beeps and vibrates to warn them of an approaching train. It was first mentioned i In the 2016-17 railway budget but is yet to be developed and distributed to all.
In December 2025 in West Singhbhum a track maintainer was hit by a train and killed, Jagran.com reported, His body was found in pieces. At year end a viral video surfaced on Instagram which showed railway workers conducting maintenance on an active track just seconds before a high-speed passenger train passed by, narrowly avoiding what could have been a major accident.
Finally, there were two fare hikes that the Railways announced last year, in July and December. These will impact all workers, since migrant and other workers form the largest segment of passengers on the railways.
Why nearly a hundred track maintainers die on the job
(For pdf of article contact author-- zaen.alkazi@gmail.com).
Decision to surrender over 29,000 posts will compromise safety, operational efficiency: AIRF to Railway Board
The Gig Economy
Concerns of gig workers must be heard, addressed fairly
Over the last few days, strikes by workers engaged by companies such as Swiggy, Zomato and Zepto calling for a ban on 10-minute delivery services have drawn attention to this issue. It requires careful consideration on the way forward. Alongside this absorption of large pools of labour in the non-farm sector, worries have grown over the welfare of the workers, and the security of their jobs and incomes. There are concerns over fluctuating and uncertain wages, lack of transparency in pay structures, long hours and unsafe working conditions.
Gig workers' strike exposes the hard limits of India's quick commerce model
The year-end strike by a section of gig and platform workers over remuneration and work conditions presents quick-commerce and food-delivery firms with an opportunity to re-align their business models. Gig workers’ demands are basic; they range from fair and transparent wages, a ban on 10-minute delivery models, and an alignment of pay and benefits in line with the recently notified labour Codes. The need for employers to respond is becoming increasingly urgent, given the rapid expansion of quick commerce over the past few years and the expected surge in demand for gig and platform workers.
Labour Reforms
New Code on Wages draft lets states set daily work hours, raising exploitation fears
The labour and employment ministry last week published the new draft rules for all four labour laws passed in 2019 and sought feedback, after protests by workers’ bodies had prevented the implementation of the previous draft rules of 2020. New draft rules for the Code on Wages allow governments to decide the normal daily work hours, currently fixed at eight, prompting labour economists and workers’ representatives to express fears about exploitation by private employers.
In the Courts
Sweeping Allegations On 'Bad Reputation' Without Service Record Cannot Sustain Premature Retirement Order: J&K&L High Court
The High Court noted that although the Screening Committee recorded that the employee did not enjoy a good public reputation and was perceived as corrupt, these observations were not backed by any material from the service record. The Committee failed to examine the employee's service book, Annual Performance Reports, or obtain inputs from officers under whom he had served. The Court emphasized that assessment of reputation must be based on tangible service-related material and not on sweeping statements or subjective perceptions.
Pension Demands
Amid protest call by employees' unions, CM Stalin announces TN Assured Pension Scheme for government staff
CHENNAI: Fulfilling a 23-year demand of state government employees and teachers, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Saturday announced the Tamil Nadu Assured Pension Scheme (TAPS), which he said would offer benefits equivalent to the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). Under TAPS, government employees and teachers will receive a guaranteed pension equal to 50% of the last drawn monthly salary. Employees will contribute 10% of their salary, while the entire additional financial burden required to ensure the assured pension will be borne by the Tamil Nadu government.
IT Workers
India's tech job openings fall 24% in January, hit six-year low: Xpheno
As of January 2026, the number of active job openings stands at 103,000, down 24 per cent from 136,000 in the same period last year. Though the 2026 number is slightly better than 102,000 in January 2024, but it is way below 262,000 openings four years ago, when the pandemic was getting over. The current active demand volume is down 60 per cent from the peak demand recorded in January 2022.
Skilling
‘300 doctors in districts trained as specialists’
When patients in rural areas need specialty medical care, they invariably have to seek it in cities. How then can district hospitals be upgraded to handle such cases? While improving infrastructure is important, it is equally necessary to enable MBBS physicians in rural areas to acquire specialized degrees where they are already located. To this end, a tripartite effort in Karnataka has delivered beneficial results. Doctors are being successfully trained in district hospitals in specialties that matter with visible advantages for local populations.
Profiles
Humans of the Yamuna
VIDEO: Divers and boatmen in Delhi risk their lives daily in the polluted waters of the Yamuna as it flows through the capital city. For eight months of the year (March to October), Abhinandan works as a swimming coach at the Commonwealth Games complex. When Delhi’s pools shut during winter, he turns to the river for work, ferrying people and materials across the Yamuna. Both jobs earn him an average of Rs. 21,000 a month.