Institutions and abused women: an interactional model to access justice in India

The discourse on domestic violence has steadily moved from solely the realm of private family affairs into the institutional domain, through changing perceptions and the enactment and enforcement of laws. This article aims to understand how women approach institutions and how institutions perceive, translate, and respond to complaints within human rights discourses. The study analysed all cases registered in a family counselling centre in Rajasthan, India, with ten cases then randomly selected for in-depth interviews. The institutions are a catalyst of social change; however, they need to partner with specialists for medical interventions, and network with line departments more effectively to improve social resilience.     

Labour Contractors and Global Production Networks: The Case of India’s Auto Supply Chain

Research on labour in global production networks has raised serious questions about the role played by labour contractors. This article uses a case study of automotive components production in north India to show how labour contractors assist firms to adapt to the rigours of competition in supply chains. We demonstrate that a regional contract labour system has enabled employers to keep wages low, increase firm flexibility, offload the burden of monitoring and controlling workers and undermine collective bargaining and trade union rights. These problems further expose serious weaknesses in the implementation and enforcement of labour laws in India.     

Liberalisation in India: Does it Resolve or Aggravate Employment Problems?

ABSTRACT

This article discusses whether liberalisation has moderated or aggravated India’s employment problems. Since the Modi government’s election in 2014 and the introduction of the flagship “Make in India” policy, various government officials and academics have argued that India’s employment situation has improved and is showing promising signs of growth and development. However, in this article, it is argued that India’s liberalisation policies have generated numerous problems: employment has delinked from GDP growth due to the increasing financialisation of accumulation; job growth is equal to or below labour force growth; and informalisation is increasing. A structural shift is occurring in India and is causing rural–urban migration due to increased agricultural input costs, reverse tenancy and the mechanisation of agriculture without the creation of new employment. This has led to a redistribution of existing employment in the urban informal sector.     

Factor productivity and marketed surplus of non‐timber forest products in Similipal forest of Odisha

The article examined the factor productivity and the marketed surplus of non‐timber forest products (NTFPs) in the Smilipal forest of Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, India by using the econometric models. It is found that more than 90% of households earned their livelihood from NTFPs in the study area, where the women's participation is more than the male in the production/collection of NTFPs. Most of the households are illiterate, working‐age people, and have more than 30 years of experience in the production of NTFPs. The production of NTFPs is highly seasonal and households produce or collect NTFPs during the winter season. Households having more family members produce or collect higher quantities of NTFPs than others. The marked surplus of NTFPs depends on the production or collection of NTFPs as well as the retention amount and wastes. The higher factor productivity indicates the NTFPs are the best source of livelihood in this area.     

Coping with Work Stress in Police Employees

Present study endeavored to investigate the role of coping in work stress of police employees. A 3 × 2 factorial design with three levels of job hierarchy (officers, sub-inspectors, and constables) and two levels of job tenure [short job tenure (0–10 year) and long job tenure (above 10 year)] was used in present study. A total of 240 police personnel from Gorakhpur Zone (India) participated as respondents. Objective Work Stress Scale, Feeling of Work Stress Scale (Cooper 1983), and Coping Scale (Carver et al. 1989) were used to determine the level of work stress and coping of the police employees. ANOVA results revealed that the level of work stress varied across different groups of police personnel. More specifically, objective work stress was found greater in sub-inspectors than constables and officers while constables reported more feeling of work stress than sub-inspectors and officers, respectively. Furthermore, the different groups of police personnel differed on various forms of coping response, in which officers used more active- and adaptive-related coping strategies than sub-inspectors and constables, respectively. Contrary to this, constables used more maladaptive coping strategies than sub-inspectors and officers. Correlation results evinced that active- and adaptive-related coping responses have an inverse link with work stress, whereas maladaptive coping responses have a positive relationship with work stress. Findings have been discussed in the light of organizational and personal factors.