Migrant Realities
New migrant realities in Karnataka’s gig sector
In the context of the broader ramifications of Karnataka’s local employment law, five State-level reports from the southern States — on the Editorial and Opinion Pages — on labour conditions on the ground. In Karnataka, social security schemes which demand domicile status could be ignorant of the migrant realities of today.
The many jobs across the border
The Karnataka government’s decision to introduce two laws — the Factories (Karnataka Amendment) Bill 2023, and the Karnataka State Employment of Local Candidates in the Industries, Factories and Other Establishments Bill, 2024 — unsurprisingly found no takers among the contractors and workers of the unorganised sector from Andhra Pradesh, who go to work in Karnataka and elsewhere...The construction industry in Karnataka depends on migrant workers in Kolar, Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Mysuru, Belgaum, Sivamogga, Bellary, and Hubli, besides the rural sector.
Migrants toil in Tamil Nadu’s Cauvery delta
Migrant workers from other parts of India are slowly making their presence felt in the agricultural fields in the Cauvery delta, in Tamil Nadu, often referred to as the granary of South India. The development comes amid there being a severe shortage of farmhands. The gradual influx of migrant workers in agriculture has, however, not set alarm bells ringing as yet among trade unions or local labourers as the numbers in the farm sector are not as high when compared to the situation in the industrial and other sectors in Tamil Nadu.
In Kerala a dependence on migrant workers
While migrant workers are not welcomed with open arms, they are crucial for Kerala. Even the local workforce does not support regionalism. Even manual labourers, who are highly likely to lose jobs to inter-State workers, despise the idea on moral, ethical, and legal grounds. “Regionalism flies in the face of the constitutional right guaranteed to every Indian to work anywhere in the country. How can Malayalis, who have travelled across the world in search of better prospects, oppose migration? Migrants have not encroached into our space,” says M.A. Mohanan, 57, a headload worker in Kakkanad, Ernakulam, and district committee member, Headload and General Workers Union.
A snapshot of migration in India
Migration patterns from Uttar Pradesh to Maharashtra constitute the largest portion of external migrants in the country.
The construction worker conundrum
During the mornings, the labour addas (informal job markets where labourers hope to get hired for a day) of Hyderabad are filled with young men. Speaking in Bengali, Odiya, Hindi, and other languages, they hope to get hired by supervisors of construction sites.
Dying at Work
17 dead in Andhra Pradesh factory blast; toll likely to rise as more workers feared trapped in debris
This is the biggest industrial accident in a decade in the state. The toll could go up as bodies are feared trapped in the debris, with SDRF teams searching for any survivors.
Life on the line: Linemen in Noida count job hazards that sometimes turn fatal
A resident of Bihar's Araria district, Ansari has been working as a lineman at the UPPCL Noida unit for the last 20 years. According to the records of Noida’s power distribution body – Vidyut Nagariya Vitran Mandal – 29 linemen were electrocuted to death while 10 others have been rendered disabled since January 2017 in Gautam Buddha Nagar. Their stories have one common thread: like Ansari and Pal, they were repairing a wire on the top of an electricity pole when power department officials mistakenly switched on the electricity from the feeder.
Caste in Employment
Pronounced income gaps evident in case of stigmatised-caste business owners: new study
Business owners from stigmatised groups such as Dalits experience a business income gap of around 16 per cent compared with others, including those business owners who are from communities that are disadvantaged but are not similarly stigmatised, a new study has revealed…instead of getting reduced, this gap increases at higher levels of social capital.
It’s not who you know, but who you are: Explaining income gaps of stigmatized-caste business owners in India
Scholars across disciplines and around the world have diverted research attention to rising income inequalities across groups and strategies to reduce them. The literature has broadly identified human capital and social capital as two potential tools to facilitate economic mobility and to reduce inequalities. However, it is not known whether these tools work equally well for stigmatized groups, particularly in societies with systemic inequalities.
OBC representation in central govt employment is rising, but remains below Mandal Commission norms
The representation of the OBCs in central govt employment has risen to nearly 22 percent in 2022-2023 from around 15 percent in 2012-2013, the latest period for which government data is available, an analysis by ThePrint has found. Despite this improvement, however, the representation of the category still fell short of the 27 percent reservation benchmark set for it by the Mandal Commission. SC & ST representation, on the other hand, largely remained above Mandal Commission's reservation benchmarks between 2012 & 2023, although the figure for STs did dip a few times.
