The Wire
‘Many of these comments, we take them more seriously than they deserve.’
The co-chairman of Forbes Marshall and a former president of the Confederation of Indian Industry has said that comments made by the Chairman of Larsen and Toubro, S. N. Subrahmanyan, advocating a 90-hour week, including Sundays, should not be taken seriously and were made without thinking.
“Many of these comments, we take them more seriously than they deserve. They are made probably without the greatest of thought”, said Naushad Forbes.
Men, and women, who think that all there is to life is to toil must be utterly unschooled in ways necessary for healthy human development.
India’s corporate class is no less cretinous than its ruling class. Worse, it harbours evil thought leaders who would like to enforce modern slavery – with working hours of 70 or 90 a week – in the guise of increasing productivity and hastening national development.
They believe that if people are not working like slaves, tethered to toil and driven like rats in a maze for most of their waking hours, they would sit at home and stare at their wives or husbands. These corporate czars also erroneously believe that a day in the life of a person who is not wallowing in millions is limited to working and staring at his or her spouse, which they, of course, would never deign to do. Obviously, their reproductive output, if any, must have been achieved without the least foreplay.
Men, and women, who think that all there is to life is to toil must be utterly unschooled in ways necessary for healthy human development. For they know not how to occupy themselves with reading or writing, hearing, singing or playing music, or engaging in any sort of healthy leisure activities. Perhaps, they do not believe in anyone being joyful, happy, staring at nature, walking along a seashore, gazing at mountains and stars, and such activities that cannot be financialised and captured for their capital hoarding and aggrandisement and, at the same time, passed off as the “country’s economic development”.
Therefore, it is no wonder that their spouses cannot bear to see them and they flee to take refuge in their morgue-like, steel-and-glass offices; and, want to separate their employees from their home, spouses and all activities outside the stockade where they can be commandeered and driven as forced labour for 10 to 14 hours a day.
‘Forced’ labour
Article 23 of India’s constitution prohibits forced labour. The Indian Slavery Act, 1843, also known as Act V of 1843 (passed in British India under East India Company rule) outlawed economic transactions linked to slavery which is what forced labour amounts to when people have no choice but to accept for their survival whatever working conditions are imposed by an exploitative corporate aristocracy.
Actually, the term ‘forced labour’, which is what these tycoons are pushing for, was coined some 100 years ago as a euphemism for ‘slavery’, which they felt may not be appreciated by others of their exploitative class. If one person is controlled, coerced and exploited by another for labour, then it is, without doubt, slavery. Slavery is pre-constitutional and pre-dates all constitutions. So is the right to life. In India, as in many other parts of the world, the right to livelihood is inseparable from the right to life – loss of the means of livelihood means loss of life. It is only for sheer survival that workers accept unfair, unjust, inhuman and exploitative wages and working conditions on terms dictated by the capitalists and their collaborators – which is enforced as law by the state. Such a corporate-state nexus would ideally like to reduce all labour to gig workers, which is but a short step after whittling down full and regular employment with fair wages and benefits to contract labour for the sole purpose of denying workers their fair, legitimate and legal dues.
Since the late 1980s, all countries have been afflicted by the neo-liberal contagion of growth without equity or human development. India has been racing ahead on this path from the time of Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao with Manmohan Singh as his finance minister. This has resulted in anti-labour legislation and scrapping of worker-friendly laws, rules and regulations, paradoxically, in the name of “labour reform”. Also to the fore during the last 40 years were political forces that intimidated workers, assassinated trade union leaders and flourished as hatchets of business and industry.
Historically, the world over, all slave-driver type spearheads of the capital hoarding and looting classes have been collaborators of authoritarianism and fascism. George Fernandes, as industry minister in the Janata Party government, called India’s business and industry leaders ‘rats’– predatory pests that burrow deep into the vitals of the world to destroy humanity. Doubtless, there were, and are, exceptions like Viren J. Shah and ‘Hamara (Rahul) Bajaj’. Such stars have either fallen or fading. Now, bloodthirsty predators are on the prowl and ruling the roost.
*Shastri Ramachandaran, a journalist who worked with leading dailies in India, Europe and China, is author of Beyond Binaries: The World of India and China.
The disproportionate burden of unpaid care work placed on women ensures that they are working well over 90 hours a week.
In a move that not only echoes but intensifies the uproar sparked by INFOSYS chairman Narayana Murthy’s controversial suggestion of a 70-hour work week, L&T Chairman S.N. Subrahmanyan has taken the discourse to a troubling new low.
Advocating for a 90-hour work week, Subrahmanyan’s remarks glorify excessive labour and normalise gendered division of labour, rendering women’s unpaid care work invisible.
In an undated video circulating on social media, Subrahmanyan is heard saying, “What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife? How long can the wives stare at their husbands? Come on, get to the office and start working.”
His comment is steeped in the age-old gender stereotype that positions men as the primary breadwinners, responsible for working outside the home, while women are the primary caregivers, confined to domestic spaces.
However, what husbands should be doing at home is not just sitting idly but participating in household chores, caring for aging parents and raising children. The strict and conservative division of work between men and women places the latter in a disadvantageous position where her freedom, agency and mobility are restricted by the burden of the household.
This disproportionate burden of care work placed on women not only adds to their unpaid labour but also significantly hinders their ability to enter and sustain paid employment.
Women and unpaid care work
According to an International Labour Organization (ILO) report – ‘Care Work and Care Jobs for the Future of Decent Work’ (2018) – women in Asia and the Pacific spend 4.1 times more time on unpaid care work than men.
Globally, women perform a staggering 76.2% of all unpaid care work, dedicating an average of 4 hours and 25 minutes per day, compared to men’s 1 hour and 23 minutes. This disparity translates into approximately 201 working days per year for women, as opposed to just 63 for men.
In Asia and the Pacific, this burden rises to an overwhelming 80%. The report highlights that unpaid care work is one of the most significant barriers preventing women from entering, remaining in, and progressing within the labour force.
A 2022 report by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), ‘Building India’s Economy on the Backs of Women’s Unpaid Work: A Gendered Analysis of Time-Use Data’, reveals a stark gender divide in how time is allocated in both rural and urban areas.
Among working-age individuals (15–59 years), women spend the majority of their waking hours on unpaid work, while men primarily engage in paid employment.
In rural areas, women spend 8.2 times more time on unpaid work than men, a disparity that is even more pronounced in urban areas, where women’s time spent on unpaid care work is 9.6 times higher than men’s.
This disproportionate burden places India among the worst-performing countries globally, trailing only behind China (72%) and South Africa (71%).
As Dipa Sinha, assistant professor at Ambedkar University Delhi, aptly noted on X, “As if the wives are sitting at home, waiting to be stared at! Women who have a paid full-time ‘job’ are already working 90 hours a week.”
When stereotypes lead to violence
Burdening women with unpaid care work often leaves them economically vulnerable and dependent on their husbands for basic needs. This economic dependency creates a vicious cycle that severely limits their autonomy and decision-making power.
In situations where intimate partner violence (IPV) occurs, this dependency becomes even more dangerous. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s 2018 report ‘Global Study On Homicide: Gender-Related Killing Of Women And Girls’, ‘home’ is the most dangerous place for women, with the majority of female homicide victims being killed by partners or family.
