India

Death, injury and disease: the battle to improve working conditions in South Asia’s shipbreaking yards

Every year, thousands of ships around the world reach the end of their lives. The vast majority meet their end in South Asia, where, every year, almost 70 per cent of the vessels are dismantled on just three beaches, often with no regard for the workers’ health and [...]Read the full article

Can India, the world's most populous country, provide jobs for its young people?

2 October 2023

Politics & economy

Can India, the world’s most populous country, provide jobs for its young people?

“Job creation in manufacturing is a key challenge for the Indian economy, if it is to absorb the large number of new entrants to the labour market, enable the transfer of labour from agriculture to other sectors, and so improve living conditions, while making growth sustainable by encouraging [...]Read the full article

In India, the sporting dreams of rural athletes are being washed away with climate change

5 May 2023

Culture

In India, the sporting dreams of rural athletes are being washed away with climate change

Recurring floods are forcing emerging sportsmen and women from rural India to quit their sports or severely reduce their training in order to help support their families, whose livelihoods have been negatively impacted by extreme weather events caused by climate [...]Read the full article

Following a six-year battle, street vendors in the Indian state of Meghalaya have secured new legal rights

3 April 2023

Following a six-year battle, street vendors in the Indian state of Meghalaya have secured new legal rights

Hawkers in the state of Meghalaya in north-east India have been successful in ensuring that an unfavourable state law is repealed and a more progressive national law is adopted.Read the full article

Around the world in seven public libraries, or, how to be out of tune with the capitalist logic of our time

6 March 2023

Around the world in seven public libraries, or, how to be out of tune with the capitalist logic of our time

The guiding principle of the public library is that everyone deserves free and open access to our common cultural heritage. This places the institution at fundamental odds with capitalist consumer ideals. From New Delhi to Los Angeles, we visit seven ‘palaces for the [...]Read the full article

Low-carbon farming helps India's rural poor battle climate uncertainty

27 February 2023

Environment

Low-carbon farming helps India’s rural poor battle climate uncertainty

Rural farmers in Jharkhand, one of the most vulnerable states to climate change in India, are making the shift from conventional farming to innovative, organic farming practices – with positive results.Read the full article

By workers, for workers: in India, cooperatives are addressing care workers' own caregiving needs

19 December 2022

By workers, for workers: in India, cooperatives are addressing care workers’ own caregiving needs

The Indian trade union SEWA has created childcare cooperatives and a home-based elderly care service that are boosting the economic participation of women care workers by solving their own caregiving needs.Read the full article

The tribulations of India's poorest workers are leading to record numbers of deaths by suicide

5 October 2022

The tribulations of India’s poorest workers are leading to record numbers of deaths by suicide

With worsening agrarian conditions, farmers like Supriya are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. The rising cost of agricultural inputs and falling prices for farm produce spells total disaster for the country’s 263 million agricultural [...]Read the full article

“Daughters of God”: life in India's transgender communities

16 May 2022

“Daughters of God”: life in India’s transgender communities

This photo essay is an immersive insight into the transgender communities of Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu in southern India, a testament to the day-to-day struggles and resilience of transgender women.Read the full article

India's gig economy is failing women workers

19 April 2022

India’s gig economy is failing women workers

The same gig economy that promises flexibility to women workers also compels them to work beyond their capacity to break even. Despite the veneer of modernity, the gig economy is no better than the traditional labour market for India’s working [...]Read the full article

7 February 2022

How the labour movement helped defeat pro-business legislation in India and Indonesia

After years of setbacks for civil society in both countries, these victories have helped to reinvigorate their respective labour movements. The ability to maintain pressure over long periods of time, build broad-based coalitions, and use legal channels proved key, and labour leaders in India [...]Read the full article

16 January 2022

Undocumented but undeterred, an Indian migrant attempts to make the long, perilous journey back home from Oman

Rejimon Kuttappan: There are an estimated nine million Indian migrants in the Middle East region. In his new book, journalist and researcher Rejimon Kuttappan sheds light on the lives and struggles of some of those trapped by the kafala system.Read the full article

For India's stigmatised and exploited sanitation workers, the pandemic has only made conditions worse

20 September 2021

For India’s stigmatised and exploited sanitation workers, the pandemic has only made conditions worse

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the discrepancy between the pivotal social, economic and public health role of India’s sanitation workers and the fact that they “remain at the bottom of society”.Read the full article

India's farmers won't stop protesting until Modi's unfair agricultural reforms are repealed

26 January 2021

India’s farmers won’t stop protesting until Modi’s unfair agricultural reforms are repealed

“With these laws, farming will become corporate, and these corporates will make us landless.”Read the full article

The young creative bringing India's rural folk musicians to the world – via a backpack

8 January 2021

Culture

The young creative bringing India’s rural folk musicians to the world – via a backpack

A 28-year-old social entrepreneur has created an innovative solution to help rural folk artists in India create sustainable livelihoods and preserve the country’s richest oral heritage.Read the full article

How Kerala managed to flatten the coronavirus curve

29 May 2020

How Kerala managed to flatten the coronavirus curve

That Kerala was able to recognise the threat posed by the coronavirus and respond to it so quickly is a legacy of decades of progressive politics and an egalitarian development strategy in the communist-run state.Read the full article

Fuelled by social media, in India Muslims are “a convenient scapegoat” for the coronavirus

6 May 2020

Fuelled by social media, in India Muslims are “a convenient scapegoat” for the coronavirus

“The term ‘CoronaJihad’ not only blames the Islamic community for the virus but also implies that with it the community is targeting the majority – the Hindus in India.”Read the full article

In West Bengal farmers are resisting climate change and rising costs with indigenous rice

22 November 2019

In West Bengal farmers are resisting climate change and rising costs with indigenous rice

The less reliant farmers are on agribusiness, and the more resilient the seeds they plant are to the vagaries of climate change, the better for the livelihoods of India’s farmers.Read the full article

Two months on, India's lockdown threatens to capsize Kashmir's economy

23 October 2019

Two months on, India’s lockdown threatens to capsize Kashmir’s economy

With the possibility of conflict blowing in the wind, the people of Kashmir are struggling to carry on as normal. Every sector – from public transport to handicrafts to agriculture to IT – has been adversely affected.Read the full article

Between high rates of HIV/AIDS and punitive new trafficking laws, India's sex workers are struggling to assert their humanity

12 August 2019

Between high rates of HIV/AIDS and punitive new trafficking laws, India’s sex workers are struggling to assert their humanity

“We are considered the rotten, dirty apples of society. This country shall never perceive our identities to be beyond that of sex work, even though most of us are here not by choice, but because of our circumstances.”Read the full article

8 April 2019

The silent death of workers in India

In India, where workers in the informal economy face precarious conditions, around 50,000 people die each year at their jobs. Labour legislation, currently under attack by the government of Narendra Modi, provides protection on paper but not in practice. And things could get [...]Read the full article

25 January 2019

Politics & economy

India – a test case for democracy, rights and freedom in 2019

Sharan Burrow: What is at stake is finding leaders who will govern in the interests of working people, leaders who will stand up to corporate greed and influence, leaders who will listen and keep their promises.Read the full article

As Kerala succumbs to the sea, the Indian government ramps up coastal construction

8 October 2018