Wages of neoliberalism:: Reflections on the world of work in contemporary India

This essay highlights the impact of neoliberalism on the world of work with particular reference to India. It provides a brief overview of the structural transformations and their impact on the growing vulnerability of workers, with particular focus on the deepening and reconfiguration of informality within the current labour scenario. The first section provides a brief profile of labour in India with a focus on the last decade. It shows how the emerging trends are marked by regional and social unevenness, with particularly adverse outcomes for women and vulnerable social groups. The second section explores different dimensions of growing insecurity of work, particularly with respect to hours of work and wages. The third section examines some of the major reasons for deteriorating conditions of work by locating in an overview of the long-term structural failures and the ascendency of neoliberal policies in the recent years. In the fourth section we follow this up by a discussion of the recent State-led labour reforms and their role in accelerating flexibilisation in the world of work and the essay closes with a very brief concluding remark regarding the contemporary labour scenario in section five.