Another report by UN Women 2024, ‘Femicides In 2023: Global Estimates Of Intimate Partner/Family Member Femicides’, reiterated that the most dangerous place for a woman to be was in her home while adding that the majority of women die at the hands of men.
The lack of economic support often forces women facing abuse to remain trapped in violent relationships, as they are unable to afford housing, healthcare or even basic necessities for themselves and their children.
Additionally, those who do attempt to leave frequently face increased risks of returning to the abusive environment due to the absence of sustainable alternatives. This economic insecurity, driven by the gendered division of labour perpetuates cycles of violence and disempowerment for women.
Equitable redistribution of care work
Subrahmanyan’s remarks not only trivialise the labour that goes into maintaining households but also perpetuate harmful stereotypes that underpin gendered division of labour. To challenge these entrenched norms, there must be a collective effort to value and redistribute care work more equitably, with both the partners co-creating their households.
This needs to be complemented through workplace policies like flexible hours, better childcare support, or state-led initiatives that recognise and compensate unpaid labour.
Dismantling patriarchal narratives requires holding public figures accountable for normalising regressive ideas. Women’s unpaid care work is not an endless reservoir to be exploited. It is time that care work is seen as a shared societal responsibility and that economic and social systems actively enable women’s empowerment and independence, rather than perpetuate their oppression.
Anjali Chauhan is a PhD research scholar at the department of political science, University of Delhi.
The idea, proposed six months ago, is aimed at reducing the influx of Indian workers, due to the limited number of qualified training centres, to ensure quality control.
New Delhi: Indian workers planning to apply for a work visa for Saudi Arabia will now be required to complete a pre-verification of professional and academic qualifications from January 14.
Indians are the second-largest expatriate community in Saudi Arabia, after Bangladesh, with a population of more than 2.4 million, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.
The idea, proposed six months ago, is aimed at reducing the influx of Indian workers, due to the limited number of qualified training centres, to ensure quality control.
In line with the 2030 vision, the kingdom has initiated reforms in the labour sector to make it “more flexible for expatriates to have employment contracts”. Stricter certification requirements for certain jobs are also part of the changes.
As per a circular issued by the Saudi mission in India, accessed by The New Indian Express, “professional verification procedures for issuing work visas will be implemented from January 14.”
Therefore, professional verification will become one of the mandatory requirements for issuing work visas, it added.
Meanwhile, the country has also announced a rule upgrade for expats renewing their Iqama, or residency permits, and extending exit and re-entry visas. In a post on X, Saudi Arabia’s General Directorate of Passports announced that dependents of expats as well as domestic workers located outside the kingdom can now renew their Iqama.
Expats outside Saudi can also extend the period of single or multiple exit and re-entry visas.
About 30-35 workers working in a coal mine in Assam got trapped when water started flooding in. It has been 48 hours since the incident and rescue operations are still underway.
New Delhi: The body of a miner was recovered Wednesday (January 8) from the coal mine at 3 Kilo, Umrangso, in Dima Hasao district of Assam where at least half a dozen workers are feared trapped inside a flooded coal mine.
Joint teams of the Indian Army, Navy, Assam Rifles, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) resumed operations to rescue this morning.
“21 para divers have just recovered a lifeless body from the bottom of the well. Our thoughts and prayers are with the grieving family,” Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma posted on X.
The body recovered from the well has been identified as Ganga Bahadur Srestho from Udayapur district, Nepal, he said.
It has already been 48 hours since the incident and the next 24 hours are crucial.
#IndianArmy & Assam Rifles Rescue Task Force, comprising Divers & Engineers made two diving attempts into the mine at Umrangso, Dima Hasao, Assam. Engineers are assisting in dewatering the mine & have arranged lighting for night operations. #RescueOps pic.twitter.com/zrIsGRXqgm
— PRO, Defence, Guwahati (@prodefgau) January 7, 2025
On January 6, about 30-35 workers working on the site got trapped when water started seeping in and filling up the coal mine. While many of them managed to escape, about nine were feared trapped, according to officials. It is unclear why the flooding happened, as per the preliminary police probe.
Speaking to The Hindu, Dima Hasao’s District Commissioner, Simanta K. Das said that the place is very remote and is accessible through a jungle. This delayed the rescue mission.
Also read: For Meghalaya Mine Workers, Even Death is No Escape From Debts
According to media reports citing authorities, the water level in the coal mine is said to have risen to nearly 100 feet.
State minister Kaushik Rai told news agency PTI that the teams have begun the dewatering process as well. An ONGC dewatering pump was loaded onto an MI-17 helicopter at Kumbhigram.
“It’s been 48 hours and the water inside the mine is a big challenge. Today is a crucial day,” Rai told the news agency.
Similar disasters in coal mines happen frequently in the northeastern belt of India, especially in the ‘rat-hole’ mines.
‘Rat-hole’ mining is a process of digging that involves making narrow pathways for the extraction of coal. This method of mining was banned by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2014 due to its dangers to the lives of the miners. However, its implementation still continues in the hilly areas.
In May 2024, at least three persons died inside a ‘rat-hole’ mine in Assam’s Tinsukia district after it caved in due to a landslide.
In January 2024, six persons were charred to death and four injured in a fire that broke out inside a ‘rat-hole’ coal mine in Nagaland’s Wokha district. In September 2022, three labourers died in an illegal coal mine in the same district due to suspected inhalation of toxic gas.
In December 2018, in one of the biggest disasters, at least 15 miners were buried while working in an illegal mine in Meghalaya after it was flooded by water from a nearby river.
Livelihood for construction workers is often used as an argument for continuing construction work despite severe air quality levels. But what about the well-being of the workers?
Like every winter, as the Air Quality Index rose to disturbing heights this November, the Delhi government formulated an intensified response plan and banned construction activities. This included not only banning cement, plaster/other coatings, cutting/grinding and fixing of tiles, stones, water proofing work, road construction activities, and major repairs, etc., from the earlier Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) III but also added banning of construction activity in linear public projects such as highways, roads, flyovers, overbridges, power transmission, pipelines, telecommunications, etc. in GRAP IV.
Though expected, this was met with a strong reaction from the real estate industry, since these activities are essential for completing construction projects in compliance with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) timelines. The argument is that the real estate sector already complies with pollution standards and is the nation’s biggest employer for unskilled workers. These restrictions affect timelines and lead to an increase in the costs of construction and, thus, layoffs.
The employment argument repeatedly features in multiple discussions around the importance of real estate construction. However, these arguments ignore the working conditions in which these unskilled labourers are employed in construction, and how air pollution adds to their existing debilitating situations. These unskilled labourers are primarily migrant workers, with low wages, exploitative working conditions and working hours, facing gender and caste oppression along with no social security in terms of health insurance or protective equipment. In addition, they are the victims of air pollution themselves in the winter months, which is caused by the process in which they are directly involved.
A double whammy for the workers
While there isn’t a doubt that the major contributor to pollution in the Delhi-NCR area is vehicular pollution at 58% for air particulate matter of diameter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) and for air particulate matter less than 10 microns in diameter (PM10), dust from roads and construction activity remain significant contributors to PM10, to 23%-31% in winters. PM10 is harmful as it leads to an increase in the incidence of respiratory diseases like chronic pulmonary disease and asthma. Oil and diesel fuel combustion, along with dust from construction sites, landfills, waste burning, etc., contribute to the rise in PM10.
