- Opening of Markets: Liberalisation ended licensing and restrictions, allowing private and foreign entry into sectors like telecom, aviation, and retail.
- Growth of MNCs: Foreign firms entered India, and Indian companies expanded globally, increasing competition.
- Privatisation and Disinvestment: The government reduced its role by selling PSU shares, creating job insecurity.
- Employment Changes: Permanent jobs declined; contract work and outsourcing increased.
- Rising Inequality: Middle class grew, but income inequality widened and small businesses faced strong competition.
Key Points
Key Points: Industrial Society
- Industrialisation replaces face-to-face relations with impersonal and anonymous relationships in factories and workplaces.
- Division of labour increases, where workers perform only small, repetitive tasks and do not see the final product.
- Work often becomes exhausting and alienating, a condition described by Karl Marx as alienation, where people work only to survive.
- Industrial society creates some equality, such as reduced caste distinctions in public spaces like trains, buses, and workplaces.
- New inequalities emerge, especially income and gender inequality, with upper castes dominating high-paying professions and women often receiving lower wages than men.
Key Points: The Specificity of Indian Industrialisation
- Indian industrialisation is different from Western countries because a large part of the population is still employed in agriculture, not industry.
- In India, agriculture employs the maximum number of workers but contributes much less to economic growth compared to services.
- A major feature of Indian industrialisation is the dominance of the unorganised (informal) sector, where most workers lack job security and benefits.
- Regular salaried employment is limited in India; many workers are self-employed or work as casual labourers.
- Industrialisation in India has not reduced inequality significantly, as caste, region, and informal employment continue to shape work opportunities.
Key Points: Globalisation, Liberalisation and Changes in Indian Industry
Key Points: How People Find Jobs
- Most people find jobs through personal contacts, not advertisements or employment exchanges.
- A large number of people are self-employed (plumbers, electricians, tutors, freelancers, etc.).
- In factories, earlier recruitment happened through jobbers/mistris, but their role has reduced now.
- Many workers today are employed as contract or casual labourers, especially in construction and factories.
- Government schemes like MUDRA, Aatmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India promote employment and self-employment.
Key Points: How is work carried out?
- Control of Work – Managers try to increase production by extending working hours or increasing output using machines.
- Mechanisation – Machines increase productivity but reduce the need for workers and create fear of unemployment.
- Alienation of Workers – Factory workers often feel like extensions of machines, doing repetitive and exhausting work.
- Outsourcing & Contract Work – Companies outsource work to cut costs, leading to job insecurity and work pressure for workers.
- Service Sector Work – Even IT and service jobs follow strict time control, long hours, and pressure, showing modern forms of exploitation.
Key Points: Working Conditions
- Harsh and Unsafe Conditions – Many workers, especially in mining, work in dangerous environments like underground mines with risk of accidents, flooding, fires and gas leaks.
- Health Problems – Workers often suffer from diseases such as tuberculosis, silicosis and breathing problems due to dust, gases and poor ventilation.
- Weak Implementation of Laws – Although labour laws exist, they are mostly followed only in big companies; small mines and contractors often ignore safety rules.
- Migrant Workers – Many industries depend on migrant workers who live in crowded rooms, work long hours and have little job security.
- Social Impact – Migration and poor working conditions lead to loneliness, vulnerability and family separation, though for some women it brings economic independence.
Key Points: Home-based work
- Part of the Economy – Home-based work is an important part of the economy and includes making lace, zari, bidis, carpets, agarbattis, etc.
- Who Does It – It is mainly done by women and children inside homes.
- Role of Contractors – Contractors provide raw materials, collect finished goods, and sell them in the market.
- Low Wages – Workers are paid on a piece-rate basis, so earnings are very low and irregular.
- Lack of Protection – Home-based workers have no job security, no fixed wages, and no labour law protection.
Key Points: Strikes and Unions
- Reason for Strikes – Workers go on strike to protest against harsh working conditions, low wages, and denial of rights.
- Meaning of Strike & Lockout – In a strike, workers stop working; in a lockout, management shuts the workplace.
- Role of Trade Unions – Trade unions organise workers and fight for better wages, job security, and the right to form unions.
- Bombay Textile Strike (1982) – Led by Dr. Datta Samant, it involved nearly 2.5 lakh workers and lasted about two years.
- Impact of the Strike – Many workers lost jobs, mills closed, and workers shifted to casual labour or other cities.
Important Questions [9]
- Define work in the organised sector.
- Job recruitment as a factory worker takes a different pattern. Explain this pattern.
- Discuss the phenomenon of 'Time slavery' in the IT sector.
- Explain the 'scientific Management' system. What shift from Scientific Management took place in the 1980s?
- What is the basic task of a manager?
- Assertion (A): The government has passed a number of laws to regulate the working conditions in coal mines.
- Home-based work is an important part of the economy. Explain by giving an example.
- Assertion (A): To call a strike is a difficult decision. Reason (R): Managers may try to use substitute labour. Workers also find it hard to sustain themselves without wages.
- What is the difference between a strike and the major manufacturing process carried out in a lockout? Discuss the famous strike of Bombay Textile Mills of 1982.
