India presents a rich context for research on work and employment, epitomising the paradox of being the world’s fifth biggest economy but one where 92.4% of the workforce is informal – insecure, unprotected, poor – and women and disadvantaged groups most vulnerable.

The work and employment scenario is characterised by ‘jobless growth’, development rooted in rising informalisation of the workforce, low productivity juxtaposed with some niche high-growth sectors, high levels of poverty in agriculture, and low female participation in the workforce. Social relations of gender, caste, ethnicity and religion intersect with material relations, further reinforcing existing inequalities in the labour market and at the workplace. It is in this context of informalisation and fragmentation of labour that working lives in India need to be examined.

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