Ind. J. Labour Econ. (2015) 58:299–329 DOI 10.1007/s41027-016-0023-6 RESEARCH NOTES AND COMMUNICATIONS
56th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of Labour Economics 18–20 December 2014
Published online: 25 May 2016 Ó Indian Society of Labour Economics 2016
1 INTRODUCTION The 56th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE) was held during 18–20 December 2014, at the Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), Mesra, Ranchi. The Conference was organised by the Department of Management of BIT and the Eastern Regional Centre of the Institute for Human Development (IHD-ERC), Ranchi. Dr. Indira Hirway, Professor and Director, Centre for Development Alternatives, Ahmedabad, presided over the Conference. Dr. Manju Bhagat, Professor, Department of Management, BIT, Mesra, and Dr. Harishwar Dayal, Director, IHD-ERC, Ranchi were the Organising Secretary and the Coorganising Secretary of the Conference, respectively. About 350 delegates participated in the Conference. The themes taken up for discussion during the technical sessions of the Conference were: Inter-linkages between formal and informal labour processes; the demographic dividend: challenges of employment and employability; and industrial relations in India: sectoral and regional patterns. About 175 scholars made presentations both on the three themes of the Conference as well as in some special panels. The pre-conference events were held on 17 December 2014. A symposium on ‘‘Employment and Livelihoods in Eastern India’’ was organised by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi- Arid-Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, and IHD-ERC, Ranchi. A lecture in memory of Professor G.K. Chadha, President of ISLE, who passed away on 17 December 2014, was one of the Pre-Conference events. The lecture was delivered by Dr. Rizwanul Islam, Former Special Adviser, ILO, Geneva. An International Symposium on ‘‘Women, Work and Structural Transformation in South Asia’’ was also organised on 17 December 2014, jointly by IHD, New Delhi; the International Labour Organisation (ILO), New Delhi; UNESCAP SSWA Office; and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada, in collaboration with Ranchi University under the auspices of the South ISLE
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Asia research network on employment and social protection on inclusive growth (SARNET). The day ended with a theatrical presentation of poems on women organised by IHD. Apart from the inaugural session, keynote presentation sessions, and the valedictory session, five plenary sessions and four parallel panel discussion sessions were also held during the Conference. The plenary sessions included three Memorial lectures and one special lecture. During the course of the Conference, a total of fourteen thematic technical sessions were organised during which approximately 175 papers were presented. In addition, as many as twenty young scholars made their poster presentations during two sessions. Following are details of the proceedings of the Conference.
2 PRE-CONFERENCE EVENTS 2.1 Symposium on ‘‘Transformation in the Rural Economy and Employment Opportunities in Eastern India: Implications for Inclusive Growth’’, 17 December 2014 This symposium was organised by ICRISAT, Hyderabad, and IHD-ERC, Ranchi. Professor Abhijit Sen, Former Member, Planning Commission, and Dr. Subesh Das, Principal Secretary, Planning, Government of West Bengal, chaired the symposium. The first session comprised five presentations, including three by the ICRISAT research teams and two by IHD scholars. The first presentation on ‘Rural Employment, Income and Poverty in Eastern India’ by Uttam Deb, et al., of ICRISAT was based on ICRISAT’s VDSA (Village Dynamics Studies in South Asia) household surveys conducted during three consecutive years, from 2010 to 2012, in Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, covering 160 households in each state. The findings indicated that among the employed population, the proportion of the working population engaged in agriculture as a primary occupation has fallen from more than 55 per cent to less than 50 per cent, while non-farm activity as a primary source of livelihood outweighed agriculture by the end of the 3-year period. The number of days of employment for agricultural labour was very low at only 110 days of employment in a year. The study also revealed a rise in per capita income and a marginal decline in poverty across all occupational groups along with a marginal increase in inequality. However, the extent of poverty still remains high among the marginal land-holders and landless labourers. The second presentation by Madhusudan Bhattarai, et al. of ICRISAT focused on ‘Spatial and Temporal Variation of Agricultural Development and Rural Transformation’. This presentation was also based on ICRISAT’s VDSA studies, covering four villages in Bihar and two in Madhya Pradesh. The study showed a significant variation across the villages in terms of the level of farm production and infrastructure. However, there was convergence in terms of the pace in rural and agrarian change, in general. The longitudinal data available for some of the villages indicated an increase in the intensity of cropping, rise in land productivity, and
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increased mechanisation, leading to the replacement of bullocks and human labour. Despite the lack of any significant increase in the wages of agricultural labourers in some of the villages, the landowners resorted to the increased use of machinery. The presentation highlighted that large numbers of farm households still depend on informal sources of credit. A presentation on the ‘Nutritional Status of Women and Men’, based on a comparison of VDSA studies in the villages of Telangana and Maharashtra, was made by Anil Kumar. The study showed that though food consumption expenditure has increased over a period of time, there was a decline in the intake of micro-nutrients, especially iron, in the villages of Telangana as compared to those in Maharashtra. Overall, the body mass index (BMI) has improved, indicating an improvement in the nutritional status for both men and women though malnutrition and anaemia have been major concerns. Alakh N. Sharma, Director, IHD, New Delhi, made a presentation on rural transformation in Bihar based on IHD’s longitudinal study of 36 villages in Bihar, conducted during the years 1981, 1998 and 2009–11. Professor Sharma remarked that rural Bihar has undergone a transition from ‘semi-feudal’ production relations to market relationships during the last 30 years. This has been a fundamental change in the state, with the other important change being a decline in the ‘landlord’ class, ‘big farmers’, and ‘attached labour’. Although the quantum of land under tenancy has increased, it is increasingly being governed by market relations. The incidence of sharecropping tenancy in irrigated areas is being replaced by fixed rent tenancy. Persistently high and increasing levels of out-migration of labour and incomes drawn from migration have had a significant impact on the social structure and economic change in rural Bihar. Remittances have emerged as one of the most important sources of rural livelihoods. Professor Sharma also conjectured as to whether migration-based growth in Bihar can be sustained in the long term, and suggested important policy measures to promote growth and development. Professor Dev Nathan from IHD outlined the development challenges faced by the ‘adivasis’ of eastern India. He highlighted two processes of change in the tribal areas, viz. adverse incorporation and market-based development. He pointed out that the process of adverse incorporation symbolises not exactly development but the displacement of adivasis due to the implementation of large scale ‘development’ projects. Adivasis in the tribal regions suffer from a ‘resource curse’ due to the particular context of the existence of a mineral–industrial complex. The revenues are generated largely from mineral wealth and this is the context in which the governments do not bother about the provisioning of public services to the adivasis of the hill forest areas. The recognition of regional and social diversity of the region, and diversified livelihoods in regions like Jharkhand, and the protection of the rights of ‘tribal’ groups and implementing forest rights also need to be prioritised within any policy framework for inclusive development. The discussions during the symposium brought out useful insights and led to several suggestions, taking into consideration the specificities of the region, the forest areas and the tribal and non-tribal areas, marginalisation of the local population, and the social and geographic diversity of the region. They laid an emphasis on various measures aimed at bringing about improvements in productivity in agriculture and allied activities, irrigation, water ISLE
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management, the proper implementation of forest laws and rural infrastructure, and inclusive development. 2.2 G.K. Chadha Memorial Lecture, 17 December 2014 While delivering the G.K. Chadha Memorial Lecture titled ‘‘Pursuing the Employment Goal: Need for Re-thinking Development Strategies’’, Dr. Rizwanul Islam argued that the goal of employment and the associated indicators of progress need to be carefully defined, the conventional wisdom of how the challenge can be addressed has to be questioned, and a serious re-thinking of development strategies is required to pursue the goal. He also pointed out that the following three elements of conventional wisdom about job creation need to be questioned: (1) Economic growth always creates jobs; (2) Job creation is hindered primarily by rigidities in labour markets; and (3) Education and training constitute the key for attaining the employment goal. Dr. Islam discussed how the employment goal is being articulated and the appropriate indicators that need to be considered from a development perspective. He also outlined the areas wherein development strategies need to be revisited in order to attain the employment goals of developing countries. 2.3 SARNET Symposium on ‘‘Women, Work and Structural Transformation in South Asia’’ The panellists in the symposium, representing four South Asian countries, included Dr. Simeen Mahmud from BRAC University, Bangladesh; Dr. Bandita Sijapati, Adjunct Professor, Nepa School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Kathmandu; Dr. K.P. Kannan, Chairman, Laurie Baker Centre for Habitat Studies, Thiruvananthapuram; and Dr. Ramani Gunatilaka, Visiting Faculty, Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. The session was chaired by Professor Nirmala Banerjee, former Professor, Centre for Social Sciences, Kolkata. Professor Alakh, N. Sharma, Director, IHD, delivered the opening remarks, followed by addresses by Dr. Sher Verick, Senior Employment Specialist, ILO, New Delhi; and Professor L.N. Bhagat, Vice-Chancellor, Ranchi University. Professor Nirmala Banerjee accentuated the need for going beyond merely passing an Act for the reformation and protection of female workers, particularly domestic workers, to ensuring the speedy implementation of these Acts. Women, especially those based in the rural and tribal areas, do not have any choice in terms of work opportunities and hence are mostly engaged in agricultural labour and livestock rearing. They need to be protected against many ills such as human trafficking and be assured of dignity and equality in their workspace. In addition, society must fulfil its responsibility of ensuring cohesive and fair gender growth. In her presentation on the situation of women workers in Bangladesh, Simeen Mahmud, pointed out that the labour force participation rates for women increased faster than those of their male counterparts during the period 1983–2010. She added that the share of young women workers who are mostly engaged in factory jobs has increased more than that of older women workers who are mostly engaged in casual employment.
