Labour landscape : a study of industrial and agrarian relations in India

This volume presents a panoramic view of the labour scene in contemporary India. The contributors are the serving faculty at the National Labour Institute, New Delhi. Among the major preoccupations of the industrial sector taken up for study are: technological change and transformation of socio-cultural systems; wasteland management for socio-economic transformation of the neighbourhood; viability of "borrowed systems" of management in the Indian context; impact of leadership styles on organisational climate; and hazards of piecemeal legislation.

Employment relations and working conditions in homebased industry are examined in the context of the existing legal provisions to protect the workers' interests in this largely exploitative system. Based on NLI's earlier experience of action intervention, the study throws new light on the possibilities and limitations of popular participation in development. Critical issues of agrarian reforms and living and working conditions of the rural poor are seen against the background of popular participatory movements. such as those among peasants.

Though not claiming deal with all aspects of the labour scene in India, the volume does provide a fresh perspective of critical labour issues of today and tomorrow. To that extent it should stimulate further discussion among policy-makers, scholars and others concerned with labour problems.