Centre for Sustainable Employment

Generating and supporting research in the areas of job creation, employment, and sustainable livelihoods.

India is facing a severe crisis of employment and livelihoods. Economic growth has failed to generate secure, regular, and decent incomes for the vast majority. We look for fresh thought that is anchored in the real world and imaginative on the right of every Indian to lead a secure dignified life. 

The vision is decent work and regular incomes for all; an India where every person who is willing and able to contribute to our economy can do so while earning a secure income equal to at least the salary that a lowest paid regular government employee receives.

Our initiatives

1. Report on the State of Working India:

An evidence-based overview on employment in the Indian economy.

  • Why has growth in India failed to create decent livelihoods? 
  • What are the obstacles to reaching universal employment? 
  • What are the connections between growth, inequality, and employment? 
  • What is the status of skills among the Indian workforce?
  • Why are some labour markets loose and some tight?
  • Why is there a mismatch between college education and employability?
  • Which states have succeeded in creating good jobs and why?

2. Data and Infographics Platform

A bird’s eye view of labour statistics in India

We host data and analysis as well as the latest available information on jobs, incomes, labour force participation, and other relevant parameters.

3. Working Paper Series

A series on labour, jobs, and employment

Focus areas

Some of our focus areas are listed below.

Most Indian states are major economies in their own right and differ widely in their economic performance. This diversity offers an opportunity to compare and contrast experiences in employment generation and creation of decent jobs. We will conduct State-specific studies and studies comparing different states, offering an opportunity to learn from successful employment experiences.

India is home to the largest youth population in the world. Creating gainful employment for the growing workforce is a priority if the demographic dividend’ is to be reaped. Yet, in recent years, despite sustained economic growth, the Indian economy has failed to generate adequate jobs. The majority of the population continue to be employed in agriculture while contributing to only a quarter of the nation’s GDP

In this context, the creation of jobs that are productive, sustainable and decent is imperative. Financial globalisation and consequently greater access to capital for domestic firms has had implications for job creation in the country. We will examine reasons for the inability of India’s growing economy to create productive and decent jobs while identifying potential sectors and activities that could lead job creation in the future.

Recently there has been a lot of anxiety around the lack of skilled labour in India. While public policy has renewed focus on skill generation and providing vocational training, there exists very little data on the effectiveness of these interventions. On the other hand there is very little official recognition of informal and historically acquired skills as viable means for generating sustainable employment. We build the case for taking informal skills seriously while at the same time improving the quality of formal skill creation institutions

An understanding of the labour market in India requires moving beyond statistics in order to consider qualitative dimensions of work as well. These include physical conditions of work environments, the nature of employment arrangements in terms of security and dignity of work. 

Post-liberalisation, in response to global demand for flexible and just-in-time production models, alternative work arrangements emerged allowing for workers to be hired and fired easily, with minimum or no social security benefits. Consequently, formal jobs which are accompanied by some security of tenure, and/​or social security benefits have contracted. 

Instead, informal jobs, i.e. precarious jobs without basic social security support, have multiplied, both in the unorganised and organised sector. On the one hand, these jobs allow flexibility for enterprises and workers. On the other hand, it makes work precarious, unregulated and insecure. 

Acknowledging the importance of considering qualitative aspects of work, our work will draw from multiple disciplines including economics, political economy, sociology and development studies.

Agriculture continues to be the predominant sector of employment, accounting for almost half the labour force. At the same time, it contributes to less than a quarter of GDP indicating low productivity work and disguised unemployment. 

While the services sector is an important employer, most jobs are informal and vulnerable. Most service sector enterprises are small-scale, own account enterprises with limits to productivity. 

Manufacturing and construction have emerged as important employers, yet the nature of work is often precarious and in abysmal conditions. Manufacturing is identified in government policy as a major employer – Make in India – yet this sector has seen increase in capital intensity as well as the rise of informal contract-based employment arrangements. These will be some of the broad themes that sectoral studies that we will focus on.

Legislation regulating the hiring and firing of workers, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of the capital-labour relationship is at the centre of the debate around jobless growth.” A multiplicity of laws, overlapping regulatory institutions, and costs of enforcement are often cited as the reason for poor employment creation. 

On the other hand, most of India’s labour force is in informal employment outside the ambit of labour laws. Are labour laws an important constraint for job creation? If so, in which sectors? Our work will examine the broad implications of labour laws incorporating considerations of political economy and governance, while also focusing on specific cases in selected sectors or regions.