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Bandita Sijapati cited the case of Nepal, an economy driven by remittances wherein the migration rate of men in search of work is very high. Since remittances account for 30 per cent of the national GDP, the Below the Poverty Line (BPL) population fell from 40 per cent in 1995 to 25 per cent in 2010–11. In a broad sense, therefore, migration is seen as having an equalising effect. Yet, the spillover effects of a higher per capita income are far from visible. The women labour force participation rate (WLFPR) in the workforce is very high essentially because men are migrating. However, we need to interpret the higher FPR with caution as this does not imply access to higher quality jobs for women in the workforce. A whopping 96.5 per cent of the women are still employed in the informal sector. The female literacy rate is 20 per cent lower than that of their male counterparts, especially in the rural areas. The overall gender parity index is 0.91 at higher educational levels but the figure declines steeply at lower education levels. Needless to say, the rate of gender segregation is very high while distortions in the labour market are very pervasive. Professor K.P. Kannan spoke about women and development, and the need to exercise restraint while interpreting results vis-a`-vis the prevalent averages. He presented both an overall scenario of women’s employment and a disaggregated narrative for different socio-religious sections of women within India. While on the whole, women have lost out in the neo-liberal growth context, the most vulnerable groups have experienced significant marginalisation, at the other extreme are the wealthier caste/class women with higher levels of education in the emerging markets of Information Technology (IT) and banking, among others. All the women do not experience the same level or pace of inequality or inclusion. A case in point would be women placed at the bottom of the social structure due to the low ownership of assets. The WLFPR has deteriorated significantly during the last three decades from 30 per cent to 22.5 per cent while the LFPR for men has increased only marginally during the corresponding reference period. The gender gap has increased from 25 per cent to 33 per cent during this period. According to Professor Kannan, a large part of this gap can be attributed to differential educational patterns at both the urban and rural levels as also at different age levels. A closer look at the rising gross enrolment figures indicates that this rise has been seen only in the case of younger women and does not percolate down to those in the age group of 20–25 years. The same indicator also compares poorly for the rural women, who seem to have lost out in the race. He asserted that the employment figures indicate that structural transformations remain largely a male phenomenon. Ramani Gunatilaka pointed out that the rate of women’s employment in Sri Lanka is one of the lowest in the region. Women workers in Sri Lanka are concentrated in the agriculture, manufacturing and education sectors, with very few of them engaged in the construction, transport, finance and trade sectors. A significant numbers of unskilled women workers in Sri Lanka choose to migrate overseas for employment as domestic or blue-collar workers. Professor Gunatilaka emphasised the disappointing outcomes from neo-liberal growth for Sri Lankan women despite their better initial standing as compared to the other South Asian countries. She pointed out that this was because the emerging sectors did not benefit women which is reflected in their ‘weak representation’ in these sectors. ISLE
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The panellists for the session included Professors Wahiduddin Mahmud of Dhaka University, Nisha Srivastava of Allahabad University, Sher Verick of ILO, and Ritu Dewan of Mumbai University, who summarised the essence of the discussion and threw light on the challenges and the way forward. Apropos the situation in Bangladesh, Mahmud highlighted that though girls outperformed the boys at school, boys were given preference over girls at home in many respects such as nutrition and education. Besides, girls were also deemed to continue schooling only till they got married. This is quite in contrast to the fact that most women in Bangladesh work in the government sector which requires a certain level of schooling. However, the incidence of a large number of women in the workforce should incentivise the schooling of the girl child but that does not seem to be the case. Sher Verick explored the importance and implications of structural transformation for women and work in South Asia, in general, with a focus on the Indian situation based on evidence gathered during the last decade. He pointed out that the pattern of growth in different sectors has specific implications for women’s work participation. Further, Professor Nisha Srivastava argued that ‘‘there are many demand and supply-side factors driving the participation and work status of women’’. Citing the case of India, she noted that women who are married and those with young children are less likely to work. Women who are widowed or who belong to the tribal areas are more likely to work. Employment patterns have also changed over time. Urban areas provide different types of work opportunities to women, with a case in point being the chemical sector in India, which is increasingly employing women. It is thus imperative to focus on different dimensions of structural transformations and the re-allocation of work across sectors and its implications thereof. With the nature of economic activities undergoing a change, the State needs to play a more proactive role in ensuring employment for women.
3 PLENARY SESSIONS 3.1 Inaugural session The Conference was inaugurated by Professor Lord Meghnad Desai (Professor at the London School of Economics and Member of the Upper House of Parliament, UK). Dr. Alakh N. Sharma, Director of IHD and Editor of the Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Dr. Utpal Baul, Head of the Department of Management at BITMesra and Dr. Manju Bhagat, Professor, Department of Management at BIT-Mesra and also the Organising Secretary for the event, welcomed the distinguished gathering and delivered the opening remarks, followed by special remarks by Dr. Sher Verick, Senior Employment Specialist, ILO DWT for South Asia. Lord Desai highlighted the need for revisiting discussions pertaining to labour economics in terms of the economics of work. He raised the question as to how the value of work performed in the unpaid sectors could be evaluated, such as the work done by women at home involving child-rearing and provision of food, fodder and fuel, to name just a few. The changing demographic patterns in the present context, in fact,
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make it imperative to assess the value of the work done outside the formal sector and to find ways to integrate it in the mainstream economy. In her presidential address, Professor Indira Hirway, Conference President and Director, Centre for Development Alternatives, Ahmedabad, argued that the strong linkages between unpaid work and the economy make it necessary to incorporate unpaid work in the conventional economy and to include it in the analysis of labour and employment as well as in designing policies in this field. The category of ‘unpaid work’ includes work that falls both within the production boundary of the System of National Accounts (SNA) and within the general production boundary but outside the production boundary (non-SNA). The former is a part of the conventional economy while the latter work, on which 35 per cent to 50 per cent of the total work time is spent by economies, is outside the national income accounts and is usually invisible in national statistical systems. Professor Hirway also discussed the linkages between unpaid work and the economy and presented different approaches of integrating unpaid work with the macro-economy. The implementation of these different approaches necessitates a sound database. Thus, the time has come for the discipline of labour economics to incorporate unpaid work into the analysis of labour and employment to ensure the formulation of realistic and efficient labour and employment policies. 3.2 Presentation of keynote papers The plenary session in which the keynote papers were presented was also chaired by Professor Indira Hirway. Professor Errol D’Souza, IIM, Ahmedabad and Professor Padmini Swaminathan, Chairperson of the School of Livelihoods and Development, Hyderabad, spoke on the theme ‘‘Inter-linkages between Formal and Informal Labour Processes’’. Professor J. Krishnamurthy, formerly at ILO, Geneva, and Professor Sonalde Desai from Maryland University, USA, made keynote presentations on the theme ‘‘The Demographic Dividend: Challenges of Employment and Employability’’. Professor Shyam Sundar from the Xavier’s Labour Research Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur, presented the keynote paper on the theme ‘‘Industrial Relations in India: Sectoral and Regional Patterns’’. In his keynote paper, Professor Errol D’Souza noted that the distinction between formal and informal employment is made from the perspective of employers. Formal employment is offered for jobs requiring the initiative to work and are not easily monitored. Even though employers comply with labour regulations for formal jobs, the intensity of the enforcement of regulation influences the effort by workers and the effective labour employed. In the case of informal employment contracts, employers are directly confronted with regulatory enforcements and incur a cost for evading regulation and employing people on such contracts. For a liberalising economy that eases compliance with regulation on employment protection, we indicate the conditions under which informal employment increases, accompanied by an increase in the effort required from those in formal employment along with a downward or ambiguous adjustment in such employment, which results in an increase in effective formal employment. The implication of a decline in the share of wages in value added is also indicated. ISLE
