Women’s day was celebrated with full vigor and vitality. An interactive session was facilitated by our cheerful young leader in making Sonam Singh, a Societymaker team member. The women gathered together, flipped through the pages of history of women’s day celebration. We gained insights into why we celebrate it today and the root of its origin. And this we was not it, we reflected and shared instances of why we still need to celebrate such a day.
Workshop on ‘Labour Migration and Social Change in South Asia’
Sarabjit Kaur on March 22nd, 2017
Though the movement of people in pursuit of work is not new, labour migration appears to be a growing phenomenon in the South Asian region. Empirical studies and papers analysing government data have shown that migration is not a simple movement from village to city in this region, but involves multiple streams and patterns including short-term, iterative, permanent and return migration across short and long distances. This workshop explores aspects that link human mobility and social transformation in sending and receiving communities, especially in the context of labour migration.
Organised by the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and the French Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities (CSH) as well as supported by the Tata Trusts’ SHRAMIC initiative, this workshop has been conceived as a platform for young researchers, scholars and practitioners to share their work and receive feedback from experienced and knowledgeable experts. The 15-odd papers being presented have been selected from over 70 entries in response to a call for papers in December 2016 and represent the work of young researchers across the South Asia region.
Read more at – http://bit.ly/2nQLGeh
The Story of Ravi Bharti
Bhaskar Majumdar on March 6th, 2017
This morning I asked one person engaged in painting work in my Social Science Research Institute at Allahabad who among you all are most poor. He immediately replied all are poor. This proved they are not Economists or Statisticians.
The Story of Nanka
Bhaskar Majumdar on March 6th, 2017
Nanka is Nanka Bharti aged around 35 with a wife, two sons and a daughter. Naka works as a non-agricultural labourer in and around the city of Allahabad as and when engaged by the local sub-contractor under the multiple core contractors in the city. Nanka is a Dalit, his wife remains engaged as a domestic assistant, his sons are in studies and daughter just entered into the first step in school – it is Anganwadi school.
Disguised Workers
Bhaskar Majumdar on March 6th, 2017
Labour is non-substitutable – mostly for the non-labourers to accumulate! Economists take a leap forward and calculate also disguised unemployment without realizing if they themselves are evicted from penning such paid calculations where do they get alternative jobs. In my understanding most of them are socially obsolete (with due apology).
Community Life of Migrants?
Bhaskar Majumdar on March 3rd, 2017
Slowly but steadily I have started learning why do people live community life, not all people together obviously but cross sections by region-caste-language and so on. My initial idea was it was for the poor and people engaged at the lowest segment of the labour market showing labourers living together in I-shape cluster of rooms called labour colonies (local names differ like Line Baari (Rooms arranged in I-shape with common Varanda for cooking in sub-urban areas of Calcutta) or the slum dwellers and pavement/railway platform dwellers. Sanitation is a non-question for the latter.
The Story of Rajkumar Sonkar
Bhaskar Majumdar on March 2nd, 2017
A common feature of living and ensuring livelihood in Uttar Pradesh is occupying caste and caste determining occupations. I had also a curiosity if I ever find Pandits (Brahmin by birth on public road ferrying goods. So this morning I asked Rajkumar his name and he responded by his first name only. I was adamant and asked him his surname – response was sonkar. This is in my understanding a caste at the bottom – my understanding rests on oral communication, so may not be reliable also.
Migrant labourers from Odisha rise threefold in 10 years
Umi Daniel on February 21st, 2017
Number of migrant workers from Odisha to other states is rising steadily. Compared to 55,000 workers migrating from Odisha in 2007, 1.46 lakh left the state in 2015, government figures show.Social activists working for welfare of the migrants said the actual number of people migrating to other states for works would be far more than the government figures because only a miniscule percentage of them get registered.
The Story of Anshu
Bhaskar Majumdar on February 21st, 2017
Anshu is a sickly boy of 24 engaged on ad hoc basis in a social science research Institute at Allahabad earning a little more than the stipulated minimum. Anshu comes from a village very close to the city of Allahabad. Anshu is well settled in his household – pursuing his Graduation from a nearby College where non-attendance is compulsory.
Call for Papers on “Migration, Change and Continuity”
Sarabjit Kaur on February 16th, 2017
The Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics invites submissions for a Special Issue forthcoming in July 2018, on Migration: Change and Continuity, with reference to internal migration in South Asia or cross-border migration within South Asia.
