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1. Research in the Covid-19 Context: Adaptive Methods and Ethical Considerations

Author:
Mukta Naik
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
Resilience and adaptation have become buzzwords as governments, corporations and society find ways to survive the Covid-19 pandemic and, where possible, seek to develop processes and outcomes that improve on the pre-crisis status quo. Members of the Women, Work, and the Gig Economy research consortium have also thought deeply about strategies to continue research under these challenging conditions, while considering the ethics that must underpin research at a time of great distress for people across the world. This brief summarizes the conceptual and practical approaches that consortium members have taken to address ethical concerns as well as strategic and tactical shifts in research methods within the broader, geographically diverse and evertransforming context of Covid-19. These insights draw on the deliberations of an internal workshop held in September 2020 where consortium members presented and debated their respective approaches and perspectives. In particular, the team at LIRNEasia provided substantive takeaways from their colloquium on “Research methods in a pandemic.”
Topic:
Women, Ethics, Work Culture, COVID-19, and Gig Economy
Political Geography:
South Asia and India

2. A Comprehensive Overview: Defining and Measuring Informality in India’s Labour Market

Author:
Mridusmita Bordoloi, Sharad Pandey, and Mohammad Hamza Farooqui
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
The brief unbundles the global standard definition of informality with respect to the labour market, a concept often considered inexplicit and broad-based. It presents the parameters used to measure informality in the Indian context, and presents key characteristics of the informal workforce.
Topic:
Employment, Work Culture, and Labor Market
Political Geography:
South Asia and India

3. How Comparable are India’s Labour Market Surveys?: A comparison of NSS, Labour Bureau and CMIE Estimates

Author:
Anand Shrivastava and Rosa Abraham
Publication Date:
05-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University
Abstract:
With the lack of official government data on unemployment and other labour market indicators, the most viable and recent source have been the regular household surveys conducted by the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE). Given the differences in methods in data collection, it becomes exceedingly important to establish some comparability between the government and the CMIE datasets. This paper attempts to do that using two methods. First we fit a model of employment status on the CMIE data and see how well it predicts outcomes in the older Labour Bureau 2015-16 and NSS 2011-12 data. Then we compare state-level estimates of broad labour market indicators from CMIE 2016 and Labour Bureau 2015-16 datasets. The broad results are that despite differences in methodologies, the estimates for men are quite comparable between the surveys, while measures of women’s participation in the labour force seem particularly sensitive to the way questions are asked in surveys.
Topic:
Economics, Labor Issues, Work Culture, Labor Policies, and Participation
Political Geography:
India

4. The Evolving Discourse on Job Quality- From Normative Frameworks to Measurement Indicators: The Indian Example

Author:
Divya Prakash and Sabina Dewan
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University
Abstract:
Indians are optimistic. According to the Pew Research Center’s 2017 Global Attitudes Survey, three out of four Indians believe that, “when children today in India grow up, they will be better off financially than their parents” (Pew Global Attitudes Survey, 2017). Families hinge their hopes on the ability of the next generation to work hard, earn a living, and be a source of financial support. For years now, the nation has done the same, pinning its economic ambitions to a demographic advantage, or youth bulge, that is set to continue only for the next two decades. Unless there are pathways to productive and high-quality employment, the nation’s youth will not be able to deliver on these expectations. How has India’s economy fared on job creation over the past decade? The country had just under 466 million people in the labour force1 in 2015, with a participation rate of 50.3 percent (Labour Bureau, 2015/16). An analysis of Labour Bureau data over a period of four years from 2012 to 2015 shows that on average, 4.75 million people were added to the labour force per year. According to the Labour Bureau’s Employment-Unemployment survey, between 2012 to 2015, the economy generated a total of 9 million jobs, based on Usual Principal Status -- the activity that an individual is engaged in for a major part of the reference year (Labour Bureau, 2011/12 to 2015/16).
Topic:
Economics, Labor Issues, Employment, Work Culture, and Job Creation
Political Geography:
India

5. Organizing Old Age Pensions for India’s Informal Workers: A Case Study of a Sector-Driven Approach

Author:
M.R. Narayana
Publication Date:
04-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:
About 88 percent of India’s total labor force is composed of informal (officially labeled “unorganized”) workers. As many as 388 million such workers lack old age income security by way of a pension system. The Atal Pension Yojana (APY) is the latest contributory, national-level old age pension scheme for unorganized workers, with an entry age of 18–40 years. In other words, all current unorganized workers above the age of 40 are excluded. How could a national pension system viably guarantee equal pension benefits to all current unorganized workers? This paper considers how such a system might work by offering a case study of a non-contributory pension scheme for building and other construction workers in Karnataka State, India. The results indicate that this state-level pension scheme, fully funded by sector-specific receipts, is financially viable and sustainable with high levels of coverage and adequacy. The robustness of these results is shown via sensitivity analyses of discount rates, inflation rates, and growth rates of specific purpose tax collections. Additional analyses outline the scenarios under which pension benefits could be extended to all informal workers in the sector studied.
Topic:
Labor Issues, Work Culture, Unions, and Pension
Political Geography:
India and Asia