What We Do
Research and Knowledge
We carry out both in-house and commissioned research on a range of issues relating to the rights, entitlements, and every day struggles of workers, especially, in the informal economy. Our portfolio of work includes regional and sector level mapping exercises, issue-driven empirical studies, ethnographic case studies, and policy-centric enquiries. Applying an intersectional lens helps us explore how factors like caste, gender, and ethnicity cut across labour markets in complex and dynamic ways.
Our knowledge outputs take the shape of academic publications, research reports, policy briefs and opinion pieces. Through these we have contributed substantially to the contemporary debates on labour and migration.
Research and Knowledge
We carry out both in-house and commissioned research on a range of issues relating to the rights, entitlements, and every day struggles of workers, especially, in the informal economy. Our portfolio of work includes regional and sector level mapping exercises, issue-driven empirical studies, ethnographic case studies, and policy-centric enquiries. Applying an intersectional lens helps us explore how factors like caste, gender, and ethnicity cut across labour markets in complex and dynamic ways.
Our knowledge outputs take the shape of academic publications, research reports, policy briefs and opinion pieces. Through these we have contributed substantially to the contemporary debates on labour and migration.
Policy
Our policy work mainly concerns labour law and reforms, urban governance, social and gender justice, and business and human rights. Our policy positions are regularly published through policy briefs and reports, while we engage with the larger public sphere through writings in traditional and digital media.
We specifically strive to build bridges with national, state, and local governments whose positions have a profound impact on the lives of workers. Hence we regularly lead and contribute to dialogues and consultations in collaboration with critical actors in the labour policy landscape, such as the International Labour Organization. We were a member of the Niti Ayog Sub-Committee on Labour Migration, which actively deliberated on an upcoming policy on internal labour migration. We are also a core partner of national level organizational networks, where we undertake evidence-based advocacy for reforms in labour practices and policy systems.
Partnerships
In the aftermath of COVID, as internal labour migration came into policy spotlight, we have been co-leading several high-impact partnerships that catalyze an ecosystem-wide change in labour rights and standards. Social Compact is a unique multi-stakeholder movement that brings together corporates, worker organizations and sector experts to ensure dignity for the industry-employed informal workforce in India. Recognizing the potential to influence multiple levers of change, we also work with multilateral financing institutions such as the World Bank in improving labour governance and management practices within large infrastructure projects. The objective is to work on initiatives that have a potentially large impact footprint, so that a trigger for change can lead to a wider and deeper impact for vulnerable labour migrant communities.
Practice
We extend long-term support to projects of strategic value in the world of labour practice. These include incubation support to key initiatives such as the India Labour Line or seeding migration practice in significant collectives of practice, such as industry associations or organizational networks that wish to integrate labour migration as a new strand in their ongoing work at significant source or destination regions.
Teaching and Training
We regularly undertake teaching and capacity building for a wide variety of audience including labour practitioners and researchers. We have collaborated in the past with Azim Premji University, Bangalore and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai to jointly curate such programmes. We also respond to specific requests from grassroots and funding organizations for contextualized capacity building support so that they can enhance their competencies in engaging more systematically with migrant communities.
Where We Work
49,000 people, innnearly 150 countries
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