Notwithstanding significant adverse spillover effects in terms of high air, noise and water pollution, construction is envisioned as pertinent to the ever-increasing demand from different sections of society. Building up Social Overhead Capital (SOC) through roads, warehouses and powerhouses also speeds up the economy’s growth. Construction is associated with creation or value addition, which is desirable for the infrastructure needs of a developing nation like ours. Presently, construction is a booming global industry. For instance, a 2.5 trillion square feet area is expected to be constructed in the US by 2060.
In India, the construction industry is witnessing an upward trend as well. It is expected to grow at 11.2% in 2024. The Indian construction industry contributes 8% to the country’s GDP and employs 40 million people. It is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.6% and reach Rs 36.58 trillion by 2028. The sector employs a 71 million workforce, of which 87% are in the real estate sector. 81% of them are unskilled, and 19% are skilled.
The construction industry itself is multi-tiered, with having a maximum labour force that is unskilled. The micro-contractors hiring for the developers themselves are migrant workers who now exercise power and supervise the migrant unskilled labour’s working hours, wages and working conditions. The temporary housing conditions of these workers lack clean water, sanitation, and education for their children. The conditions of workers are such that the pollution generated in the construction process leads to respiratory morbidities like dry cough, wheezing/whistling in the chest, dyspnea, sinusitis, sneezing, running nose, and asthma. Though less frequent, several studies link long exposure to construction activities such as excavation or tunnelling, demolition, sandblasting, masonry works, milling, cutting, planning, and sanding of wood, etc., can cause diseases like cancers, silicosis, lung impairment, and fibrosis.
Most of these workers are contractual labourers; they do not have social security benefits, including proper safety gear and health. Under the Social Security (SS) Code of the new labour codes, the benefits do not apply to establishments employing less than ten workers (not recognised as building workers but unorganised workers (Section 2(7);2(86))), which is mostly the case in the unorganised sector where real estate construction is undertaken by independent builders, which in turn also takes away the employees’ state insurance and provident fund. Further, because of the conflicting definitions of building workers in the SS Code and Occupational, Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH) Code, the provision of mandatory housing doesn’t exist any more for building workers (Sec. 24 (2)(v)), which includes workers in establishments both with less than ten workers or more. In addition, employers can outsource, and even if they don’t, they are not instructed to provide welfare (Chp. 7, OSH Code). Moreover, in case of an accident, the burden of proof lies with the worker, and the government can exempt employers from liabilities, which in any case exist only in the case of developers with 250+ employees.
Missing stakeholders
The math is simple: there is a so-called ‘productive process’ (case in point the extravagant Central Vista and other hollow real estate projects) in which unskilled labour is hired, leading to higher employment and GDP. First, the process itself could be counterproductive, especially in real estate. The sheer example of the construction of ghost towns like 13-storey tower in sector G7 in Narela, unfinished sectors 128 and 134 along the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, more than 100 residential abandoned towers in Noida, to cite a few, lead to an increase in social cost, not only in terms of pollution during the construction process but also in terms of long-term living standards of the working class.
Second, the workers employed in the process are exploited and oppressed from multiple directions, including bearing the humongous social cost of this construction activity, which creates negative externalities by increasing air, noise and water pollution. While being the fundamental foundation for these projects, they are not considered equal stakeholders in the creation of the product and addition to GDP. Indeed, the discussions surrounding potential solutions for pollution caused by construction, particularly through the use of prefabricated material, often overlook the negative impacts on workers, especially unskilled or low-skilled workers. The idea of giving or increasing employment through these processes while ignoring their working conditions, which includes the intergenerational impact on their families, is an indicator that neither are they seen as equal stakeholders, nor are they given anything more than subsistence.
Meanwhile we, the self-declared victims of air pollution, sit in the comfort of our homes with air purifiers, not bothered about how this double whammy affects the workers and their lives.
Aashita Dawer is Co-Lead, Climate Change and Sustainability, IDEAS, and Associate Professor (Economics), Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University.
The author thanks Dr. Kewal Raj for engaging with the material and offering feedback.
The probe by J&K’s premier Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has once again punched holes in the saffron party’s claims that J&K was freed of corruption after it was brought directly under the Union government’s rule.
Srinagar: Less than seven months after Article 370 was read down by the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)-led Union government, unknown officials in the Jammu and Kashmir administration allegedly hired a recruitment firm – illegally – and later fabricated the list of candidates who were selected for hundreds of government posts, an official probe has found.
The probe by J&K’s premier Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has once again punched holes in the saffron party’s claims that J&K was freed of corruption after it was bifurcated and downgraded into a Union territory in 2019 and brought under the direct administration of the Union home ministry.
After the erstwhile state was stripped of its special status by the Union government, the Central Bureau of Investigation and ACB among other probe agencies have pointed to irregularities in recruitment drives and schemes which were rolled out by J&K administration.
In its latest probe into the recruitment of 690 fireman and fireman drivers in J&K, the ACB has found that the officials allegedly adopted illegal measures to hire a Jammu-based private firm owned by one Maharaj Krishan Wali which was awarded the contract for conducting a written test for the posts in 2020.
The preliminary probe by the ACB has revealed that the official record of the selection process and the final selection list were allegedly fabricated by unknown officials from the Fire and Emergency Services Department to “confer undue benefits upon themselves and the beneficiaries”.
The alleged scam was initially probed by J&K’s General Administration Department which submitted its findings to the ACB on July 24 this year.
Also read: In the Alleged Insurance Scam Flagged by Ex-Governor J&K Satyapal Malik, Was Probe Delayed?
Among the 690 candidates selected for these posts were five brothers, cousins and some relatives of the fire service officials as well as several groups of candidates from the same localities in Jammu and Kashmir, the ACB probe into the recruitment scam has found.
The probe has revealed that three candidates scored 11, 17 and 24 marks respectively in the exam but in the final selection list each one of them was shown to have obtained 90 marks. Of the total selected candidates, 109 had scored lower marks than the final cutoff, an ACB official said.
The findings of the probe were made public less than three months after Omar Abdullah was sworn into office as the first chief minister of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir following the changes in J&K’s constitutional relationship with the Union of India.
The recruitment for the posts was started by the fire service department in 2013 but the process was terminated in 2016 “in (the) view of certain discrepancies in the selection process”. In 2018, following a tendering process, M/s Timing Technologies India Pvt. Ltd, a Hyderabad based firm was selected for conducting the physical test and written examination across J&K.
However, the recruitment process was again marred by allegations of irregularities, prompting J&K’s home department to halt the recruitment again, on August 1 2019, four days before the BJP-led union government introduced J&K Reorganisation Act 2019 in the parliament under which J&K’s special status was rescinded.
One month and five days later, on September 6, 2019, the administration directed the fire service department to change the Jammu-based recruitment agency.
Rs 107.50 versus Rs 179
On January 1, 2020, the fire services department again invited tenders for conducting the selection process. The ACB probe has found that six firms participated in the tendering out of which M/s UMC Technology Pvt. Ltd, a Kolkata-based firm, emerged as the lowest bidder (L1) which quoted a rate of Rs 107.50 per candidate.
“L-1 bidder raised some genuine queries relating to number of candidates and centres, but without assigning any reason, negotiations were made with L-2 bidder, M/s LMES IT LLP”, a Jammu based firm, at the rate of Rs 179 per candidate.
