-Scroll.in The shock move devastated India’s informal economy. Many small businesses never recovered, as a supply chain at the intersection of diamonds and plastic shows. Up till 8.30 pm on the night of November 8, 2016, Muniram Yadav was blissfully unaware of the announcement that had shaken the country just thirty minutes before. He was engrossed in work, in a tiny workshop in Mumbai’s Sakinaka suburb, supervising four labourers as they carried...

-Newsclick.in The financial crisis in the diamond industry in Surat has claimed the lives of 16 workers who have died by suicide. Earlier this month, an association president ended his life as well. Darshanbhai Rameshbhai Chaudhary, a diamond polisher by profession, had not had a job for four months. Day after day, he would stand at the Diamond Polishing hub in the Varacha area of Surat in the hope of being hired...

-PTI Nearly 1,500 families are heading to their home towns every day Left with no source of income, workers in Surat’s diamond industry are leaving the city in large numbers. After being forced to down shutters in March-end owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, business resumed in the second week of June. However, over 600 workers and their families have tested positive for COVID-19, prompting the Surat Municipal Corporation to order the closure of...

-The Hindu The exodus of migrant labour from Gujarat highlights the indifference of States to their well being and rights Gujarat is one of the top States in India that receive migrant workers, largely temporary and seasonal, on a large scale. In Gujarat, they work in unskilled or semi-skilled jobs in a wide range of activities such as in agriculture, brick kilns and construction work, salt pans and domestic work, petty services...

-The Economic Times If anyone thinks jail is a leveller of gender discrimination, think again. It can be quite stark, even in jail. The men and women in Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad are treated quite differently as far as work is concerned. In stereotypical fashion, only the men in the jail got to work, while the women had nothing to do and no opportunity to earn. The men in this jail make...