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Professor Padmini Swaminathan questioned the Indian State’s agenda of ‘Doing Development’ while focusing on the manner in which ‘development has been/is being done’ and how it is impacting both women’s work and women as workers. She also claimed that the State attempts to kill several birds with one stone; for instance, in the guise of poverty alleviation and the increasingly questionable assumption of poverty being feminised, the State has instituted several welfare programmes that have instead led to the feminisation of responsibilities; again, in the guise of ‘empowering’ women, the State gainfully employs local women but does not designate them as workers. She also noted the adverse consequences of ‘doing development through gender’ based on recent ethnographic studies by several scholars. She concluded her presentation by illustrating how, at least in the social sectors, and particularly when it relates to female employment, the traditional hypothesis that the informal sector represents a transient phenomenon and would disappear by getting absorbed in the formal sector over the years does not hold true. On the contrary, the informal nature of employment in this sector has been formalised in several ways such as when services are being delivered under the formal healthcare/education sector whereas some of the personnel (mainly women) employed to deliver these services are informally employed within the same sector. In the next presentation, Professor J. Krishnamurty talked of taking the existing series forward to 2026 for both the population and the labour force by age, sex and residence for all the States and Union territories using the latest data sets to study the employment and employability scenario. The discussion on the demographic dividend in India has hitherto concentrated on the broad age group of 15–59 years. However, Professor Krishnamurty also analysed the trends for the disaggregated age groups of 15–29, 30–44 and 45–59 years, as their paths differ considerably from those of the aggregate. He highlighted three major findings. First, he envisaged that the surge in the working age population would comprise growing numbers of older workers, many of whom have missed out on education and training opportunities. This necessitates a massive programme of adult education and training for older workers. Secondly, there are wide regional variations in labour force growth patterns. This calls for the creation of a national labour market where regional shortages and surpluses are adjusted. Finally, the current low female workforce participation rates conceal a potential demographic dividend that can be reaped by adopting measures to expand female education and labour force participation. In her subsequent presentation, Professor Sonalde Desai argued that in spite of the rising academic attention to path-dependency in social history, when it comes to the history of economic thinking, we seem to be stuck in a Markovian nirvana where debates of the past are forgotten under the onslaught of new ideas. Nowhere is this more evident than in the discourse on demographic dividend that ignores decades of debates surrounding the relationship between population growth and economic development. Professor Desai’s presentation sought to fill this niche by: placing the discourse on demographic dividend in the context of past debates on population and development; differentiating between demographic deposit and demographic dividend, that is, the mechanical aspects of population composition and the potentially transformative power of these changes, as well as the conditions under
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which these may affect the Indian economy, and focusing on the upcoming demographic debt as the population ages. Professor Shyam Sundar’s presentation noted that post liberalisation, employers have been demanding several hard and soft reforms at the national level which the Central Government has been unable to introduce. The Central Government has shifted the responsibility for the implementation of core and hard reform measures on to the state governments. On the other hand, the liberalisation of the product market has greatly enhanced the role of the state governments as major economic players competing for capital. Labour policy is seen as one of the key inputs needed by the state governments for attracting capital. This has resulted in the rapid regionalisation of industrial relations governance, especially in recent years. 3.3 Memorial lectures The V.B. Singh Memorial Lecture on the theme, ‘‘Manufacturing in India: Have We Missed the Bus?’’ was delivered by Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research. Dr. Kumar claimed that India was lagging behind in manufacturing while other countries, notably China, were racing ahead and had started posing very serious threat to the survival of the manufacturing sector in the country. He also asserted that growth in the manufacturing sector is vital for meeting the challenge of providing employment to the nearly 12 million people entering the workforce every year, and listed a ten-point recommendation for the revival and growth of the manufacturing sector in the country. Professor Abhijeet Sen, on the other hand, cautioned that in its attempt to boost production, the manufacturing sector should not allow itself to become the target of allegations that it was ignoring social and environmental concerns. The need of the hour is thus to harmonise the growth of the sector with due attention to these concerns without which growth would not be sustainable. The V.V. Giri Memorial lecture on the theme, ‘‘Globalisation and Employment’’ was delivered by Professor Deepak Nayyar, Emeritus Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and former Vice Chancellor, Delhi University. He maintained that the gathering momentum of globalisation has led to a striking transformation in the world economy, which would have been difficult to imagine three decades ago. Emphasising the need for increasing the share of wages in growth, he argued that policies should also focus on employment-led growth. Globalisation has led to the expansion of economic transactions and rise in economic activities across the political boundaries of nation states. The process of globalisation is, therefore, associated with increasing economic openness, and interdependence, as also deepening economic integration in the world economy. At the other end of the spectrum, it has reduced the freedom and autonomy that various governments hitherto enjoyed in formulating policies in the pursuit of national development objectives. Professor Nayyar analysed the implications and consequences of globalisation for employment not only in the developing world but also in the industrialised countries. His lecture posed, and tried to answer, five questions.
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First, how has globalisation affected employment? Second, what are the causes and consequences of jobless growth? Third, have macroeconomic policies exacerbated the problem and, if so, do these need to be revisited? Fourth, what can be done to address the problem of jobless growth within countries in the national context? Fifth, does employment matter for recovery, stability and growth in the world economy? The Radha Kamal Mukerjee lecture on the topic, ‘‘Radha Kamal Mukerjee and the Indian Working Class: 70 years in Retrospect’’ was delivered by Dr. T.S. Papola, Honorary Professor, Institute of Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), New Delhi, and Chairman, Giri Institute of Development Studies (GIDS), Lucknow. The lecture highlighted the significant contributions of Professor Radha Kamal Mukerjee in the area of labour and employment. It focused on Professor Mukerjee’s inter-disciplinary approach to research and traced the eventful years of his scholarly journey. His seminal work, ‘The Indian Working Class’, was first published in 1945, and was largely based on extensive field work undertaken by the author in different parts of India over two decades. Dr. Papola discussed Professor R.K. Mukerjee’s ideas, approaches and agenda on some important aspects of labour, as contained in his book, and while assessing the progress made in their implementation over the last 70 years, he concluded that their relevance remains undiminished to this day. The lecture was chaired by Professor Jean Dreze, Visiting Professor, Ranchi University and Honorary Professor, Delhi School of Economics. 3.4 The valedictory session The Conference came to a conclusion with the delivery of the valedictory address by Mrs. Ela Bhatt, founder of SEWA. She warned of the discrepancy between what the farmers grow in their farms and what they eat themselves. Their choice of crops, which are mainly cash crops, is dictated by their financial needs rather than their own nutritional requirements. This distortion needs to be addressed at the grassroots level. Mrs. Bhatt pointed to the need to invest our knowledge, time and efforts in helping the farmers diversify their crop portfolio, link them to the markets and build their capacities. She also emphasised the importance of mastering multiple skills which would enable workers to become more resilient against challenges and different kinds of constraints. She also claimed that it is imperative to bring more women into the workforce as women’s participation translates into constructive and sustainable solutions in the community. She dwelt on the importance of cre`ches and anganwadis for offering care and protection for very young children, which would allow their mothers to work and their elder siblings to go to schools rather than staying at home to look after the children. These centres also serve as entry points for various community workers to educate mothers and increase their awareness on various issues pertaining to healthcare, credit schemes, and savings, among other things. She asserted that both women, and farmers and the marginalised communities need more visibility and voice.
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4 SPECIAL PANEL DISCUSSION 4.1 Discussion on ‘‘Meeting India’s Employment Challenges: Strategies and Policies’’, organised by IHD A special panel discussion on the theme ‘‘Meeting India’s Employment Challenges: Strategies and Policies’’ was organised by IHD, New Delhi, which was chaired by Dr. T.S Papola, Honorary Professor, Institute of Studies in Industrial Development, New Delhi. The presenters at the discussion included Professor Alakh N. Sharma, Director, IHD, and Professor Ajit Ghose, Visiting Professor, IHD. The panellists, on the other hand, included Professor Sushil Khanna, IIM, Kolkata; Mr. Noorani Naushad, Senior General Manager (Group HR)—Organisation Development at Mahindra & Mahindra; Shri. Chandra Prakash Singh, National Secretary, Indian National Trade Union Congress; Dr. Subesh K. Das, Principal Secretary, Planning, and Additional Chief Secretary, Government of West Bengal; and Professor Ravi Srivastava, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. While citing the findings of the India Labour and Employment Report 2014, Professor Alakh Sharma focused on various changes in the labour market and in employment since the initiation of economic reforms. He elucidated the causes of unemployment and of lack of productive employment, as also the large-scale regional differentiation in terms of the access to quality employment. Professor Ajit Ghose discussed various issues affecting the manufacturing sectors. The main question he addressed in his presentation was whether we should depend only on service-led growth or the time is now ripe for augmenting manufacturing-led growth? The overall finding reiterated in the presentation was that the transition to manufacturing-led growth would enhance the growth of employment in the organised sector, thereby generating a substantial movement of low skilled labour from the unorganised sector. It would also accelerate the growth of organised construction, which would, in turn, generate employment for lowskilled labour. The key issues raised by the panellists included ways of improving employability in the manufacturing sector, and the need to reduce the informality of labour, and enhance social security for labourers. The discussions also focused on Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) and the importance of equipping them to effectively face competition in the marketplace. The panel also stressed the importance of implementing vocational training programmes in all states, especially in view of the need to promote integration amidst globalisation. In this context, the low-skilled labour currently engaged in the unorganised sector must be offered opportunities to move to jobs entailing higher productivity and higher wages in the organised sector in order to boost the overall economic growth of the country.
