India’s workers are under-waged and under-protected, but even the 20 million or so toiling in the registered factory sector often cannot enjoy the legal provisions due to poor enforcement. Across sectors, India’s workers rarely enjoy safe workplaces with decent facilities and routinely struggle to get paid on time at the legal rate and to access their social security entitlements. With labour administration under-resourced and union powers increasingly curbed, workers’ recourse to justice is increasingly difficult. Our programmes on Workforce and Labour Rights aim to give a voice to low-income industrial workers across India, offer information and raise awareness on their rights as workers, so that they collaborate to hold their employers and governments accountable for working conditions.
the Ground
Impacted
Workers
A growing proportion of India’s workforce is hired casually and short-term and even for those in registered units, they struggle to access their entitlements.
Trade Unions and Collectives
Trade union and workers’ collectives build solidarity among workers and help them resolve their issues at ground level. We work with them to promote awareness, provide legal help and address workers’ grievances such as issues with provident fund, documentation and welfare support.
Worker Media
Organizations
Niche media houses cover worker-relevant news especially through online news portals and social media platforms like Youtube and Facebook. We work with them to promote information and awareness among workers.
Actionable Information & Awareness
Grievance Registering, Tracking & Redressal
Collective Action
Gram Vaani’s platforms help to amplify the efforts of partner organisations in building solidarity and membership towards collective action, through petitions, press meets, social media campaigns and presence on the street.
Encouraging Participatory Democracy through Gram Sabhas: Updates from Tamil Nadu
Two women-led unions in Tamil Nadu are using Gram Vaani’s IVR platforms to push for greater participation and accountability of Gram Sabha meetings, where citizens discuss their problems and needs and decide on ways to use available resources.
An accident waiting to happen
Namma Kural, one of our IVR platforms in Tamil Nadu, helps workers register violations of labour and factory laws. Read this story of an accident in a firecracker manufacturing unit that was raised on Namma Kural.
A platform for every worker: Saajha Manch
Gram Vaani’s Saajha Manch (“everyone’s platform”) uses voice-based IVR technology to build engagement of these populations in entitlements and governance. The platform focuses primarily on workers in the industrial areas of Delhi and the National Capital Region.
An accident waiting to happen
Namma Kural, one of our IVR platforms in Tamil Nadu, helps workers register violations of labour and factory laws. Read this story of an accident in a firecracker manufacturing unit that was raised on Namma Kural.
We workers continue to struggle
Honda factory workers share their demands during their protest in Manesar, Haryana in early 2020.
Lockdown chronicle: the migrants’ story
Read what we heard and responded to on Shramik Vaani, our migrant workers’ platform, during India’s lockdown.
