Work in India

Should One Even Consider Making Domestic Work Part of the Gig Economy?

Apps to hire domestic workers reinforce the perception that household work should be done inexpensively by unskilled labour, and undermine the struggle for rights and fair wages.
▶21-Apr-2025
Amruta SN, Shalaka

Underpaid and Unheard: The Struggle of Kerala's ASHA Workers

The ASHAs of Kerala receive a meagre honorarium though they play an indispensable role in the state’s healthcare. They are seen as 'volunteers' and the centre refuses to classify them as…
▶24-Mar-2025
Ayana Krishna D., Shraddha Jain, Srimanjori Guha

Is the Rise in Female Work Participation due to an Odd Set of Instructions to Enumerators?

Given the high degree of informality in the Indian economy, national employment surveys have drawn up complex instructions to capture all those who work. This however also comes with the risk that…
▶10-Feb-2025
Aloke Kar, PC Mohanan

Stepping Out to Work

Gender-sensitive public infrastructure that enables women to balance care and market activities, is essential for work outside the home. Including a gender perspective in village-level infrastructure…
▶29-Jan-2025
Akash Sawarkar, Savita Kulkarni, Rajani Mathur

Can Marriage Law Reforms Enhance Women’s Agency?

Indian women’s agency is primarily influenced by marital status and caste, rather than religion or education. This suggests that legal reforms alone, like the Uniform Civil Code, might not be enough…
▶05-Nov-2024
Sreeparna Chattopadhyay, Joyita Roy Chowdhury

Revisiting Skill Development in India

India’s skill development policy has struggled. Instead of spreading resources too thinly, public policy could achieve more by focusing on social upliftment, gender and caste equality, and regional…
▶14-Oct-2024
Juthika Patankar

Staking Claim to Entitlements under MGNREGA

There are internal constraints and structural barriers to women’s claim-making under MGNREGA. Supporting more egalitarian decision-making within the village, designing interventions that can help…
▶28-Aug-2024
Kalyani Raghunathan, Katrina Kosec, Jordan Kyle, Sudha Narayanan, Soumyajit Ray

The Productivity Debate and Women’s Work: Careers or Family Care?

Educated women leaving the workforce hurts India’s growth. But child & family care options are lacking in the work structures we now have. We need “bridge” jobs, like part-time work, to help…
▶23-Apr-2024
Mala Khullar, Ratna M Sudarshan
Book
NREGA: A REPORT ON THE STATES

New Challenges for NREGA in Telangana

Union Government policies, budget cuts, and technological changes to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee programme have made things harder for workers in Telangana, where earlier…
▶20-Dec-2023
Chakradhar Buddha, Anuradha De, Diwakar Mantri

Making Sense of Recent Developments in the Indian Labour Market

The PLFS for 2022-23 reports the highest workforce participation rate and the lowest unemployment rate in the last six years. This has been the result of the entry of an increasing number of women…
▶17-Oct-2023
Akshit Arora