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5 PARALLEL PANELS 5.1 Discussion on ‘‘Industrial Relations in India: Sectoral and Regional Patterns’’ A panel discussion was held on the theme ‘‘Industrial Relations in India and Sectoral and Regional Patterns’’. The session was chaired by Professor L.K. Deshpande, Former Director, Department of Economics, University of Mumbai. The theme for the session was introduced by Professor Shyam Sundar, Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Xavier Institute of Management, Jamshedpur, who also acted as the discussant for the session. The first speaker, Professor Dev Nathan of IHD focused on the various kinds of employment relations prevalent in the labour market, resulting from the operation of a plethora of factors like the different forms of work contracts that gave rise to direct or indirect employment relations, workplace rules, methods of supervision, wage systems, and grievance redressal mechanisms. He identified two kinds of employment relations stemming from these factors—first, the high-performance systems constituting a high level of skilling, quality circles, definite workplace rules, and above market level wages linked with incentives; and second, the sweated labour system characterised by indirect work contracts, indirect supervision through contracts, wages fixed at the minimum level or just above the minimum level, very few benefits and high labour law violations. He added that employment relations are based on the strategies employed by firms, which need to be analysed closely, particularly in terms of employment relations. He averred that while the traditional theory of firms virtually prescribes a relationship of conflict between wages and profits, capability theories talk of ways to use the tacit knowledge of workers in order to increase productivity and efficiency. Professor Praveen Jha, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, JNU, emphasised the need for a conceptual framework to understand the trends pertaining to industrial relations in both the localized and global contexts. While suggesting that the so-called ‘great transformation’ model or theory had been seemingly dismantled recently, he reiterated that the shift of industries from the Global North to the Global South has been a key determinant of the primary strategies employed by multinational corporations (MNCs). He also pointed out that in the 1980s, Western literature debated the concept of ‘Californisation’ versus ‘Chinaisation’ and the phenomenon of ‘re-peasantisation’. This implies that the conceptual framework needs to be eased out by locating industrial relations in the classical Marxian economy. Professor Deshpande observed two tendencies within the global economy—one which is moving towards capitalism, and the other which tends to change globalisation in a way that would lead to a new stage of normative capitalism that had not been envisaged by Marxism. Dr. Ratna Sen, Retired Professor, IISWBM, Kolkata, argued that the Human Resource (HR) set-ups and functions are much more elaborate in the large sectors but minimalistic in the small and micro enterprises (SMEs), with the process of
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recruitment being undertaken through websites for the IT sector and through newspaper advertisement for the manufacturing sectors. The objective of HR policies in large sectors is to promote skill development, whereas in the SMEs, on the other hand, the corresponding objective is to deliberately restrict permanent employment and encourage contractual employment. For this reason, industrial relations in the large sectors are generally quite harmonious, while in SMEs, the concept of unions is a rarity and only 500–600 workers are usually members of a trade union with the rest having little or no awareness of workers’ rights. The wages and working conditions in SMEs are determined unilaterally at the minimum wage level or slightly higher than it; the working conditions of permanent and contract workers too differ from each other. Dr. Ernest Noronha, Professor of Organisational Behaviour, IIM, Ahmedabad, said that the IT and ITES sectors account for a 58 per cent share in global outsourcing. He argued that the government has played a major role in setting up this industry by establishing Software Technology Parks in the 1990s, which promoted the growth of this industry. This sector also enjoys an exemption from certain key labour laws like the Shops and Establishment Act of 1953. He added that this sector is characterised by a preventive ‘hire and fire’ policy, long hours of work, and lack of unionisation, with employers in this sector being openly averse to union activities. Although this sector credits itself for professionalism, such claims are usually baseless as the HR establishments in such industries solely protect the interest of the employers and do not offer any support to the workers in the event of any disputes. Dr. Zaad Mahmood of Presidency University emphasised the need to investigate various aspects of IR, instead of only examining the issues of termination, which are collective in nature and should be included in the definition of industrial disputes. He revealed that several cases of industrial disputes are currently lodged in the Kolkata High Court, which are generally ranked in terms of the net value added when dates for hearing are allocated for them. He argued that a closer look at the records shows that in most of these cases, there are no proper records or classification of the cause of the dispute. Such faulty records eventually account for a reduction in the number of cases, thereby highlighting gross neglect and violations of the labour protection norms. He concluded that the stand taken by the benches of the Kolkata High Court in their judgements differed across cases and was dependent on factors like the personal connections of the employers, productivity levels of companies, and strength of unions. 5.2 Symposium on ‘‘Changing Pattern of Labour Markets and Employment Relations in Rural India: Regional Perspectives’’ The symposium, organized by the SR Sankaran Chair, Hyderabad, and IHD, was chaired by Professor Ravi Srivastava, CSRD, JNU, New Delhi. Six of the seven presentations in this session focused on the regional trajectories of labour relations and the emerging patterns of rural labour markets, while the initial presentation by Professor D. Narsimha Reddy, ICSSR National Fellow, CSD, Hyderabad, attempted to capture the stylised shifts and trends in the structure of the rural economy and ISLE
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employment in India at large. On the basis of various sets of quantitative data and insights from other studies, Professor Reddy argued that there was an asymmetric shift in the structure of production and structure of employment over the last few decades wherein India had witnessed a significant change in the production structure, with the declining significance of agriculture but without a proportional shift in employment away from agriculture. The significant development to be noted in India, unlike in the developed countries, is not the growth of non-farm production and employment but its spatial dimension. He further analysed the trends pertaining to and the predominance of diversification of employment and economic activities in the rural context, which was characterised by shrinking land size and the fragmentation of land due to demographic pressure. Migration from rural areas can be seen not as distress-driven but as primarily ‘aspirational’, with the various migration patterns representing increasing aspirations. The presenters at the symposium also touched upon the unique features of specific regions in the country along with changing rural labour markets, a feature that is common to various regions of India. These issues were also highlighted by Dr. K.P. Kannan, Chairman, Laurie Baker Centre for Habitat Studies and Former Director, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, in his focus on Kerala. He outlined the significant aspects of the labour market in the state, including the impact of the demographic transition and increasing levels of education on the labour supply, the declining rate of labour supply of women, economic diversification of the rural areas, increasing integration of rural and urban labour markets, inter-state migration, rise in real wage rates, increasing State intervention, the influence of minimum wages and public employment, and the continuing disadvantaged position of rural women entering the labour market, especially those belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) households. Dr. Kannan analysed the changing structure of labour markets in Kerala that paradoxically led to a shortage of labour, on the one hand, and unemployment, on the other. This is because increasing education levels in Kerala and the preference for ‘jobs’ over ‘work’ has fostered educated unemployment and the shortage of manual labour in the state. He concluded by pointing out the meaninglessness of the term ‘rural labour market’, which has instead been transformed into a ‘rural–urban continuum’, especially in Kerala. 5.3 Discussion on ‘‘Social Entrepreneurship for Inclusive Growth’’, organised by ISLE The panel discussion on ‘‘Social Entrepreneurship for Inclusive Growth’’, which was chaired by Dr. Vijay Mahajan, Founder and Chairman, Basix Group, offered a number of interesting takeaways. Dr. Sukhpal Singh, Chairperson, Centre for Management in Agriculture, IIM, Ahmedabad, spoke about the rise of social enterprise and its importance in the current global scenario. While identifying the major categories of the workforce facing social exclusion such as women and those engaged in marginalised activities, he mentioned how the emergence of production cooperatives as a social enterprise is going a long way in helping achieve economies of scale and scope, and how these need to be upscaled through professional
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management and better marketing linkages. Mr. Vishnu Swaminathan, Director, Housing for All (Ashoka India), emphasised that social change should be positively directed towards ending social exclusion, and that social entrepreneurs are entering this arena in in a big way by combining their entrepreneurial ability with innovation. He cited the example of EKGAON, which has begun providing information on prices and other such market-related factors to farmers on their mobile phones so that the latter are now no longer dependent on middlemen and are able to access the right market price. 5.4 Discussion on ‘‘Towards Better Measurement of Work and Employment’’ During this discussion, Dr. Gulab Singh from the United Nations Statistics Division, New York, presented the new measurement for work and employment on the basis of the recommendation of the 19th International Conference of Labour statisticians. The chairperson, Professor Indira Hirway, Conference President, and the panelist, Dr. Preet Rustagi, Professor, IHD, New Delhi, commented on the usability of this new measurement technique, and the practical difficulties entailed in its usage, and pointed out that this was not consistent with the earlier measurement. They also argued that certain categories of workers, especially women workers, who were earlier included within the statistical domain, now remain excluded as the new measurement equates employment with the generation of productivity, as the latter leaves out certain forms of women’s work that are self-sufficient in nature.
