ABSTRACT
According to Vinay Kumar, industrial workers in India, though much better off than agricultural workers, have never been in a dominant position either in the economy or polity. While ascendency of public sector and nationalisation in 1960s provided them social, economic and political respectability, this declined in the post-liberalisation 1990s. A vibrant private sector superseded the public sector and contract workers gradually replaced regular workers. Informal employment became a reality of the industrial landscape. Initially, contract workers went unheeded by stakeholders (employers, state, and trade unions) and deprived of basic requirements. But the necessity of industrial growth and peace compelled stakeholders to pay attention to their plight. This chapter argues that workers were empowered in the 1960s and 1970s, marginalised in the 1990s and again empowered after 2000 mainly through their own efforts at mobilisation, thanks to India’s democratic setup.
