ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

LabourSubscribe to Labour

Indian Labour Intermediaries and Global Production Networks

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Is Market-driven Education Reproducing Alienation? Re-reading Marx on Human Nature

Various studies and scholastic arguments have now established the link between modern education and alienation. These studies range across disciplines like psychology, sociology, and political science as well as subjects that provide a critical analysis of the normative global shape shifting that affects local politics. More or less, in most of the contentions, one does observe a pertinent emphasis on the dominating force of the market. Market as a driving force in present-day education systems is also deciding their future. In the following article, an attempt has been made to conceptualise the complex picture of modern-day education, the global politics that decides if it is a right or a commodity and its relational dynamics with the individual in the society—all this through the perspective of “alienation.” This article tries to propose if education is reproducing detachment of the individual from their inherent consciousness by making their relationship with education as that of between an alienated labourer and their labour in a capitalist society.

Beyond Plastic Identifications

Due to centralised and infl exible infrastructures of state care involving upper-level bureaucratic decision-making and heavy reliance on documentary modalities, even the radically decentralised states such as Kerala are underperforming in their welfare responsibilities. A greater role for local governments needs to be re-envisioned.

Labour Agency and Global Production Networks in India

Recognising an increasing interface of the domestic labour—informal as well as unorganised—with the global production networks, this article engages with two specific research concerns. One is the relevance of traditional trade unions, and the other is the role of the new, even as both labour standards and rights confront the challenges of capital-favouring new labour legislations. The systemic exclusion of the lower-tier workers, despite their globality, reinforces and justifies informality and precarity in the labour process.

Wage Suppression and Wage-rentierism

The surplus value created by non-supervisory workers is typically understood as captured by firm owners and shareholders (that is, as capital income). The surplus value created by non-supervisory workers is captured largely in the form of compensation for high-level executives, and that this capture explains a greater share of wealth inequality than increases in capital’s share of income.

Poverty Alleviation and Pro-poor Growth in Odisha

During the 2000s, Odisha recorded a faster reduction in the poverty ratio than ever before. This paper examines the pro-poorness of growth in Odisha and among its regions during this time. The pro-poor growth index, poverty equivalent growth, growth incidence curve, and poverty decomposition methods have been used to estimate pro-poor growth. The fast decline in inequality with the growth in household monthly per capita expenditure resulted in a faster reduction in poverty in Odisha. All the regions of rural Odisha and the coastal region of urban Odisha recorded a faster decline in poverty during the period of analysis and were more pro-poor during the 2000s. The panel regression result shows that the districts with high per capita income in the tertiary sector witnessed faster poverty reduction, whereas the primary and secondary sector PCI had no significant impact on poverty reduction in Odisha.

Non-Brahmin Labour Movement in Bombay and Indian National Movement

The development of the mill industry in Bombay[1] heavily relied on family, kinship, caste and patronage. Labour recruitment and organisation were also correlated to family, kinship, caste and patronage. The rise and growth of the Indian National Movement in Bombay was largely connected with caste politics. The early growth of the Indian National Congress was connected with the society's elite and oppressor caste community. Prominent leaders from the Indian National Congress were mainly from the Brahmin caste. M K Gandhi and his various movements had created space for the non-Brahmin in the national movements. But it was not an easy task to convince the non-Brahmin masses to join the Indian national movements. This article explains the initial phase of Gandhi and his early attempts to organise non-Brahmin labour unions and encourage their participation in national movements. Further, it explains how these non-Brahmin leaders joined the Congress party and its various significant movements. This process primarily affected the labour unrest and national movement in Bombay.

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