6 TECHNICAL SESSIONS ON CONFERENCE THEMES A total of 165 presentations were made in the three technical sessions. 6.1 THEME 1: ‘‘Inter-Linkages Between Formal and Informal Labour Processes’’ About 50 paper presentations were made in the various technical parallel sessions organised on this theme. Some of the key issues presented and discussed under this theme in the parallel technical sessions included: a review of trends in research and literature on the subject of linkages in labour processes relating to the movement of workers not only between the informal and formal sectors, but also between formal and informal employment; identification of the nature and possible factors in the evolution of the concept, scope and role of the informal sector and its labour processes, in this perspective; and the phenomenon of migration and reasons for the migration of labour from rural to urban areas, and from the informal to the formal sector. The significant questions raised during this session related to the demand and supply of labour in the two sectors; an analysis of wage functions separately for the formal and informal sectors, with and without the wages of the other sector taken as one of
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the explanatory variables; and the different trends prevalent across sectors and subsectors. Recent years have witnessed a boom in academic interest in the ‘informal sector’ of the economy. This interest was accelerated after the National Commission on Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) brought out a series of studies highlighting some startling facts about informality and informal workers in India. These studies paved the way for a great deal of research on an otherwise overlooked sector of the economy by highlighting the availability of national level data, which allows for such research, by highlighting the working conditions of informal workers, clearing definitions, and ultimately laying the foundation for a legislation to promote social protection for informal workers. However, despite the availability of a significant body of literature on both the informal and formal sectors, there has been very little understanding of the inter-linkages between these two and the manner in which these inter-linkages have played out in India. The sessions discussing studies on the inter-linkages between the formal and informal labour processes were, therefore, extremely useful as they presented recent research findings, which attempt to fill this gap in literature. Anushree Sinha presented a theoretical model of the movement of labour between the formal and informal sectors, and between formal and informal work, and averred that a great deal of labour movement takes place because of the inflexibility of wages in the formal sector. This leads to situations wherein the real wage may be higher than the marginal product of labour. Dibyendu Maiti, et al. highlighted the productivity differentials between formal and informal workers in the same industries, and noted the existence of a small but significant gap in productivity, which can be attributed to the higher capital-intensive nature of work, more arduous training, and longer years, resulting in a higher level of experience and the opportunity to learn and grow for researchers. Praveen Jha and Gurpreet Singh noted the rapid rise of informalisation in the Indian labour market, which necessitates the public provisioning of physical and social infrastructure to protect the informal sector workers from shocks and to improve their well-being. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) can be said to be one example of such public provisioning, which aims to not only protect but also promote the well-being of informal rural workers. Anjor Bhaskar and Pankaj Yadav, in a study of wells constructed under NREGA in Jharkhand, found that the wells make a very significant contribution in improving the lives of the poor informal workers. They found that on an average, completed NREGA wells lead to a fivefold increase in the incomes of the wells owners from the command area of the well. Although NREGA is often criticised for causing wage inflation, leading to an increase in the cost of agricultural labour, and consequently, in inflation, a study by Madhusudan Bhattarai, et al. finds that the more significant cause of agricultural wage inflation could be the greater demand for labour in the non-farm sector. Another measure that has effectively helped in improving the well-being of informal sector workers has been the formation of self-help groups (SHGs) and their empowerment through the Kudumbashree scheme in Kerala. Raghavan and Saphiya S.K. conclude that membership in Kudumbashree is similar to joining the organised
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formal sector in terms of the livelihood and social security that it has provided to millions of women across the state. Chandrakanta and Bhuvnesh Kumar Verma focused on the issue of seasonal migration towards urban centres in the informal labour market and migrant construction workers through case studies in Delhi. Their study noticed the impact of push factors on out-migration and of pull factors on the choice of destination and occupation of the migrants. Sudhakar Patra and Jeeban Jyoti Mohanty, while seeking to determine the status of informal sector workers in India, and their access to social security, presented a detailed discussion on the IIMPS Micro Pension Model. Using data from 300 informal sector participants in the Micro Pension scheme, from Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) and grassroots Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Odisha, their study indicates that the ideal micro pension scheme needs to be flexible, while providing adequate returns, liquidity and portability. The paper by P. Aparna and K. Hanumantha Rao examined the structural changes taking place in the urban informal non-agriculture enterprises (UINAE), and whether the growth of UINAEs has been evenly spread across space or has been confined to only a few states. This paper also assessed the improvements in productivity per unit and per worker in the constituent segments, that is, the Own Account Enterprises and Establishments. The analysis of the labouring poor in India’s organised sector by Sukhwinder Singh highlighted that the social security measures adopted by a nation may have far-reaching benefits in the form of improving living conditions; raising productivity levels; and promoting a sense of pride/self-respect amongst the citizens. The State must initiate steps to simplify and rationalise social security labour laws, and integrate these into the overall economic philosophy of the State for ushering in a new and innovative social security system as per the changing socio-economic environment of each state. Mitali Gupta pointed out that over the last few decades, employment in the manufacturing sector has become increasingly complex, following the emergence of subcontracting practices and arrangements in the labour recruitment processes. Changes in the recruitment of formal labour (from direct to contract workers) has given way to an informal labour structure in a more dominant form as compared to the recruitment of informal labour, and is thus continuously adding to the already burgeoning informal working population in the formal sector. Mansi Awasthi discussed the emerging labour market trends in the newly created state of Uttarakhand. The push and pull effects have accelerated the pace of change, and have played a critical role in the internal migration process, which has resulted in greater inequality in the state. The significant restructuring process during the period following the split in the state, with much attention being accorded to issues of economic development and reconstruction of economy, has created extreme heterogeneity, which, in turn, has paved the way for labour market dualism and polarisation of space in the state. The paper by Manik Kumar investigates the broad empirical patterns of wage differentials between informal and formal wage workers across gender, industry, and education (general/technical) at the national level as well as across different ISLE
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sectors and states. The study shows that the compound annual growth of wage is very sluggish in all the categories of labour, suggesting that the wage determination behaviour during the last few decades may not follow one of the basic premises of the theory of labour market in economics, which is that employment and wages are determined by the marginal productivity of labour in value terms. Ajit Dhar Dubey explores the relationship between labour migration and poverty in Uttar Pradesh during a period of rapidly growing inequalities. He finds that overall, the links between migration and poverty are deeply context-specific. N. Padmasundari and PG Balasubramanian presented a paper centred around the changes in the working environment of coffee plantation labour and small growers in Tamil Nadu. This paper describes the changes in labour practices and a paradigm shift in the coffee plantation sector in the state. The importance of laying down and enforcing standards for working conditions and the provisioning of social protection has been established time and again. However, there is always a need to review the conditions and re-evaluate their impact. A number of papers were presented on this aspect as part of the concomitant theme. Gundeti Ramesh’s study of suicides by weavers in Andhra Pradesh shows that the large number of such cases in the state result from the poor enforcement of basic standards to ensure proper working conditions and the absence of social security for weavers. K. Madvendra Kumar and M. Vani find that the situation is worse for women weavers, who bear the double burden of household responsibilities and of earning money, and yet continue to suffer from the patriarchal social order. Further, women also suffer since they are never represented in the cooperative societies. Women are also rarely employed in any capacity in the cooperatives. Hence the issues affecting them are never raised at any fora. The increasing mechanisation of informal work has rendered the future of women’s employment unclear. As Shivani Tiwari points out in her paper, the commercialisation and mechanisation of agriculture have marginalised women, as they have failed to adapt to the changing agricultural practices such as the massive use of inputs, and the deployment of tools and equipments such as threshers, and combined harvesters in agriculture. In the process, the tasks which were traditionally performed by women manually, have been taken over by men. The changed economic processes and practices have marginalised not just women but entire societies. As Tanushree Haldar finds through a detailed historical study of tribals and development in the state of Jharkhand, the process of commercialisation and economic development has led to the marginalisation and pauperisation of tribals. Over time, the tribals have become a popular source of cheap labour, and are easily exploited by the wealthier classes across the country. They have also cone to be known as a source of cheap domestic female labour, as Dean finds through her study of domestic workers in Ranchi. These workers may earn as little as Rs. 300 in a month. Often these women bear the responsibility of the entire household, that is, they shoulder both domestic as well as occupational responsibilities, and yet, not being sufficiently empowered, end up becoming victims of the patriarchal social order. However, the condition of domestic workers is similar in other parts of the country as well. In a study of the working conditions
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of informal workers across ten sectors in the city of Madurai, S.V. Hariharan and M. Tamizharhasan found that domestic workers were the lowest paid while cooks earned the most. Given the conditions of work and livelihoods of informal workers, formalisation seems to be a much preferred option. This opinion was confirmed through a study of street vendors across three districts in Assam by Rumia Begum and Chandana Goswami. Their study finds that most street vendors preferred to have more formalised set-ups since it would help them avoid harassment and take advantage of the benefits available to formal enterprises. However, not all street vendors succeeded in becoming formalised workers. The probability of becoming formal depends on the desire of the worker to find formal employment, the level of education, access to social networks and knowledge, and networks in the market. Government policies have performed rather poorly as far as promoting enterprises is concerned, and must, therefore, take these results into account. A study of Mizo enterprises by Shailaja Thakur shows that mainstream values and government schemes and policies actually have no (or even a negative) impact on enterprise performance, and what instead does seem to have an impact on enterprises and their ability to perform better are tribal values, membership of chambers of commerce, and levels of education. These findings are reflected in V.B. Jugale’s study of government schemes and programmes in Maharashtra, which actually prevent labour migration from informal to formal (sugarcane) industries. A paper by Priyanka Bhau and Jasbir Singh focuses on how the lower levels of education of slum dwellers in the city of Jammu operate as a constraint that forces them to join informal employment, while also showing how the informal sector becomes the only means of livelihood for these slum dwellers. Based on a survey of 250 households taken from ten slums of Jammu city, the paper argues that the low educational status of slum dwellers in the city has become a hindrance in their attempts to get high paid jobs or enter into formal employment. G. Saritha focuses on the socio-economic status of female labourers in Andhra Pradesh. Her study finds that around 94 per cent of the total population of women workers is engaged in the informal sector in India, but these workers have to face gender discrimination, which is almost non-existent in the formal sector. More than 90 per cent of the working women in India are engaged as wage labourers in the unorganised sector. Under-employed and destitute women have a lot of domestic work load and they are ill-paid with their work going unrecognised. Hence, it is necessary to analyse the wages of female agricultural labourers and to identify the factors influencing the agricultural wages, income and expenditure situation of women workers in Andhra Pradesh. P. Samson and Krapa Kishore Babu presented a state-wise analysis of the girl child labour in India, which indicated wide variations across states with regard to child labour and its rates of decline over the last three decades. All efforts to eradicate girl child labour require concerted strategies both at the level of individual agents as well as in terms of interaction among the different agents. The paper by Bishweshwar Bhattacharjee attempts to explore the inter-linkages between the formal and informal sector by highlighting the movement of workers