“After getting approval from Chairman of DRB, the work order was given to ineligible agency, M/s LMES IT LLP, Jammu, on 02.03.2020 by ignoring L-1 bidder without any justification,” the ACB official said, adding that the exam was conducted on September 20, 2020 and the selection list of 592 firemen and 98 firemen drivers was issued on October 3, 2020.
The probe has found that “favoritism was shown in awarding contract” to a firm “which had no proven experience of conducting similar exercise” as laid down in the Notice Inviting Tender.
It found that the bid of “L-2 was accepted by the department knowing that L-2 was a newly formed firm in November, 2017 and Maharaj Krishan Wali (main partner with 99% share) was the same person who had earlier remained as resource person with M/s Timing Technology (P) Ltd.”
According to the guidelines of the Central Vigilance Commission, if the lowest bidder backs out of a contract, the tendering process has to be initiated again. However, the guideline was not followed by the fire service department.
Questions beyond comprehension
“During the course of the probe, the question papers were found beyond the comprehension of candidates who have studied upto 8th standard which is the required minimum qualification. A manual review of the OMR sheets vis-a-vis answer keys revealed discrepancies in the selection process,” the ACB official said.
The ACB has filed a case (FIR No: 1/2025) under sections 7 (public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act”, 13 (1) (a) (criminal misconduct by public servant) and 13 (2) (imprisonment for not less than one year extendable to seven years and fine) of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 and 120-B (punishment for criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for cheating) and 471 (fraudulent or dishonest use of a forged document) of Indian Penal Code against the members of chairman and members of fire service department’s recruitment board along with M/S LMES IT LLP and others.
“Further investigation into the case is underway,” the ACB official said.
Migration is a tool to fight oppression and an opportunity to improve living standards. But when higher caste groups move into these destinations, the same hierarchical patterns emerge.
Surat: Panch Manzila (five-storied building), as locals refer to the building, has a quaint and regal ring to it. But neither its run-down facade nor the dilapidated interiors offer opulence to hundreds of Odia migrant workers, mostly from southern Odisha’s Ganjam district, who live there and eat at one of the eight messes in the building.
As the sun’s rays breached the dark and narrow corridor of Panch Manzila in Surat’s Ved Road area, the light exposed years of dirt that had accumulated on its now black walls. The cacophony of hundreds of powerlooms echoed from the bylanes nearby, where Odia migrants worked gruelling 12-hour shifts to earn Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 a month.
Every corner of the worn-down staircase is littered with gutka packets, pan stains, soap and paste packages, and polythene bags. The smell of urine from the common toilets, and the dampness of washed or sweat-soaked clothes linger as a top note of the squalid and ill-ventilated living quarters.
While a row of workers slept on the mat-laid floor tucking their hands under their tired heads, others spoke in hushed tones on their mobile phones and still others settled in to eat the rice, dal, and sabzi (vegetables) that is the standard fare provided twice a day.
Akul Dandapani Nahak, a 54-year-old former powerloom operator from Ganjam who runs a mess on the third floor, sat on his foldable cot that was pushed against the pale blue-painted wall. Sacks of rice foreground the portraits of various Hindu gods on the wall, while a table fan desperately circulated musty air.
“There’s hardly any money to be made in running a mess,” said Akul, who catered to around 40 Odia workers, all of them from upper caste and Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities like himself. “In the 20 years I have run this mess, lower caste [Dalits] workers have not been accommodated here. I ask them their caste when they come,” he said. Accommodating Dalits leads to inconvenient conversations around handling food which affects the business of running shared spaces, he said.
Surat and Ganjam are on opposite coastlines, separated by more than 1,600 km of land. But the migrant corridor is one of significance for thousands of Odia workers who have travelled, worked and returned home over decades to Ganjam, which is one of the 14 migration-prone districts of the state. Surat’s textile powerlooms, from which originates around 90% of polyester used in India, are operated largely by Odia migrants. Much of the migration is through social networks including those based on caste.
One of the factors for the reduction of multidimensional poverty in Ganjam from about 22% in 2015-16 to 6% in 2019-20 is migration, said an August 2024 report by Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID) and Gram Vikas. According to an analysis of the Odisha Migration Survey 2023 (OMS) by S. Irudaya Rajan, chair, International Institute of Migration and Development (IIMAD), and Amrita Datta, Assistant Professor, Department of Liberal Arts, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Ganjam is the district that receives the highest remittances in Odisha, at nearly Rs 120 crore per month.
While this cash flow improves the economic circumstances for migrants, caste identity and hierarchies of their home state tend to get replicated in Surat, particularly in the living spaces where Scheduled Castes (SC) or Dalits find restrictions and discrimination in terms of access to accommodation, cooking or handling of cooked food in shared spaces where different caste groups live. This is the second of a two-part series studying caste equations in the Surat-Ganjam migration corridor. You can read the first part here.
Identifying by caste
Ramesh Sethi, 41, moved to the Siddharth Nagar slum in Surat less than a year ago from Diamond Nagar, some 20 km away. Sethi, from the SC Dhoba community in Ganjam, is a powerloom operator who was preparing to leave for work around 6 p.m. to begin his 12-hour night shift. He had packed his food at the ‘Sethi’ mess run by 64-year-old Debraj Sethi, who belongs to the same caste.
Ramesh, who lives in a rented room, has studied only till primary school and has spent 25 years working in Surat’s looms. The work pays around Rs 20,000 a month for operating multiple noisy looms, with no more than two days off in a month. He pays Rs 2,300 monthly for two meals a day at Debraj’s 22-year-old mess that caters to SCs, almost entirely from Dhoba community.
“If I go to a mess run by higher castes [mostly OBC-operated] here, I have to take my own thali and wait for someone to serve me,” he said. “Here I can serve myself without worrying about [‘polluting’] the food.” In Diamond Nagar where he worked earlier, the mess catered to hundreds of workers, and no one bothered with his caste, he said.
Akul Dandapani Nahak, 54, has been running an Odia mess and accommodation for 20 years. It caters to upper castes and OBCs like himself. “I ask them their caste when they come,” he says. Photo: Shreehari Paliath
While this cash flow improves the economic circumstances for migrants, caste identity and hierarchies of their home state tend to get replicated in Surat, particularly in the living spaces where Scheduled Castes (SC) or Dalits find restrictions and discrimination in terms of access to accommodation, cooking or handling of cooked food in shared spaces where different caste groups live. This is the second of a two-part series studying caste equations in the Surat-Ganjam migration corridor. You can read the first part here.
Identifying by caste
Ramesh Sethi, 41, moved to the Siddharth Nagar slum in Surat less than a year ago from Diamond Nagar, some 20 km away. Sethi, from the SC Dhoba community in Ganjam, is a powerloom operator who was preparing to leave for work around 6 p.m. to begin his 12-hour night shift. He had packed his food at the ‘Sethi’ mess run by 64-year-old Debraj Sethi, who belongs to the same caste.
Ramesh, who lives in a rented room, has studied only till primary school and has spent 25 years working in Surat’s looms. The work pays around Rs 20,000 a month for operating multiple noisy looms, with no more than two days off in a month. He pays Rs 2,300 monthly for two meals a day at Debraj’s 22-year-old mess that caters to SCs, almost entirely from Dhoba community.