Manda Krishna: Rebel with a cause
Decades long activism of the Madiga leader paid off when the Supreme Court gave a historic verdict that the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes can be divided into sub-groups for the purpose of reservations and employment. What started as a small movement for the sub-categorisation of the Scheduled Castes in united Andhra Pradesh three decades ago in a small village of Eedumudi in Prakasam district has come to centre stage after the Supreme Court verdict.
3.5 years after selection, HC finds flaws with UP teacher hiring
The Allahabad High Court instructed the UP government to create a new list for appointing 69,000 assistant teachers, voiding previous selections. The court emphasized that reserved category candidates meeting general category merit should be counted in the general category, following proper reservation rules. A fresh list must be prepared within three months, adhering to relevant rules.
Employment News
Job opportunities dwindling in the well industrialised State of Gujarat
On July 9, a crowd of more than 1500 youngsters turned up in Gujarat’s Ankleshwar after they learnt of opportunities at a private firm, which had organised walk in interviews for 10 vacancies at a hotel. The overcrowding of job aspirants almost went out of control and a hotel railing broke due to extreme pressure from the applicants. Fortunately, a stampede like situation was avoided with minor injuries to a few applicants.
India needs to create 148 mn additional jobs by 2030 given population growth: Gita Gopinath
India on an average grew at 6.6 per cent for the decade starting 2010 but the employment rate was under 2 per cent, IMF's First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath said at the Delhi School of Economics Diamond Jubilee event.
How Global Capability Centres are powering India's job market
Once they were considered back offices catering to Fortune 500 companies. But that was then. Global Capability Centres (GCCs) have since emerged from the shadows, expanding their sphere of influence within the Indian tech landscape.
How India is gearing up for a US$110b GCC industry by 2030
The outlook of the GCC industry remains buoyant as companies look to set-up their GCCs in India. The rise of GCCs has helped to establish India as a key player in the global IT and business services industry.
China’s rising youth unemployment breeds new working class: ‘rotten-tail kids’
BEIJING, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Rising unemployment in China is pushing millions of college graduates into a tough bargain, with some forced to accept low-paying work or even subsist on their parents' pensions, a plight that has created a new working class of "rotten-tail kids". The phrase has become a social media buzzword this year, drawing parallels to the catchword "rotten-tail buildings" for the tens of millions of unfinished homes that have plagued China's economy since 2021.
Women in the Workforce
Kolkata doctor rape and murder case: Doctors call off strike as Supreme Court brokers peace
The Supreme Court on Thursday (August 22, 2024) successfully appealed to the professional sense of doctors protesting the brutal rape and murder of their junior colleague at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, asking them to return to work and tend the poor and ailing multitude who have to wait years for a medical consultation in public hospitals across India.
The missing case of women’s workplace safety
Even 51 years after the Aruna Shaunbag case in Mumbai, as the recent brutal rape and murder of a trainee doctor in a Kolkata hospital tells us, not much has changed. Female doctors and nurses still fear for their safety even inside a hospital. It also strongly highlights the issue of workplace safety for women. This is one of the contributory factors affecting women’s participation in the workforce. As such, India has had one of the lowest workforce participation rates for females among all G20 countries. It declined from around 30% in 2004 to 20% by 2017.
Kolkata rape and murder: Angry public protests across India in 10 videos
From doctors and lawyers to students and football fans, the protests have seen large turnouts.
What the Hema Committee report on Malayalam cinema is about
VIDEO: Sexual harassment is the worst evil that women face in the film industry,” declares the Justice Hema Committee Report on the working conditions of women in Malayalam cinema.
With Rs 706 crore facility that can house 18,720 women, Foxconn doubles down in Tamil Nadu
Inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, the residential facility, spread over 20 acres, includes 13 blocks with 10 floors each, offering dormitory-style rooms designed to house up to 18,720 workers. Foxconn chairman Young Liu said on Saturday that married women play a significant role in his company’s production facilities, during the opening of a Rs 706-crore residential complex for female workers at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, on Saturday. This comes weeks after reports claimed Foxconn, a key supplier for Apple, was denying jobs to married women in India.
Rewarding Workers
Infosys awards 80% performance bonus to employees
Infosys's , the IT services multinational has awarded an average performance bonus of 80 per cent for the first quarter of fiscal year 2024-25. This is a substantial increase from the 60 per cent bonus distributed in the previous quarter. The bonus distribution is particularly noteworthy as it follows a 7.1 per cent increase in net profit for Infosys.