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not only between the informal and formal sectors, but also between formal and informal employment. Using the framework of Marxian political economy, the presentation by Nisha Bharti seeks to study the production process and labour relations in the garment manufacturing sector. It explores the nature of change in the process of garment manufacturing, and the relationship between the formal and informal sectors in garment manufacturing while attempting to identify the level of flexibilisation, as also the relation between informalisation in garment manufacturing and feminisation of work process. It also assesses the condition of workers in the garment manufacturing sector by using the framework of ‘decent work’ and examines the extent of social protection for workers in this sector. The paper by Tarique and Maria Khan uses a linear regression model to show that there is a positive and complementary relation between informal and formal employment. Ashi Rooth Stuart, applies the evolutionary game theory approach to formal– informal sector integration. The paper uses a game theoretic model with two players: the Government and the firm. The interaction between the two players suggests that formalisation of the huge informal sector existing in developing economies by the government can play an important role in the removal of inefficient conventions, and can bring about an evolutionary change in the economic structure of the society. The paper by Rathindra Nath Pramanik suggest that the Harris–Todaro Model could still be relevant in explaining the phenomenon of rural–urban migration in developing countries like India despite some limitations inherent in it. The paper by Denzil Fernandes discusses the marginalisation of contract labour among housekeeping workers in the Delhi Metro. Using a mixed method approach, the author interviewed a sample of 260 workers employed at 67 Metro stations in the capital. The pension policy in India has traditionally been based on the employment contracts/service conditions and is financed through employer and employee participation. As a result, the coverage has been restricted to the formal sector, and a majority of the workforce in the informal sector has remained outside the formal channels of old age financial support. The paper by Sant Lal Arora studies how the National Pension System (NPS) marks a paradigm shift in the pension regime from ‘Defined Benefit’ to ‘Defined Contribution’, with the passage of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Act 2013. The paper argues that the coverage of the informal sector under the NPS needs to be understood and appreciated in the background of the challenges and magnitude of the problem. The paper by Sivasankar V. examines the employment of female home-based workers in the footwear production cluster in Ambur, Tamil Nadu. Some of the key issues explored in this paper include the role of caste in home-based work, the nature of subcontracting between contractors and home-based women workers, the nature of skill formation of domestic women workers, prevalence of the piece wage system and the wage relationship between the employer (contractor) and employee. Jatinder Kumar Jha and Manjari Singh, discussed the challenges entailed in managing labour processes in the informal sector and the impact of labour laws on the segregation of the labour market. This paper recommends that India needs to
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improve its education policy while specially focusing on programmes for industrial skill development in order to deal with the scarcity of skilled labourers in Indian industries. If supported by the implementation of flexible labour laws, such a skill developmental programme would help improve labour mobility between sectors. Deepa V. explores the process of employment in the informal sector in Kerala on the basis of an analysis of the NSSO’s 68th Round. The findings indicate that a majority of the informal sector workers were not able to enjoy any of the social security benefits provided by the State under the pension, gratuity, healthcare and maternity benefits. Small-scale industries have emerged as a vibrant and dynamic component of the Indian economy by virtue of their significant contribution to employment generation, the GDP, industrial production and exports. The paper by Sheshagiri B. examines the movement of small-scale industries in the widely debated dynamic industrial environment in Karnataka. The major thrust of the study has been on understanding the economic structure and organisation of small scale units in the state. K.R. Chavan and Pradip Patil discuss the informal sector in India and related issues based on secondary data. Their paper recommends certain policy options as elucidated in the available literature such as facilitating increased access to capital and credit, providing information, education and skills, and training facilities, improving access to physical infrastructure, and extending social protection, among other things. The issue of alignment of small manufacturing units with the new proposed Small Factories Bill 2014 is bound to take a toll on the Indian SME sector. An empirical study by Asha Prasad and Harsh Juneja sheds light on the first response to the proposed Act from a number of employers in NOIDA as well as workplace flexibility in different industries such as those of engineering, garments and plastics, among others, in response to increasing competition and manufacturing. Unregistered units are concerned about ESI and other regulations when they want to expand. Labour is still used as commodity in SMEs and work is not a source of dignity in view of the deplorable working conditions and lack of provision of social security for workers in such units. In his paper, K. Gopal Iyer maintains that though there appears to be a dichotomy between the formal and informal sectors, in practice they operate in a continuum. One can find unorganised and informal sector workers within the formal sectors in both public and private enterprises, and many a times both of them work in conjunction with each other to perform a crucial role in the entire production system. 6.2 THEME 2: ‘‘The Demographic Dividend: Challenges of Employment and Employability’’ Around 75 presentations were made during six technical parallel sessions on this theme. Some of the issues raised in the presentations made on the theme are as follows: fresh population and labour force projections for the period up to 2030, inter alia, as ISLE
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part of the examination of the Planning Commission’s methodology and the results of the 2011 Census and NSS surveys; implications of the demographic transition occurring at different points of time in different states in terms of its labour market impacts within a selected state and on other states; exploration of the problems faced by special groups like women, illiterates, the poorly educated or other deprived sections, and how they can gain from the demographic dividend through the acquisition of education, training and access through the labour market to productive full-time employment; the prevalent education and training systems, and how they can be restructured in order to contribute effectively towards making the demographic dividend a reality. The papers also critically examined the choices regarding the expansion of wage employment rather than self-employment; urban rather than rural employment; manufacturing rather than services; promotion of exports rather than domestic markets; and opting for greater dependence on public employment promotion measures than on the private sector. A number of presentations were made on the demographic trends both in India as a whole as well as in the various states. In his presentation, Rajendra P. Mamgain, argued that the major issues confronting the youth in today’s scenario are the extremely high incidence of unemployment as well as under-employment, limited opportunities for remunerative jobs, low levels of education and skills, and the quest for identity and dignity by workers. The mismatch between the demand for and supply of education and skills is yet another dimension that affects the overall employability of youth in India and in several other countries. Mamgain finds that the number of youths belonging to the marginalised groups is proportionately higher in the undesirable forms of employment wherein jobs are available only intermittently to workers and they are not provided any employment-related social security benefits. Swati Dutta examined the employment and unemployment situation of the youth in India during the years 2004–05, 2009–10 and 2011–12, and analysed the trends in labour force and workforce participation rates, unemployment rate, education level and the sector-wise employment levels for the youth population. She argued that most of the present-day youth have not received any vocational training. In her presentation entitled, ‘The Effect of Trade Liberalisation on Educational Attainment: Evidence from Indian Tariff Reforms’, Ashmita Gupta presented new insights into the linkages of trade and human capital development. Academic policy debates have centred around the merits and demerits of trade liberalisation based on internal distributional consequences and on the question of how trade reforms affect labour markets. Hochscherf, in his presentation, identified risk diversification strategies such as the cropping of different types of plants, and different income generating activities to tap into financial markets. The paper focuses on the question of whether agricultural labour markets serve as a risk management tool in the presence of systemic risks and whether farm households perceive food price volatility as a considerable risk if their decision is based on the amount of off-farm labour supply. Preet Rustagi argued that the failure of our labour markets to tap the potential of the educated and qualified urban youth may turn this phase of ‘demographic transition’ into a phase of ‘demographic debacle’. Rajarshi Majumder’s presentation
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covered a number of issues pertaining to education and skill formation among youth; the current status of employment and unemployment among educated youth; the levels education/technical skill among youth workers; and the regional pattern of unemployment among educated youth. He concluded that the current skill/training situation of youth in India is inadequate and that it is ridden with a clear locational and gender bias. He argued that unless the mismatch between the demand for skills in the modern labour market and the skills actually supplied by the education/training sector is corrected urgently, India shall end up with a vast mass of unemployed and unemployable youth, which would lead to a demographic disaster rather than a demographic dividend. Vinoj Abraham compared two case studies, including one from an urban slum, Kulamnagar, and the second from a rural one, Adimalathura in Kerala, and asserted that women who engage in public spaces such as State welfare programmes or civil organisations, are able to enhance their livelihood choices. Evidence from the cases shows that women achieve wider economic participation by engaging with different organisations. Keshab Das discussed the literature on the positioning of informal labour in the Global South in the context of the global production networks. His discussion underscored the need to accord primacy to issues on labour rights in the South, while re-framing the terms of such global subcontracting without an in-depth understanding of its economics, drivers and the downside. Nabonita Datta Gupta, Debashis Nandy and Suddhasil Siddhanta dwelled on the low levels of labour force participation among women with low and intermediate levels of education among women in India. The predominant factor behind this phenomenon is that women, particularly those belonging to the poor strata of society, work more out of necessity rather than choice, and the level of education among these women is also low. Hansa Jain emphasised the need for restructuring in order to ensure the accrual of all the gains from the demographic dividend. She spoke of the need for policy level changes in the spheres of education, employment, and networking between the employer and the educational institutions, among others. Ishwarya Balasubramaniam discussed the impact of the spatial concentration of skills on the availability of employment opportunities across regions within a single country. The demand and supply of skills and skilled labour need to be equitably distributed across the country. Paramjit Singh and Balwinder Singh Tiwana argued that optimal utilisation of the working population is possible only if the State takes concerted initiatives in the form of investment with the primary objective of providing employment opportunities to the entire young and educated population in the country. Ramya Ranjan Patel argued that the problem of employability is a supply side problem associated with the acquisition of skills, knowledge and education. He said that the neglect of the agricultural sector has the following twofold implications: first, agriculture spurs the demand for goods, and second it enables people to acquire the requisite skills to be able to qualify for employment in the urban industrial sector. Rekha Gupta evaluated the growing mismatch between skills among graduate students and market needs in India. She said that out of the three million young persons graduating, less than one-third of the engineering graduates and only about 10–15 per cent of the regular graduates are employable. ISLE
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This worrisome mismatch needs to be examined closely, followed by the urgent enactment of policies to redress the situation. Professor Rajendra P. Mamgain and Shivakar Tiwari pointed out that the present skill development structure in the country does not allow for establishing interconnections among education, skills and on-the-job practical experience. Meanwhile there are also growing mismatches between the demand and supply of education and skills, leading to increasing inequality in the entire process of human capital formation beginning from school education itself poses the challenge of poor quality of education for a large segment of children, which finally determines their employability. Tulika Tripathi focused on interventions for skill development in agriculture and dairy. She evaluated training programmes for skill upgradation of members of Self-Help Groups (SHGS) in the two underdeveloped districts of Rai Bareli and Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh. The selection methods and target caste groups of trainees emerged as important determinants of the outcomes. However, this training does not appear to be demand-driven, and its requirement and content are not locally determined, raising doubts regarding its sustainability. Digambar Chand brought into focus some fundamental issues afflicting the agriculture in order to address the issue of food insecurity in western Odisha. The methods he listed for mitigating the problem of food insecurity in the region include mixed cropping, and the introduction of an integrated agricultural management system with the protection of indigenous knowledge. The paper by Soumitro Chakravarty, Umesh Prasad and A.N. Jha focused on the potential of information technology to accelerate productivity and economic growth, and suggested that the prevalence of arduous regulatory frameworks and practices in developing countries is one of the several reasons that prevents them from trying out necessary innovations in the race for achieving productivity growth. Dolly Sunny emphasised the failure of the government to tap the existing opportunity of filling up jobs in the formal sector with specific reference to approved posts in the police force. Panel data from National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), along with the data on population, the state domestic product and per capita income were used for arriving at the regressions. These and other results point to the urgent need for recruiting new police staff across states to ensure social security and the maintenance of law and order. Tanusree Chakraborty, Ishita Mukhopadhyay and Pinaki Chakraborty observed the lack of a clear market for labourers working as hawkers in the transport sector. Their study, which is based on a primary survey, showed that only a small minority of the railway hawkers succeed in expanding their businesses, which gradually accumulate capital. The paper by Sita Lama and Pravat Kumar Kurisor revealed that age and educational attainment are the significant factors that have a positive impact on women’s wage rate and that women are selected for the labour work on the basis of their unobservable characteristics.There is an inverse relationship between the annual hours of work and the wage rate. In her presentation, Tanima Banerjee discussed how the conditions of SCs, STs and OBCs have not improved much even during the post-liberalisation period. The findings of this paper indicate the presence of some kind of discrimination or segregation in the urban sector of the Indian labour market on the basis of an analysis of the NSS 66th Round data.