“If I go to a mess run by higher castes [mostly OBC-operated] here, I have to take my own thali and wait for someone to serve me,” he said. “Here I can serve myself without worrying about [‘polluting’] the food.” In Diamond Nagar where he worked earlier, the mess catered to hundreds of workers, and no one bothered with his caste, he said.
Ramesh Sethi, 41, a powerloom operator, prefers to eat at the Sethi mess where there are no caste-based restrictions due to his Scheduled Caste identity. Photo: Shreehari Paliath
Ganjam continues to be a significant source of migration
About 40% of Odisha’s population comprises SCs and STs. According to the latest population Census which has not been updated since 2011, more than one in six people in Odisha are SCs. In Ganjam, this proportion is slightly higher than the state’s average.
While government data on migration from Ganjam to Surat are inadequate, in 2007 it was reported that there were nearly 900,000 migrant workers from Odisha, and by the end of the next decade there were an estimated 600,000-800,000 migrant workers from Ganjam alone. The district, historically, has experienced multiple climate disasters including famine, drought and cyclone, which forced communities, particularly marginalised and oppressed castes, to migrate.
The recent OMS data analysis shows that Ganjam district forms a significant migration source, accounting for 40% of its current migrants going to Gujarat. While Ganjam has the highest number of current migrants (373,254), the incidence of current migrant households in the district (29%) is lower than three others–Bhadrak (41%), Denkanal (34%) and Nayagarh (32%).
A 2016 study supported by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation on the impact of remittance from migrant Odia workers concluded that internal migration and remittances are a strategy of countering backwardness for households and forms a safety net against poverty, indebtedness, and unemployment.
Debraj, who has spent 40 years in Surat–17 of which were spent in a dye and printing establishment–said that Brahmins (and other upper caste migrants) and OBCs will not come to his mess to eat because the food there is cooked by a Dalit. “There are 10 people from my community who eat here. Lower castes [than his] like Pano [SC community] have another mess.”
Workers having a meal in a mess in Panch Manzila. Accommodating Dalits leads to inconvenient conversations around handling food which affects the business of running shared spaces, says Akul Dandapani Nahak, 54, who runs an Odia mess and accommodation. Photo: Shreehari Paliath
He cooks twice a day. The first round of rice, dal, and sabzi begins at around 4 a.m. and workers start arriving for a meal by 6 a.m. He cooks another batch at 3 p.m. for workers leaving for the night shift. He manages to save around Rs 3,000 a month, he says, and just manages to get by.
Migration should ideally help in reducing caste-based hierarchy and the intensity of caste discrimination, said Rajan of IIMAD. “But social network-based migration may not allow it. Such trends are seen when migrants move to other parts of India and globally too.” Social networks help migrants find employment and support in work destinations where they need safe harbour or have limited local ties.
Debraj Sethi, 64, in his mess where he serves food to 10 Odia workers, all of whom are from his Dobha community, categorised as a Scheduled Caste. Photo: Shreehari Paliath
Republic hostel and mess in Sayan has been incubated by Aajeevika Bureau Trust, which works for migrant worker welfare in south Rajasthan and urban Gujarat and Maharashtra and is run by Shelter Square Foundation. Its intention is to provide better and cleaner facilities for migrants. But there was an untoward instance, said Bhagwan Behera, the manager of the mess.
A few upper caste workers demanded that they be given a separate thali [plate] because non-vegetarian food was being served and common thalis were being used for all. “We have strictly said that we do not provide separate thali and if they have a problem they are free to leave or eat elsewhere,” said Behera. “Only one of them, who is an older migrant worker, bought a separate thali for himself.”
Kalia Sahu, 22, who was part of the group, said that he does not understand why the older migrant was persistent on getting a thali. “I did not want to be dragged into this issue. The thali sometimes smells like non-veg food, but I clean it a few times and use it,” said Sahu, who says that he is from a caste “like Brahmins”. He has been working in Surat since 2017 and puts bobbins on 80 machines in a power loom in Sayan. Sahu has been the mainstay of his family since his father became paralysed, forcing him to believe that money is most important for a person and not caste.
“There should be no caste discrimination,” he said. “I will eat food made by anyone, [as] I do not have a choice here [work destination]. But in the village Brahmins make the food [in our functions].”
In Surat, caste identity precedes migrants because older generations are already well established, said Liby Johnson, executive director of Berhampur-based Gram Vikas. “Farming communities in Ganjam, many of whom belong to OBC, tend to be socially conservative.”
Migration is an exit route
According to a January 2023 study on caste dynamics in migration from Ganjam (Surada block) to Gujarat and Kerala by Madhusudan Nag, Benoy Peter and Divya Varma, migrants cluster in areas where there is a larger presence of those from their own community. “…the social stratifications that prevail at the source tend to get replicated at the destinations too, limiting the scope of social emancipation that migration could potentially offer to the marginalised communities,” the paper said.
“Villages are stratified by caste. Migration is an exit route when communities do not have an alternative,” said Nag, researcher and lead author of the report. “It is a tool to fight forms of oppression. When higher caste groups move in [to the destinations], the same patterns or structures emerge and SCs and STs get replaced.”
Accommodation at the Republic hostel and mess in Sayan incubated by Aajeevika Bureau Trust. Photo: Shreehari Paliath
He said that Dalits were the primary migrants to Surat dating back to the 1970s, and have been so even during colonial times. “Caste influences the decision to migrate, but choice of destination is also influenced by it.”
Ajeeth Kumar Pankaj, faculty at the Department of Social Work, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Regional Campus Manipur, and researcher on migration-related exclusion and inclusion, said that migrants do not carry only their bodies but their social capital and caste.
“Caste identity travels with them [migrants]. But the cosmopolitan nature of cities tends to dilute the caste to some extent,” said Pankaj. “We need to understand how its intensity gets reproduced in destinations or changes there.”
Migrant workers told IndiaSpend that at the workplace, caste identity did not impact wages or type or access to work, but aspects of caste tend to show up even at work.
There have been instances where other higher caste workers would not have tea during the break or eat food together due to caste hierarchies, said Ramesh who sends around Rs 10,000 a month to his family in Ganjam. “I do feel bad, but I do not say anything. What can I do?,” said Ramesh.
According to OMS 2023 analysis by Rajan and Datta, the monthly average remittance in the previous 12 months of SCs (Rs 4,814) and STs (Rs 3,261) was lower than that of OBCs (Rs 5,531) and upper castes (Rs 5,402). SCs and STs are overrepresented in rural-rural migration streams, and underrepresented in the more remunerative rural-urban and urban-urban migration streams.
Most of the residents in the Siddhanth Nagar slum are Odia migrants who have been around for decades. They know each other’s caste, said Debraj.
“This will not end [because] people will not leave their caste,” he said.
Within Dalit groups there are hierarchies, and communities who experience untouchability more compared to others, particularly those in the lowest level of the caste hierarchy, said Pankaj. “So the experiences of communities who are seen as touchable [like Dhoba community] and untouchable within the Dalit community are different. People from the same source areas will identify these communities.”
Better than before in villages, but caste identity remains significant
Back in Ved Road, Ramesh Nahak, 42, powerloom operator from the SC Pano community, shares a large hall with workers from different castes. He came to Surat in the mid-1990s with his elder brother because the family’s financial condition was unstable. Most workers faced similar circumstances when they migrated to Surat.
