Livelihoods
The fading dreams of India’s vanishing demographic dividend
One afternoon in May, in a tiny, derelict welding workshop among the dozens of labyrinthine lanes in New Delhi’s Wazirpur Industrial Area, two welders discussed the past and future of their line of work, and their place in it. Makhan Singh, the owner of the workshop, in his early 50s, and his employee, 21-year-old Mohamed Mahroof, migrated to Delhi in 2001 and 2024 respectively to become welders, harboured ambitions to excel at it and leverage their skills to earn higher wages. But after half an hour into the conversation, there was a sense of generational reckoning with the country’s economic performance and its ability to reward skilled blue-collar work.
In the Courts
'Against Equality' : Supreme Court Quashes Army Policy To Reserve Higher Number Of JAG Posts For Men Than Women
The Supreme Court today(August 11) struck down a policy of the Indian Army to reserve the posts in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) branch for men, and restrict the number of women who can be appointed to JAG posts. The Court directed that meritorious candidates should be selected for JAG posts from a common list irrespective of gender.
Policy Changes
Facing Stiff Opposition From Farmers, Punjab Govt Withdraws Land Pooling Policy 2025
Jalandhar: Alarmed by the mounting opposition from farmers, farm labourers and the Opposition, the Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government on Monday (August 11) finally withdrew the contentious Land Pooling Policy 2025.
Women in the Workforce
How Musahar women in Varanasi brick kilns are reclaiming the right to breastfeed
Due to the seasonal migration of families to brick kiln industries, often for seven to eight months, pregnant women and young children face critical disruptions in accessing essential health and nutrition services. Across rural Varanasi an intervention by CRY and a local community organisation is working to increase awareness around maternal health, exclusive breastfeeding, and childcare through sustained behaviour change sessions.
The Gig Economy
Dark store surge casts a shadow on rider pay
Companies are expanding their network of distribution centres or dark stores. A surge in these dark stores is surely speeding up deliveries but shrinking rider paychecks, as shorter trips slash distance-linked incentives.
Gig work heats up, disaster body steps in with advisory
• Gig and informal workers face increasing heat risks due to prolonged outdoor hours without adequate safeguards. • The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) released a set of guidelines aimed at protecting workers during heat waves. • Experts argue that the effectiveness of the advisory in protecting workers may be limited because it is not legally binding.
IT Workers
Costly middle layer under fire in IT firms’ cost-cutting drive: Report
Mid- and senior-level professionals in India’s top IT services firms are facing unprecedented layoffs as slowing growth and rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), including agentic AI, push companies to trim costly management layers. According to data from staffing firm Xpheno cited in a Business Standard report, more than 7,700 employees with over 15 years’ experience exited the seven largest IT services players, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech, Tech Mahindra, Cognizant, and LTIMindtree, in the past year. To be noted, this is nearly 4 percent of their senior talent pool. Nearly half moved to global capability centres (GCCs), while others joined rival IT firms or non-tech roles, it has been learnt from the report.
Employment News
When 3.2% doesn't tell the real jobless story
MintPlainFacts | India’s official unemployment number is 3.2%, it is also 4.9%, 5.6%, 13% and 10.2%. All of these numbers are true for the people they represent. Mint breaks down the nuances behind the job data. Unemployment data is more regular now and shows a declining trend. Joblessness rate depends on where you look—it is quite high for young and uneducated. 25.4 per cent for graduates and post graduates combined, 0.2 per cent for the not literate.
https://www.livemint.com/economy/india-jobless-growth-india-unemployment-rate-india-unemployment-data-11755079085096.html
India's Labour Economy
Union Says One Lakh Diamond Workers Have Lost Their Jobs in Saurashtra Post US Tariff
New Delhi: Close to one lakh workers engaged in diamond cutting and polishing across the Saurashtra region have lost their jobs since April, when the 10% base US tariff was put in place, Gujarat’s Diamond Workers Union (DWU) vice-president Bhavesh Tank has said. According to the Economic Times, Tank said that the job losses had become even more pronounced in the last 10 days, when the 25% tariff rate had been imposed and the threat of a 50% rate is looming. Small units – located in Bhavnagar, Amreli and Junagadh – were the worst affected.
Fresh tariff blow to diamond export hub Surat
US Tariffs Impact on Indians: Diamond companies in Surat were compelled to put on hold orders they had already started receiving for Christmas from American clients when US President Donald Trump announced the additional 25% tariff on India. It came as a jolt because Christmas is just five months away, and sales during this festive season account for nearly half the total sale during a year in the international markets.
Sanitation Workers
Dalits are doing the work doctors reject—‘No postmortem without a safai karmachari’
Across India—whether in Narharpur or Gurugram, Dharwad or Delhi—thousands of Dalit sanitation workers are forced to perform autopsies. Called “cutters” by the medical fraternity, they get no formal training, protective gear, recognition, or additional compensation. Despite government regulations requiring an MBBS degree as the basic requirement to conduct autopsies, physicians at large do not want to go near decomposing bodies, much less handle the organs. They may supervise from a distance, but the dissection is left to sanitation workers, who are nearly always Dalit.
Tamil Nadu: Temporary Sanitation Workers in Rural Areas Earn Less Than Minimum Wage
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu: “My life is nothing short of hell.” Murukathal (48), a thooimai kavalargal ('sanitation guards') or temporary sanitation worker in Thensangampalayam panchayat under Anaimalai union, Coimbatore, told 101Reporters that she has been doing this job for six years. “Even if a dog dies in the village, I have to pick it up. I clean garbage and waste with my hands, and I only earn Rs 5,000,” she said.
Caste in Employment
Justice Nagamohan Das Commission report lists nearly 50 castes 'most backward'
Bengaluru: The SCs’ survey enumerated 1.07 crore people. Of the 17% reservation that SCs have in Karnataka, category 1 or the ‘most backward communities’, will get 1%. Category 2 or the SC (Left)/Madiga community 6%, category 3 or the SC (Right)/Holeya 5%, category 4 or ‘touchable’ communities (4%) and category 5 or Adi Karnataka, Adi Dravida and Adi Andhra communities (1%).
Honouring Workers
‘If we meet Modi ji, we’ll ask for our mehnat ki mazdoori’: UP woman freed from bonded labour invited to Independence Day event
The woman, who hails from Muzaffarnagar, her family, and several others were rescued from bonded labour in 2020. The woman and her family were rescued from a brick kiln in a UP village that year. Life, however, has not been easy. They claim the relief promised under the Bonded Labour Abolition Act has not been released in full.
Union government to invite 100 rehabilitated bonded labourers as special guests for Independence Day
The ministry has requested the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) to coordinate with state governments to compile a list of 100 rescued and rehabilitated labourers.
Migrant Tragedies
A migrant worker’s death, a family with no money to travel, and a funeral for an effigy
When migrant worker Sitaram Yadav died at a railway station in Agra and his family back in Jharkhand’s Giridih district didn’t have the money to bring back his body, they did the next possible thing. They made a bamboo-and-straw effigy, dressed it in Sitaram’s clothes, placed his photograph on it, and conducted last rites at the community cremation ground by the river.