Paper short abstract:

Based of field studies, this paper explores how dalit and non-dalit workers are incorporated intp construction labour market of the Delhi region and their differences in terms of work profile, recruitment conditions, working conditions, wages, skill acquisition, and conditions of social reproduction.

Paper long abstract:

The construction industry in India has emerged as a major boom industry, employing nearly 50 million workers in 2011-12. Forty-three percent of these workers were from the deprived social groups (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes or dalits) who otherwise form only 30.2 percent of the workforce. The total numbers of these workers increased from 4.95 million in 1993-94 to 21.42 million in 2011-12, growing at an annual rate of 8.5 percent a year, while the total construction workforce expanded at an annual rate of 8.2 percent a year. Outside agriculture, the construction industry absorbed 18 percent of the non-agricultural dalit workforce in 1993-94 and 35 percent of this workforce in 2011-12.

Although this growth has propelled a large number of dalit workers out of agriculture and into the construction industry, these workers remain at the bottom of the workforce, due to their adverse incorporation in the labour market and labour market segmentation, confining them principally in low skilled manual tasks.

This paper analyses data from field studies in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) to explore how dalit and non-dalit workers are incorporated into the construction labour market and the differences that exist between these groups in terms of work profile, recruitment conditions, working conditions, wages, skill acquisition, and conditions of social reproduction. It also examines whether the differences in work profiles of dalits and non-dalits leads to differences in working ages and working span with further life cycle implications for the different groups of workers.