“As a child, I had a pair of clothes and used to usually wear my school uniform. Watery rice gruel with very little vegetable or onion was the daily staple,” said Ramesh Nahak, whose father leased land for cultivation. Over the years, with the money saved from his work in Surat, he has bought 2 bighas (less than 2 acres) of land. He operates 15 machines, 11 more than when he started as an operator in the early 2000s that earned him Rs 1,700 a month.
Also read: How Caste Shapes Migration From Ganjam
“It used to be a jhopdi [thatched roof hut]. Now I have built a palace,” he said of his home in Ganjam.
When he arrived in Surat, Ramesh Nahak used to stay with his brother in a rented room. But when he heard that Bhimba bhai (brother), who is from a nearby village in Ganjam, did not have restrictions based on caste in his mess-accommodation, he was glad. “This mess is different, I thought. He allowed us to stay here [despite caste identity]. When mess owners ask us to separately keep a lunch box or thali [due to casteist notions], dil toot jata hai [it breaks our heart],” he said.
Bhima bhai is 56-year-old Bhimbadar Samudra, who has lived in Surat since 1987. He is a prominent member of the Odia migrant community. His mess accommodates 100 migrants where half are OBC and upper caste and the rest are SCs, he claims.
After he spent 12-hour shifts in the powerlooms in his early years in Surat, Bhimba bhai supplemented the income by selling vegetables, extending his work day to 19 hours on most days. By the early 2000s, he had saved enough to start a mess. It was vital during the Covid-19 pandemic where he provided more than 150 women-headed families free meals.
“I do ask about their [workers] caste but I do not deny accommodation,” he said. “There are rooms where migrants from the same caste live. If someone insists [to stay with their caste worker] I tell them to pay the rent for separate rooms or adjust with others.” He charges Rs 3,300 per migrant per month for food and accommodation.
Another resident in Bhima bhai’s mess, Sunil Kumar Nahak, a 50-year-old power loom operator from an SC community, lives in an adjacent room to Ramesh Nahak. The room, which can at best accommodate two people comfortably, has six workers, all from the SC community like Sunil. It is smaller than the large hall where Ramesh sleeps.
“We all [in the room] know each other [so] we decided to stay together,” said Sunil. No one has directly had issues about his caste, but he too has had experience of discrimination at the workplace where another worker from an upper caste enquired about caste. “I told him [I was SC], and asked why he was bothered and how it impacts our work.”
At the powerloom, the jodiya system tags two workers together who work in shifts and manage the workload and machines. Occasionally such issues do emerge, said some workers.
“Anyway, I will not make the mistake of taking food directly,” Sunil said, when asked about caste-related problems he had seen in his nearly three-decade long stint in Surat. “I ask someone to serve me. I am born into a certain caste and it will remain. If I touch [food or water] my caste won’t change, but someone may take offence. I do not want to get into this lafda [confrontation].”
Bhimbadar, who like Akul runs a mess, confesses that the food is cooked by OBCs, and never Dalits. “Upper caste migrants [including OBC] have a problem if Dalits cook or handle food, but they can eat in my mess,” he said.
Workers say that caste-related segregation and practices have changed over the years in their villages because there are more interactions and travels. In public spaces, caste groups mingle with each other and even visit each other’s homes and dine together.
Ramesh Nahak claims that caste-based segregation has reduced in his village because more people are travelling outside. But it does exist when it comes to religious events, where food cooked by his family is not accepted by Brahmin priests because his community, Pano, falls in the lowest strata of the Hindu caste hierarchy .
“They do accept money and fruits, though,” he said.
New destinations in the south
As the first part of our series highlighted, with a large number of OBCs in Surat and repressed wages for long hours of arduous work, SCs and STs are moving to southern states where wages are better.
Nag and others find in their report that caste-related exclusions force marginalised migrant populations to explore newer destinations that are more egalitarian, more secure and have the potential to accelerate the social mobility of their current and future generations compared to the traditional destinations.
There is more migration towards the south from Odisha, according to OMS 2023. Tamil Nadu has become an important migrant corridor with 10.8% of current migrants outside the state, followed by Karnataka (9.2%), and Gujarat (8.6%).
“Usually confrontation on issues of discrimination or segregation leads to violence for Dalits. So they tend to travel to different locations which is a survival strategy,” said Nag. “But once the (upper caste) OBCs dominate in the new location, a similar caste structure may arise, probably replicated in a different manner and form.” He highlights inadequate data on caste particularly Dalit and adivasi migrants and reasons for migration, which he feels should be prioritised by state governments.
IndiaSpend has written to the labour commissioner in Odisha for their response on data on migrants in Surat and Gujarat and southern states, if they are aware of caste-related issues, and the policy and support schemes for migrants. We will update this story when we receive a response.
While new destinations motivate the younger generation of migrants, experts feel that wages and social networks are factors that encourage them to move to meet their aspirational goals.
Some of the southern states have better migrant policies and better wages, said Pankaj. “Although caste may not play a direct role in migration to another destination, it may be one of the reasons.”
This is the first of a two-part series studying caste equations in the Surat-Ganjam migration corridor. You can read the first part here.
This article was originally published on IndiaSpend, a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit.
A tribal couple in Telangana said they endured three years of bonded labour and penury. Now, they await compensation in the case, for which there is not enough precedence.
Gumpanpalle, Nagarkurnool (Telangana): For three years, Dasari Veeraiah and his wife Jyothi worked daily without pay. The couple subsisted at their employer’s behest and helplessly watched two of their children die as they were unable to pay for their treatment, Veeraiah said.
The couple’s roughly three-year ordeal ending in November last year was the price they paid for a Rs 15,000 debt incurred by a relative, Veeraiah added. He and his wife hail from the ‘particularly vulnerable’ Chenchu tribal community.
What they were allegedly made to endure counts as bonded labour, which is acknowledged as a form of slavery. Their employer’s son has denied this allegation.
Veeraiah alleged that their employer Chandya Naik Mudavath, who belongs to the Lambada tribal community, did not provide them with many basic necessities or even give them money when two of their three young daughters, aged three months old and two years old, fell ill with fever and jaundice, respectively.
“You need money to take them to the hospital, and when we asked him [Mudavath] to give us some [money], he wouldn’t. He’d keep saying ‘we’ll go to the doctor tomorrow’ but never took us,” Veeraiah said. He said that the couple buried their daughters in the forest near the farm they worked in.
Crucially, he said the Rs 15,000 debt they worked to extinguish at Mudavath’s farm was incurred by a relative of his who worked alongside him and Jyothi for a farmer in a nearby village.
Mudavath’s son Thulasiram, however, denied that his family members forced Veeraiah or Jyothi to work in their farm.
‘He would beat me with slippers’
Veeraiah alleged that while Mudavath allowed them to collect the ration rice they were entitled to, he didn’t give the couple any money to buy vegetables, and that they had to make do with just the vegetables that he provided them as well as any offal he would give them.
He also only owned just one set of clothes during his time working at Mudavath’s farm, Veeraiah said.
“If I objected to anything, he would beat me,” Veeraiah added.
According to Veeraiah, Jyothi’s parents preceded them in working at Mudavath’s farm in similar conditions and her father had died while working there soon after Veeraiah and Jyothi arrived about three years ago. The Wire could not confirm this.