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Maithreyi Krishnaraj maintained that women do not yet receive their due share in society. Time use surveys have shown that women spend more time in work than do men or children. A woman’s market work might be intermittent and the methodology of the NSS fails to take this truth into account. The paper by Ch. Thandavakrishna studies employment generating programmes initiated and implemented by the State during the post-independence phase. Owing to the lack of adequate funds and the poor implementation of these schemes, as also the high level of involvement of the middlemen and politicians, the schemes are not being run properly. Some of them are closed while others have been modified as even more new schemes are being introduced to generate employment opportunities and increase income levels. James Antony and S. Saravanan showed that the aggregate employment in the organised sector has fallen in absolute terms since 1997. The pattern of economic growth under an open economic regime tends to be such that the responsiveness of employment growth to the growth in output declines. India has also exhibited this characteristic since it underwent a change in the global policy. Madhu G.R. and Uma H.R. examine the flow of international labour migration in Asian countries. Their study finds over a year that emigration from India to other Asian countries increased and immigration to India decreased. The gender discriminatory trend in immigration to India from other Asian countries is very low as compared to emigration from India. The paper by Taniya Debnath argues that over time, the importance of migration towards urban centres has been increasing. Her findings suggest that migration to urban areas mainly takes place for economic reasons, and it is an age-selective process. The rural migrants are quite different from the rest of the migrant groups in terms of the levels of education attained, their skills, their wage levels and occupational distribution. P.S. Kamble argues that the noteworthy challenges of employment and employability of human resources include a higher labour force participation rate, lower worker–population ratio, lower level of employment, higher proportion of illiterate employment, and the lower proportion of female employment, among other factors. It is therefore imperative to accord the highest priority to employment in the economic policy. Sonu Madan and Kanwaljit Kaur Gill explored the various aspects of age data in the case of the Indian economy when cross-classified by variables like educational attainment, skill development and the employment status of population. Based on these findings, the paper advocates the intervention of policy targeted at women and low-skilled workers. In her presentation, Anamika Das tried to identify the drivers of expansion of rural non-farm employment (RNF) in Assam by using the district level census data of 2001 and 2011. Her findings show positive linkages of RNF to rural literacy rates, levels of urbanisation, the presence of the tea industry in the state and the average net sown area per agricultural worker. The analysis of district level data also indicates that the non-farm sector is non-inclusive as the districts with higher proportions of the rural Scheduled Tribe (ST) population have witnessed lower percentages of RNF employment, suggesting that the ST workers are mostly concentrated in agriculture. She suggests that the local government can take initiatives for a more inclusive expansion of RNF employment through better ISLE
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provision of these facilities at the local level. G.S. Mehta argued that high economic growth has been accompanied by low employment growth, especially in the organised manufacturing sector, both during the pre- and post-liberalisation phases. However, in the case of Uttar Pradesh, the state was initially lagging far behind the national average in terms of the growth of both the economy and employment from 2000 to 2005, but it has shown remarkable progress in both economic growth as well as employment growth compared to India as a whole during recent years. Focusing on the female migrant domestic workers from Jharkhand, the study by Sunita Kumari and Abhishek Thakur looks at their life before and after migration. The findings reveal that various factor such as the grim financial situation in the family, lack of education, and non-availability of economic opportunities within their home state force them to migrate, and that the prospects of income in the form of cash rather than in kind offers a larger attraction to the for potential migrants. Informal networks (such as those of friends and relatives) and religious institutions like the Church play a major role in facilitating migration. The paper by Kamal Chaudhary and Navneet Kaur Manchanda, Research Scholars at JNU, New Delhi explores the trends in employment and unemployment among youth in India for the period 1993–94 to 2011–12. The study finds that the unemployment rate is quite high among youth in India, but even among the young people, it is the highest among graduates. This quite clearly indicates the need for addressing the phenomena of skill mismatch and over-qualification among youth in the country. Vikram Chadha’s study focuses on the challenges faced by India’s IT industry due to the huge employability gap. The shortage of suitable engineering graduates is usually attributed to the poor quality of education imparted to many of the engineering graduates. Therefore, in order to optimally utilise the potential of the demographic dividend available to the nation, it is mandatory to ensure a high quality in the education; otherwise the ‘demographic dividend’ could turn into a ‘demographic nightmare’. Rashmi Akhoury argued that there is nothing automatic about the effects of demographic change on economic growth. Changes in age structure simply affect the supply side potential for economic growth. The successful capturing of that potential depends on numerous other factors such as governance, macroeconomic management, the depth and efficiency of financial markets, and the policies pertaining to trade, education, health, and labour. Seema Singh raised the question as to whether only formal schooling can help increase the employability of the youth. In this context, the role of various soft training programmes and modules with their focus on increasing employment was also highlighted. Other factors like good quality education and health also contribute to increasing employment. Neha Kaur, in her presentation, posed the question, ‘‘Will there be enough productive jobs for the growing labour force?’’ She identified various factors like the availability of relatively fewer productive jobs, low salaries, and insufficient job opportunities in the service sector for the low employment rate. Further, the absence of relevant and high quality education and the poor health status of the workforce also has an adverse impact on the quality of employment in India. She concluded that unless there is a change in the government strategy for tackling unemployment, India could be unknowingly heading towards a demographic disaster.
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Nancy Sebastian discussed the effect of sectoral growth on poverty reduction, thereby finding a plausible explanation of how best to turn the vicious circle of poverty, economic growth and employment into a virtuous circle. She concluded that skill development and education of the future workforce are important determinants of growth for effectively capturing the demographic dividend. In a study of the Bodo tribes, Shrabanti Maity found that the social variables, literacy levels and economic variables are positively statistically significant while demographic variables are negatively statistically significant with respect to the socioeconomic status of the Bodo households under study. The levels of literacy, operational landholdings and distance from urban centres, in particular, have a relatively strong influence in determining these socio-economic status profiles. Anup K. Mishra argued that the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) may not only change the dynamics of technical education and vocational training, but could also remove the age-old barriers that had been obstructing growth in the field of education and employable vocational training. Smrutirekha Singhari provided empirical evidence of segmentation into the formal and informal sectors in the labour market in India. In the course of liberalisation of the Indian economy, the informal sector continues to account for a substantial and growing segment of the labour market. The major policy recommendation put forth by the paper is the need for reducing informal employment in both the formal and informal sectors. Kishore Babu Karri attempted to study the socio-economic status and standards of living among different categories of labour households in the Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh. His paper points to a positive relationship between informal labour and poverty, and argues that the government should provide employment opportunities in the village while also introducing programmes for skill development among the informal sector labourers. The paper by K. Madhu Babu studies the relation between demographic dividend and employment in India at the macro level and the state of Andhra Pradesh at the micro level in order to examine the linkages between the working age group population and economic growth both in the state as well as at a more general national level. In this respect, the study recommends that the best approach towards planning is to adapt necessary policy measures such as enhancing skill development among the illiterate and semi-literate workforce and initiating social security benefits for the workforce in the informal sector. M. Bhattarai argued that the weak SAM (Social Accounting Matrix) multipliers in the analysis indicate that MGNREGS is yet to make an economic impact in the village economy. The reasons for the weak SAM multipliers could be traced to wage and income differentials between MGNREGS and agriculture as well as the non-farm sectors. Even if the households were willing to work, their reservation wage in MGNREGS is relatively low and that possibly deters them from offering their labour for MGNREGS activities. In his presentation G.M. Bhat said that the state of Jammu and Kashmir has seen an extremely large structural transformation in employment from the primary to the non-primary sector, but without an accompanying rise in per capita income and progress in industrial development.
