At SEWA, we strongly believe that "Work is a healer". In the current pandemic situation, when the majority of informal workers livelihoods have come to a screeching halt, it is important to focus on rehabilitating the livelihoods of workers, building their resilience, promoting the local decentralized economies, organizing workers into their own economic enterprises, repurposing...
The primary objective of this paper is to look at the trends and pattern of changes in women’s employment structure over years (1983–2018) consequent upon the structural changes in the Indian economy. It also attempts to analyse the quality of women’s labour in terms of select parameters. The study finds that there is neither quantitative nor qualitative improvement in women’s...
Platform business models emerged with the growth of the Internet in the 1990s and are conceptualized as two- or multi-sided markets, as they facilitate exchange between service providers, clients (business) and workers. This article focuses on the impact of COVID-19 on digital labour platforms, such as freelance online web-based platforms and location-based platforms...
India imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in the world to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Stringency Index developed by the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, by the 25th of March, 2020, India had already reached the highest possible level of stringency (index value = 100). This involved a near-complete shutdown of all...
The paper examines the nature of the migrant crisis in India after the country-wide lockdown in March 2020 and brings out the types of labour migrants who were severely adversely affected by the lockdown, leading to their exodus towards their native villages. It further assesses the government’s response and proposes some key policy imperatives.
Covid-19 has ushered in a renewed focus on health, sanitisation and, in unexpected ways, on the need for productive employment opportunities in rural India. MGNREGA, the rural employment guarantee programme, has had a mixed track record in terms of providing adequate employment to those who need it the most, the quality of asset creation and adequacy of wages offered. This paper...
Public attention has focused on the problems of urban migrants returning to rural India due to the Covid-19 crisis. It may be months before the majority of returning migrants, including several different kinds of migrants, go back to urban areas and are absorbed in employment. We know that there is considerable movement of labour between rural and urban areas, some of it long...