Veeraiah said that Mudavath took him and Jyothi to his farm saying that he had paid Rs 15,000 to the farmer who previously employed them and to whom the couple’s relative owed the same amount in debt. Veeraiah said that he was made to understand that he was almost singularly responsible for paying the debt off.
Veeraiah’s father’s home in Gumpanpalle village. Photo: Anirudh S.K./The Wire.
At Mudavath’s farm, Veeraiah said he herded livestock and sprayed pesticide on crops while Jyothi said she picked cotton and removed weeds. “There was no power connection in the hut,” Veeraiah said, adding that it was “just big enough for a person to lie down in”.
He later clarified they weren’t given much of an opportunity to rest in any case.
“If I tried to nap when I was tired from working, he would stop me, saying ‘Get up! Does anyone rest for this long?’ … That work was horrible … And we never had the opportunity to take a day or two off to rest.”
“He would drink, and when he would be intoxicated, he often beat me with his slippers,” Veeraiah added.
Veeraiah underlined that their condition was that of near-complete captivity. He recalled leaving the farm about five or six times a year for festivals or to meet relatives, and that each visit did not last for more than a few hours.
Three-year bondage for Rs 15,000 debt ‘egregious’, says NGO
“When we heard what Veeraiah said, we were surprised that such things exist in our society,” said Kethepogu Mahesh, a member of the non-governmental organisation, Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD), that aided Veeraiah and Jyothi in leaving work at Mudavath’s farm.
He added: “For a Rs 15,000 advance [debt], his working as a bonded labourer for three years seems like an egregious thing.”
If one assumes the couple’s bonded labour each day chipped off Rs 10,000 – which is about how much the FSD said they now earn together doing agricultural labour – the base amount would have been extinguished from their debt in a mere 15 days.
FSD employees said they were tipped off by another local NGO which came to know about the couple’s alleged situation.
“We visited them a couple times, found out what their situation was and confirmed that they were working as bonded labourers…following which we wrote to the [Achampet sub-divisional magistrate] on behalf of the FSD and facilitated their rescue,” which took place on November 13, Mahesh said.
In cases involving exploitation, as alleged here, those at the receiving end often continue to work without realising what they are being subjected to is bonded labour or slavery, and thus, illegal. For instance, members of the FSD said that Veeraiah’s mother-in-law, who was in a similar predicament as him and Jyothi, had opted to stay at the farm when they made contact with her there.
As for Veeraiah and Jyothi, they were issued ‘release certificates’ by the Achampeta sub-divisional magistrate on November 14. These certificates officially extinguish the debt bonded labourers are forced to work for and, according to standard operating procedure, are issued after the magistrate questions the labourers about the circumstances of their work and finds that they underwent bonded labour.
From left to right: Jyothi, Veeraiah and daughter Anjamma, Veeraiah’s father Lingaiah and their dog Bunyi. Photo: Anirudh S.K./The Wire.
Under the Union government’s scheme for the rehabilitation of bonded labourers – which is meant implement the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) (BLSA) Act of 1976 – adult male bonded labourers who are released are entitled to rehabilitation worth Rs 1 lakh and adult women, Rs 2 lakh. Those rescued from extreme conditions are entitled to Rs 3 lakh.
The disbursement of these amounts is subject to a conviction in the case, but rescued bonded labourers – those issued a release certificate – are entitled to an initial rehabilitation amount of Rs 30,000 each under the scheme, regardless of whether a conviction takes place.
Police invoked Section 146 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deals with unlawful compulsory labour, as well as section 16 of the BLSA Act, which pertains to compelling someone to work in the bonded labour system, against Mudavath in an FIR registered on November 14.
Accused’s son denies charges
Thulasiram, Mudavath’s son, denied that Veeraiah and Jyothi were employed as bonded labourers at their homestead.
He said the couple would often visit their property, where he said Jyothi’s parents began working about four years ago.
“They never stayed with us permanently, kept coming and going from here and would eat here,” Thulasiram said, when asked about Veeraiah and Jyothi. “We never forced them to do anything. They came and went whenever they liked.”
Further, Thulasiram suggested that Jyothi’s mother no longer worked for his family.
Thulasiram said that his family paid off a “Rs 20,000” debt that Veeraiah and Jyothi had incurred elsewhere and brought them to work in their farm only three months ago.
“… We [Thulasiram’s family] came to believe that they [Veeraiah and Jyothi] wouldn’t give us the money or do anything, so we took it [the Rs 20,000] lightly,” he added.
“We brought them [to our farm] but they left in two days,” he also said.
Couple awaits initial compensation sum, outlook for remainder unclear
Asked how he planned on using their initial tranche of compensation, Veeraiah said he looked forward to breeding goats and sheep for sale.
However, the couple does not have their money yet – they opened their first bank accounts only earlier this month. They are now going through the process of applying for the initial Rs 30,000 each.
At any rate, it may be a while until their case reaches a conclusion and the full rehabilitation amount is issued in the event of a conviction, the NGO’s members say.
Vasudeva Rao, the Telangana convenor of the National Adivasi Solidarity Council (NASC) network that helps bonded labour survivors and which the FSD is a part of, said that in no rescue case his organisation has facilitated so far has anyone received their full rehabilitation amount.
“In our case, no case has completed a conviction,” he said.
While the BLSA Act provides for accused persons to be tried summarily by an executive magistrate, which the standard operating procedure says should be completed in three months, Rao noted that the addition of a BNS provision in Veeraiah and Jyothi’s case means it will undergo a regular trial in court.
Veeraiah stands next to chillies they have bought from the nearby town of Achampet in order to ground into powder and eat.
Under the Union government’s scheme, Jyothi would be entitled to more money than Veeraiah in the event of a conviction, but at the moment Jyothi’s lack of familiarity with numbers is a gap the NGO is keen to fill.
For instance, Mahesh asked her if she could tell how much some banknotes he pulled out of his wallet were worth. “They’re all worth Rs 100,” she said. The shown notes ranged from Rs 10, to Rs 20 and Rs 100.
Extremely low literacy is one reason why Chenchus are counted as being among India’s 75 particularly vulnerable Scheduled Tribes. The other criteria for their inclusion in this category are their forest-based livelihoods, use of pre-agricultural technology, stagnant or declining population and a subsistence-oriented economy.
While Veeraiah and Jyothi now live in the former’s father’s home in Gumpanpalle village in rural Nagarkurnool district, many Chenchu people are forest-dwellers.
Krishnan of the NASC told The Wire that Chenchus are vulnerable to exploitation because whole communities have been displaced due to various ‘development programmes’.
“Because of the displacement, the tribe is not able to practice traditional means of livelihood, which includes collecting forest produce. This leaves them vulnerable to exploitation,” Krishnan said.
Asked about his plans to educate his four-year-old daughter Anjamma, Veeraiah said he intends to send her to a local government school and, when she reaches the sixth grade, would like to enroll her in a state-run residential school for Chenchu children.
With Veeraiah now working for daily wages and having the freedom of movement, FSD worker Tadem Jayaprakash asked him if he had been thinking about the world beyond his village or the fields that surround it.
“I don’t have such thoughts. I only think about surviving,” Veeraiah said.
India’s vocational education system has become a numbers game, where certificates are churned out without meaningful skill acquisition.