Research Programme 2022 (1 July 2022- 30 June 2023)

Sl. No.Name of the studyName of the Researcher(s) (PI/​Co PI) and the Institution(if any)Grant amount (in INR)
1Skilling Youth of Goa: An Assessment of the Short-Term Training under PMKVY 2.0Prakash Singh, Goa Institute of Management5,99,500
2Impact of COVID induced permanent reverse migration on women’s labour market opportunities in rural IndiaStutilina Pal, SRIJAN10,00,000
3How are handloom weavers using digital technology and skills to innovate and adapt their knowledge practices for craft futures?Abismrita Chakravarty, Independent Researcher5,00,000
4Industrial estates in Kashmir and the everyday precariousness of working labour in a conflict zoneElizabeth Mariam, Independent Researcher7,15,000
5Evaluating Urban Wage Employment Initiative for Informal Sector Workers in OdishaRajkishor Mishra, Independent Researcher10,00,000
6Employment in the Care Sector in India : Assessing the Coverage Gap of Care Service ProvisionsPrachi Bansal, Independent Researcher10,00,000
7Impact of hiring and firing laws on factor productivity: A unit level analysis using judicial outcome IndexIrfan Sofi, Islamic University of Science and Technology, Awantipora, Jammu and Kashmir6,00,000
8Livelihood and Gender in the Urban Space: The Case of CSCs under Digital India ProgrammeMeenakshi Rajeev, Institute for Social and Economic Change9,00,000
9Impact of legal discrimination on female economic participation outcomes across Indian statesBhuvana Anand, Trayas Foundation9,99,900
10Public transport policies and women’s mobility in Indian citiesRishi Kumar, BITS Pilani-Hyderabad Campus9,99,600
11Inter-State Migration of Workers in India: Its Magnitude, Impacts, and the Way ForwardJayan Jose Thomas, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi New Delhi7,98,600

Research Programme 2020 (1 July 2020- 30 June 2021)

Sl. No.Name of the studyName of the Researcher(s) (PI/​Co PI) and the Institution(if any)Grant amount (in INR)
1Informal employment in India: Dynamics, Determinants and Welfare ImplicationsVidya Mahambare, Great Lakes Institute of Management5,79,700
2Assessing the impact of the DDU-GKY scheme on the lives of migrant women workers in the Gurgaon garment industryRakhi Sehgal, AR Associates11,99,999
3Impact of COVID-19 on existing livelihood of Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal (MAVIM) run SHG’s with respect to Urban settings of Maharashtra and Designing Opportunities to cope with the New NormalKusum Balsaraf, Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal12,00,000
4Distaste for Minority Bosses: Discrimination from Below and Its Economic Consequences in Indian Labor MarketsChinmaya Kumar, Independent Researcher9,21,000
5The Effect of COVID-19 and Related State Interventions on Informal Labour Markets in IndiaSujatha Srinivasan, Institute for Financial Management and Research11,99,181
6Let Them Eat RiceAparna Karthikeyan, CounterMedia Trust7,15,000
7Labour Supply Chains in the Construction Industry: Circular Migrants, Contracting, and CovidAardra Surendran, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad10,70,300

Research Programme 2019 (1 July 2019- 30 June 2020)

Sl. No.Name of the studyName of the Researcher(s) (PI/​Co PI) and the Institution(if any)Grant amount (in INR)
1Expansion of Social Security and Labour Standards in the Organised Sector in IndiaRavi Srivastava, Institute for Human Development16,69,000
2Understanding the Sociology of Declining Rural Female Labour Force Participation Rate in IndiaSoundarya Iyer, French Institute of Pondicherry20,00,000
3Archiving Living Residue of a Lost World: Medieval City’s Pre-Modern Occupations in Post Modern TimesUzma Azhar, Independent researcher14,71,000
4Online and offline livelihoods: An analysis of the impact of the gig economy on worker participationVaradharajan Sridhar, International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore19,55,800
5Employability of people who have completed training and apprenticeship with ITIs in Maharashtra: 2014 to 2017John Almeida, Institute for Community Organisation Research16,36,000
6Skill Gap and Unemployment among Educated Indian Youth: A Comparative Study of Job Market Entrants in Bihar and TelanganaKrithi S, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad8,85,500

Research Programme 2018 (1 July 2018- 30 June 2019)

Sl. No.Name of the studyName of the Researcher(s) (PI/​Co PI) and the Institution(if any)Grant amount (in INR)
1Understanding the Puzzle of Declining Female Labour Force Participation in IndiaAparajita Dasgupta, Ashoka University12,94,200
2Wage Rates in Rural India: Trends and DeterminantsArindam Das, Foundation for Agrarian Studies14,00,000
3Women’s Employment, Interstate Variations and Time-use: A Comparative Study of Bihar and Andhra PradeshBheemeshwar Reddy / Sunny Jose G, Birla Institute of Technology & Science-Pilani, Hyderabad Campus11,88,000
4Agrarian Question and the Transition of Rural Labour in IndiaYadu C R, Independent researcher2,62,000
5Mapping Digital Labor in IndiaSumandro Chattapadhyay, kusum15,00,000
6Study Labour Market in IndiaPratibha Joshi, IFMR17,99,655

Research Programme 2016 (1 July 2016- 30 June 2017)

Sl. No.Name of the studyName of the Researcher(s) (PI/​Co PI) and the Institution(if any)Grant amount (in INR)
1Labour Addas: Negotiating With InformalityHarsh Mander, Centre for Equity Studies19,99,830
2Skills Development, Social Mobility And Educational Change : A Sociological Analysis Of The Effects Of The National Policy On Skills Development In IndiaMaithreyi, Shruti Padmanabhan, Niveditha Menon & Jyotsna Jha, Centre for Budget and Policy Studies20,92,500

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