Issues relating to Labour and Employment in developing societies like India pose a challenge and an opportunity to research a wide range of dimensions. CSD invites scholars to work on areas like the growth and structure of employment, the nature of employment ranging from self-employment to the entire range of informal employment to formal employment, and the impact of economic policies on employment and unemployment. The type of labour markets, including segmentation, levels and nature of discrimination at the workplace against unrepresented minorities, sexual minorities, women, Dalits, and Adivasis, are areas of concern as well. Wages, earnings and inequality reflect on the state of living of workers. Labour institutions, laws, regulations and social security have a long history in different countries worldwide.
Research on labour history, the exercise of associational freedoms at the workplace, and changing conceptions of labour and fair practice are especially relevant today. With communities engaged in traditional skills and practices - ranging from shifting cultivation and honey gathering among Adivasi communities to traditional artisanry -- that have not come within the ambit of labour studies, strictly speaking, the rapid disappearance of the skills and the objective conditions within which they can be kept alive and sustained has concerned researchers working in these sectors. What is the relationship between ecology, labour and security consequent to the ratification of the UNCRPD by India? What are the definitions of fair labour practice and equal opportunity regarding persons with disabilities? What is the recognition of caregiving as labour? The above questions are extremely under-researched areas that require the urgent attention of scholars. These are some of the concerns that frame our understanding of labour and employment studies at CSD.