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V. B. Kakade argued that economic reforms in India have not only opened the doors for competition but also offer an immense global opportunity for the showcasing of Indian talent. The growth of IT and the emergence of global companies like Infosys, TCS and Wipro is the result of the new economic policy. However, the unequal access to opportunity and the lack of emphasis on education remains a persistent problem. The report finds that a person in an urban area has a 93 per cent greater chance of acquiring training than someone in a rural area. In this context, there is a need to exploit the demographic dividend in the country. The paper by M. Basha assessed the employability skills and career aspirations among the students of Economics on the basis of their age, gender, native place, education, and academic performance. The findings in the paper outline the need to build a bridge between educational institutions and the job market. It is also necessary to provide a space for the Economics graduate students to enable them to enhance their employability skills and career aspirations. P. Udayakumar, who based his study on the Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu, argued that employability derives from a complex learning process and implies much more than merely ‘core’ and ‘key skills’. He stated that employability is, in fact, a collection of capacities or achievements. Meanwhile, there is a growing emphasis by employers that Economics graduates should demonstrate a range of competencies that would equip them to work in a global environment, in different countries, in multi-cultural teams, while being innovative and enterprising, and acquiring strong language skills that would increasingly be in demand in the workplace. The paper by Jayanta Sen discussed the inclination of workers to be associated with non-agricultural activities in rural India, along with the concentration of rural female workers in the rural non-farm and manufacturing sector. Urban workers are mainly employed in manufacturing and wholesale and retail trading activities. Gender discrimination is relatively more prominent in the rural than urban areas. Higher gender disparity is also observed in case of self-employed groups, irrespective of whether they are located in the rural or urban areas. In his study of women vendors in Bangalore, K.C. Channamma noted the highly significant contribution of female vendors towards the sustenance of their families. The vendors face competition from the organised commercial retail shops and unionisation among them is short-lived. In a market where a majority of the vendors are women, the vendors’ association is conspicuous by its absence. The prolonged working hours, including both at home and in the market, and the increased number of working days make it impossible for these women vendors to set apart some time for forming an association and holding regular meetings to discuss their grievances. Moreover, with self-employment being an own account enterprise, the vendors who lack the support of their family members find the association activities to be timeconsuming. Lacking voice and hold over their business, these women vegetable vendors have to compromise with their bargaining power vis-a`-vis the State and other permanent market functionaries.
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6.3 THEME 3: ‘‘Industrial Relations in India: Sectoral and Regional Patterns’’ More than 35 selected papers were presented during the three technical sessions organised under the theme, ‘‘Industrial Relations in India: Sectoral and Regional Patterns’’. The chairpersons of the technical sessions were: Professor Dev Nathan, Institute for Human Development, New Delhi; Professor N.K. Chaudhary, Patna University; and Dr. Ritu Dewan, Former Professor and Director, Department of Economics, University of Mumbai. Two panel discussions as mentioned earlier were also organised under the theme. During the technical sessions on the theme, the presenters analysed the macro and systemic issues of IR/ER; trade unions—their evolution, development, growth and even decay; and their strategies and coalitional or divisive aspects as part of a movement in a spatial or industrial or firm set-up; new forms of workers’ organisations and their stories, narratives and critical analyses—the sustainability or their local or global (that is, multi-regional or industrial) relevance; conflicts or coalitions between conventional and new forms of organisations; and even failed experiments that would be of interest; important factors on the employers’ side, the establishment of certain industries or Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and the controversies surrounding it (say the Nokia SEZ in Tamil Nadu); managerial strategies; the working of tripartite and bi-partite bodies at the industry or regional levels; and analyses of the terms and conditions of employment and the role of labour institutions, among other things. In his presentation, Anamitra Roy Chowdhury enumerated the main provision of certain selected labour laws like the Apprentice Act of 1961 and the Industrial Disputes Act of 1947. He pointed out that the recent amendments to the provisions of the Apprentice Act have allowed for keeping a larger number of apprentices by increasing the ratio between apprentices and main workers. Taniya Chakrabarty presented some of the key findings of an ongoing research project titled, ‘‘Labour Market Inequality in India and Brazil’’, carried out jointly by IHD and CEBRAP, Sao Paulo. Although her presentation mostly concentrated on labour market institutions, it also highlighted the fact that India and Brazil have been mirror images of each other as regards their long-term trends of growth and inequality. The presentation highlighted some of the basic similarities and differences between labour market institutions in both countries while also comparing the share of employment in both countries over time. The author then went on to undertake a comparison of some specific labour market institutions such as the workers’ movement and the State, labour laws, wage-setting institutions and wage differentials in the two countries. Abdur Rahim Mia’s presentation pointed out that though a large number of labour laws exist in Bangladesh, the rights of workers in the country are severely violated. He cited the example of the Rana Plaza Tragedy in which hundreds of workers had lost their lives; several workers engaged in the industry suffered fatal accidents, and were the target of sexual harassment but had not been provided any compensation or justice. He argued that such widespread violations of the labour law can be attributed to several factors such as inherent weaknesses in the drafting ISLE
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of labour laws, the deficient framework of labour regulations, lack of governmental interventions, lack of unionisation, and ignorance among workers about their rights. Thus, labour reforms need to be implemented urgently, and the government needs to play an active role in ensuring proper working and living conditions for workers in this sector. Nitesh Bhatia pointed out that over the years, Nokia has reduced its workforce from 45,000 workers to only 7500 contract workers. He further argued that the establishment of the Nokia plant had resulted in competition among state governments to attract foreign companies even if it was at an extremely low labour cost and resulted in the extensive violation of labour rights. This opportunity was used by Nokia to establish itself as a leading global manufacturer. Meanwhile, state governments and various political parties had done little to prevent the violations of labour rights, which reflected the lack of political will and interest in labour issues. It was also pointed out that massive changes are taking place in the area of labour regulation in India in recent times. The Government has announced its intention to introduce changes in all laws governing the field of Industrial Relations including regulations related to the payment of wages, settlement of disputes, hiring and firing of workers and collectivisation or unionisation of workers. However, the recent changes must be seen in the light of the trends and patterns of changes in Industrial Relations in India over the past few decades. Five main findings emerged from the discussions in the session on Industrial Relations in India, as delineated below. First, the process of liberalisation and increased competition in product markets can have mixed effects on labour relations, particularly bargaining power. Increased competition may force firms to squeeze costs and hence the wages and bargaining power of workers. On the other hand, it may also open up more options for workers, thereby increasing their bargaining power. Most research on the subject, however, finds that with the advent of liberalisation and labour deregulation, there has been a steady decline in the bargaining power of workers across Indian states. The decline has, however, varied between states depending upon the political stance of the specific state government. For instance, due to the dominance of Left-leaning governments in Assam, West Bengal and Kerala, it has been found that workers in these states have the highest bargaining power. On the other hand, workers in states such as Punjab, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh are found to have the lowest bargaining power. Second, the decline in the bargaining power of workers is accompanied by a stagnation in real wages. However, here too, the political stance of state governments is reflected in developments on the ground such as that the workers of West Bengal are found to have the highest real wages (Subhanil Chowdhary, Zaad Mahmood, and Amit Sadhukhan). Third, contrary to the earlier findings, which suggest that price cost margins have gone up over the last few decades post the deregulation of labour since the 1980s, Pal and Rathore actually find that the price cost margins have remained constant. They also conclude that earlier studies might be biased in their estimates as they do not consider the imperfections in the input market. Therefore, in both the product
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and input markets need to be studied simultaneously and the imperfections in both need to be accounted for, which the authors have succeeded in doing. Fourth, Balram Rao and S.P. Singh show, in their paper that in their eagerness to please industry and investors, governments are eager to get rid of the existing labour regulations. Further, wherever possible, the Government is unwilling to adopt and impose any additional regulations. As Gopal Krishna (Toxics Watch) finds, despite the Supreme Court’s orders, the Government has failed to adopt the Basel Convention for Ship Breaking Industries, which would help safeguard the health of lakhs of workers suffering from extremely poor occupational health and safety conditions at ship-breaking sites in Gujarat. Finally, the Government’s opposition to labour regulation comes from the stated need for growth and investment in industries. However, as Rao and Singh conclude on the basis of their study of the construction sector, there is no clear relationship between labour regulation, on one hand, and investment and growth, on the other. Instead, investment and growth are affected more by a lack of transparency and absence of good governance. On the other hand, The study also suggests finds a dire need for the government to strictly enforce existing regulations like the Minimum Wages Act, the Interstate Migrants Act and Building and other Construction Workers Act. Also, there is a need to implement the recommendations of the NCEUS. Questions were raised as to whether the political affiliation of unions have proven to be a source of strength or weakness, and whether social spending in both countries could become a crucial factor in contributing to the differences in inequalities. It was argued that labour legislations in Brazil, much like the other labour market institutions, should be critically analysed as they are closely related to other factors such as the role of the State and the presence of a political will, which differs across the two countries. It was also suggested that one should look closely at the interface between fiscal rigidities and labour market rigidities, and on the potential impact of different political regimes in both countries. With regard to the study relating to Nokia, it was pointed out that sometimes the political parties and governments do not just favour the employers but may also take certain actions that are aimed at appeasing the employer companies and thus end up crippling the labour movements. The need to analyse the functioning of the Nokia plant in relation to employment and productivity levels was also highlighted. This session thus brought to public notice a number of important facets of the industrial relations system in India. A parallel poster session was also organised wherein twenty young scholars made their presentations. This Report is based on inputs received from: Mr. Anjor Bhaskar, Research Fellow, ERC-IHD, Ranchi, and PhD Scholar, Tata Institute of Social Sciences; Dr. Bhim Reddy, Associate Fellow, IHD, New Delhi; Ms. Priti Bharti, Research Associate, ERC-IHD, Ranchi; Ms. Swati Dutta, Senior Research Associate, IHD, New Delhi; and Ms. Taniya Chakrabarty, Research Associate, IHD, New Delhi.
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