-The Indian Express The urban poor is still finding it difficult to return to work. Targeting social safety nets towards them is necessary as the economy struggles to recover. While COVID-19 continues its assault on human lives, the Indian economy, after the devastation in the wake of the lockdown, is showing signs of recovering. Data from a variety of sources, such as exports and car sales, as well as data from NCAER’s...

  Among other things, one of the reasons (given by some economists) behind low labour force participation rate (LFPR) of women vis-à-vis men in the country is that more young girls are educating themselves, causing an improvement in the secondary and tertiary enrolment rates. It means that more Indian women are staying out of the labour force in order to continue their education – secondary education and / or college &...

-The Indian Express How unpaid labour by women subsidises the Indian economy The latest time-use survey on women’s and men’s work has just been released by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), albeit 20 years after the first time-use survey was conducted. We must congratulate the NSSO for successfully completing this survey as this was much needed. Some startling findings have emerged regarding the work done by men and women — the...

-The Hindu The government’s tendency to be opaque and blame states is not new Last month, the Code on Social Security; the Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions; and the Code on Industrial Relations were passed in Parliament with little debate. In August 2019, the Code on Wages was passed. The four codes together subsume more than 40 labour laws. The mission statement from the Ministry of Labour and Employment reads:...

-The Hindu The new labour codes do little to provide better pay and definitive rights to platform workers The new Code on Social Security allows a platform worker to be defined by their vulnerability — not their labour, nor the vulnerabilities of platform work. Swiggy workers have been essential during the pandemic. Even so, they have faced a continuous dip in pay and no rewards for being essential workers. During the last six...