Post-independence, India’s education policy heavily emphasised on higher education, leaving vocational training largely neglected. It was only with the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-2012) and subsequent initiatives such as the National Skills Policy (2009) and the National Skill Development Mission (NSP 2015), vocational education began receiving policy attention. The target of NSP 2015 was to train 400 million individuals by 2022 which is now not mentioned in recent policy documents.
The instruments to achieve that goal were the flagship schemes: Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) (2015 to present), Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDUGKY) (2014 to present), and the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) (2016 to present) which promised to address the glaring skill gaps.
Yet, despite ambitious targets and substantial public investments, India’s skill development landscape, in the last decade, has remained mired in quantity-driven metrics and dubious success stories.
A worrying picture of vocational training trends
While formal vocational training has seen a modest rise to 4.1%, informal training avenues – particularly hereditary (from 1.45 in 2017 to 11.6% in 2023) and on-the-job training (from 2.04% in 2017 to 9.3% in 2023) – have surged. With individuals not receiving any form of training decreasing at such drastic rates in last 3 years raises the question on how recording of data may have changed.
Table: Percentage distribution of persons aged between 15-59 who received vocational training
| Year | 2004-05 | 2011-12 | 2017-18 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
| Formal Training | 2.4% | 1.6% | 1.8% | 3.8% | 4.1% |
| Non-Formal (Hereditary) | 4.4% | 1.8% | 1.45% | 7.9% | 11.6% |
| Non-Formal (Self-Learning) | 3.9% | 1.1% | 1.67% | 5.7% | 7.1% |
| Non-Formal (On the Job) | – | 1.7% | 2.04% | 7.7% | 9.3% |
| No Training | 87.8% | 92.6% | 92.59% | 72.6% | 65.3% |
Source: NSSO EUS and PLFS survey (various years)
The mystery lies in the sudden large increase workers already in the work force (WF) who have been imparted a one-day to one-week recognition of prior learning (RPL), which is a way of certifying those with self-learnt/on the job skills. A high influx of RPL trained individuals who many times undergo courses having a duration of less than 24 hours may be a plausible explanation for this sudden rise formally and informally trained individuals.
Government data exposes a disturbing reliance on short-term courses. PMKVY, Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS), and other schemes primarily offer brief training stints – sometimes as short as 10 days.
| Scheme | Number of Individuals Trained |
| PMKVY (2015-2023) | 140.81 lakh |
| Jan Shikshan Sansthan (2018-2023) | 2.96 lakh |
| Craftsmen Training Scheme (2018-2023) | 5.11 lakh |
Source: Rajya Sabha questions (2024)
In 2017-18, 29% of vocational trainees undertook courses lasting over two years, which halved in a matter of six years. By 2023-24, this figure plummeted to just 14.29%. Meanwhile, the share of trainees attending courses shorter than six months sky rocketed from 22% to 44%. This shift reflects a systemic preference for quick certifications over substantive skill development.
Rapid decrease in the duration of skill development courses
There is a rapid decrease in the duration of skill development courses. So, overall, more people are getting degrees/certificates or formal education, but the duration of these courses is very short – in some cases, only 10 days. The rise in these short-term training (STT) courses is accompanied by the fact that 96.4% of individuals in India spent less than 15 years in formal education in 2011-12, and that number has now decreased to 95.8% in 2022-23 (NSSO, various rounds), while the share of those in formal education has shot up very sharply over the same period.
Every year, four to five thousand crore rupees are spent by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, but there is hardly any publication available that denotes the number of placed candidates after undergoing training.
Despite being the cornerstone of the Skill India Mission, PMKVY has faced persistent challenges, including an over-reliance on short-term training programs and stagnation in placement rates. Placement figures for these courses are highly suspicious where PMKVY reported 54% placement but data reveals only 22.16% placed. These courses, with durations as short as 24 hours or 3 days, are typically offered by private, NSDC-funded training providers.
The placement rate for PMKVY 1.0 (launched in 2015) stood at 18.4%, which marginally increased to 23.4% under PMKVY 2.0, before sharply declining to 10.1% under PMKVY 3.0. Nevertheless, the scheme continues to receive substantial funding, with PMKVY 4.0 commenced in 2024, backed by a budget allocation of Rs. 12,000 crores (PMKVY, 2024).
The National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), launched in 2016 with a budget of Rs. 10,000 crores, aimed to train 50 lakh apprentices by 2020. However, by 2022, only 20 lakh apprentices had been trained, and only approximately ₹650 crore of the allocated funds were disbursed to states between 2017 and 2022. NAPS 2.0 was introduced in 2023, but no figures are yet available.
Apprentices still represent a minuscule fraction of India’s total workforce
A 2022 study by the ILO noted that amendments to the Apprenticeship Act of 1961 have resulted in some increase in apprenticeship numbers. Despite this, apprentices still represent a minuscule fraction of India’s total workforce – just over half a million apprentices out of a workforce of 570 million in 2022-23, a modest increase from 2,50,000 ten years ago.
The way that more advanced economies have expanded the share of their vocationally trained workers is to ensure on-the-job training (OJT) for their young; this gives them a pathway from education to the world of work, while providing them with both training and experience, while their stipend allows them to keep body and soul together.
A large influx of individuals into the workforce may now be those who possess certificates signifying they are skilled yet they lack the actual competence/proficiency to perform tasks effectively due to insufficient or poor quality of training. This underscores the urgent necessity for stringent quality assessments of these abbreviated courses. Because of their limited proficiency, such trainees often struggle to secure employment after training.
This challenge is exacerbated by the alarming unemployment rates after vocational training completion. The unemployment rate among formally trained individuals remains stubbornly high at 17%, compared to just 4% for informally trained workers.
Disconnect between formal training programs and actual industry demands
This disparity reflects the disconnect between formal training programs and actual industry demands. Youth unemployment rates have decreased from all time high of 17.5% but still remain in double digits which is worrying signs for the economy with rising general and vocational training numbers. This again raises the question about quality of these courses which are not imparting employable skills in individuals.
Youth unemployment trend figures add another layer to this crisis:
| Year | 2004-05 | 2011-12 | 2017-18 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
| Male | 6.2% | 6.0% | 17.3% | 9.7% | 9.8% |
| Female | 4.4% | 6.8% | 17.9% | 10.6% | 11.0% |
| Total | 5.7% | 6.2% | 17.5% | 10.0% | 10.2% |
Source: NSSO EUS and PLFS survey (various years)
Open unemployment for formally vocationally trained individuals rose from 12 lakhs in 2004-05 to 19.8 lakh in 2023-24, while for informally trained individuals, it increased from 3.1 lakh to 7.6 lakh. These numbers highlight the deep structural flaws in India’s skill development ecosystem.
India’s vocational education system has become a numbers game, where certificates are churned out without meaningful skill acquisition. The rising reliance on short-term training, poor employment outcomes, and inflated placement statistics reflect systemic failures.
If India truly aims to become a global skill hub, it must prioritise quality over quantity, invest in long-term training programs, and increase accountability of private sector in vocational training rather than them just existing as a spectator. Anything less would be a disservice to millions of young Indians hoping for a better future.
Santosh Mehrotra was Prof of Economics, JNU, and Dr Harshil Sharma, Director, Indus Action, holds a Ph.D. in Labour Economics from JNU.
