Labour

Mohammad Khan lived in an informal slum near Bellandur lakebed, making a living collecting and segregating waste. When Citizen Matters covered his story five years ago, we found many families who lived off waste, playing a necessary role in the waste management ecosystem. They traversed the neighbourhoods of Sarjapur Road, HSR Layout and Jakkasandra with bicycles stacked with recyclable waste from across the area. Informal squatter settlements with the ubiquitous blue tent dwellings are often at risk of eviction. Recently, about 5000 migrant labourers living in makeshift sheds in Thubarahalli were threatened by the police and asked to vacate, after local…

On August 7th this year, transport workers waged a nation-wide strike in protest against the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2017, which was passed by the Lok Sabha and is awaiting passage in the Rajya Sabha. The stir saw support from two state transport corporations of Kerala and Haryana as well as unions across party lines through the country. While the proposed law has largely been welcomed by experts as one that will bring about greater focus on road safety, several proposed changes to the existing Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 do not seem to have gone down well with the opposition parties and transport workers.…

BBMP fails to issue ID cards to street vendors, even after 10 months of completion of Phase – I of survey BBMP must issue circular announcing Phase – II of survey to cover all existing street vendors in Bengaluru Eviction and relocation of street vendors continue against the law, and street vendors cannot avail benefits from State Government due to lack of ID cards Federation demands that all ID cards be immediately issued, failing which street vendors will go on protest in August 2018 The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) conducted a survey of street vendors in Bangalore in September-October…

What are Employment Exchanges? An Employment Exchange is a government establishment which offers employment support to the unemployed youth on the basis of their educational qualification and work experience. The Department of Employment and Training, Karnataka looks after Employment Exchanges in the State including the offices in Bengaluru. Exchanges act as a bridge between the job seekers and the employers. They inform about the vacancies in public and private sector to the job seekers and pass on the information/data of the job seekers to the employers - both government and private - which the employers may use whenever there is…

Having lost their significance over the years, Employment Exchanges are in dire need of a revamp that will make them suit the changing employment trends and unemployment patterns. During the course of working on this series, what I gathered from talking to officials is, in Karnataka seemingly there is no full-fledged plan yet to revamp the Employment Exchanges. However, some attempts have been and are being made by governments of the times to make Employment Exchanges relevant. In 2008, Employment Exchange offices were given a major task of organising job fairs. Since then, the Directorate of Employment and Training considers…

In ‘Pratidwandi’, a Bengali movie directed by Satyajit Ray in 1972, there comes a scene almost at the end of the film, where the protagonist Siddhartha Choudhari waits outside the interview room hoping to get a job. The corridor is crowded. There are 75 applicants for four available positions and the applicants end up waiting for more than three hours, most of them standing on the corridors in the absence of chairs. The scene reflected the unemployment problem that plagued India in 70s and how well qualified people had to slog to get a job. Like ‘Pratidwandi,’ several other movies…

In an essay, ‘A Tale of Three cities and the search for Dharma’, sociologist and author Arshia Sattar examines the three cities depicted in the epic Ramayana. Ayodhya, the human city, Kishkindha, the monkey city and finally Lanka, the rakshasa city, each governed by codes of behaviour depending on who resides in them. As she puts it, in the cities, “ways of being and doing are determined and unalterable”. The ‘codes’ in each city are remarkably different, each allowing for a different kind of morality and way to live. The only similarity between them is that each upholds a certain…

RJ Priyanka and Geetha Menon of Stree Jagriti Samiti interact with some women domestic workers to understand more about their demands for basic things like ID cards, monthly pensions and humane treatment. These women were protesting at Karmikara Bhavana recently. Geetha Menon spoke with representatives of Gruhakarmikara Hakkugala union which has been working with domestic helpers, both part-time or full time. Their demand is that domestic workers be treated in a humane manner and be considered as service providers not servants or slaves. They talk about harassments and disparities. The four major demands that the workers were protesting for were:…

June 16, 2011, was a landmark day for domestic workers the world over. The Convention C 189 was passed, giving domestic workers the world over increased hope of legislative and social justice. Eighteen countries have ratified the Convention so far, but the Indian government has remained non-committal. Domestic workers in India have had to fight long and hard for basic rights. Stree Jagriti Samithi is a women's organization that works for the rights of women who are domestic helpers. It addresses problems faced by these women be it in terms of wages or allegations of stealing or other aspects. Parijatha…

Climatic and non-climatic factors intersect and create an entire tribe of marginalized and vulnerable people. Incidentally they form a large proportion of the informal economy of Bengaluru and other cities. This photo essay looks at the living and working conditions of one of the most marginalized groups in Bengaluru namely the waste pickers. The focus is on those who live in undeclared, blue tent, temporary squatter settlements. Our field research revealed that most of the inhabitants in these settlements are migrants from West Bengal, a distinct region in the East of India. For the residents of the informal settlements that…