Talk | ‘Working futures: The ILO, Automation and Digital Work in India’ – Bangalore, India

Kaveri Haritas, who authored with Filipe Calvão of the Graduate Institute the chapter ‘Working Futures: The ILO, Automation and Digital Work in India’ which was published in the 11 | 2019 issue of International Development Policy journal, The ILO @ 100, presented this chapter at the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore, on January 7, 2020.

Programme

The Center for Information Technology and Public Policy (CITAPP)
International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB)
Working futures: The ILO, Automation and Digital Work in India
by Kaveri Haritas, O. P. Jindal Global University

2:00 pm – 3:30 pm on 7 January 2020 (Tuesday)
Venue:  IIITB campus
26/C, Electronic City, Hosur Road, Bangalore

About the event:
India is currently witnessing an unemployment crisis, with youth unemployment slumping phenomenally. Media debates on unemployment emphasise the role of demonetisation and GST, without paying sufficient attention to technology and its impacts on the future of work in India. India is not alone in witnessing this slump in jobs, it is a phenomenon that is a global one, that impacts both developed and developing economies. Technology plays a vital role in this crisis, with differential impacts in different countries. In developing economies, the potential for technology to take away routine jobs is much higher with greater impacts on a higher number of low skilled workers. Organisations such as the ILO have to thus respond to this global employment crisis. 

This article asks questions about the nature of social and political responses required to deal with this transformation. In a context of jobless growth, automated production and digital work mediated through privately owned global technology platforms, how should organisations such as the ILO chart out policies on work. By examining India’s job market, with a focus on the country’s information technology (IT) industry, this article assesses whether the ILO’s focus on labour rights and social protection is suited to addressing the potential for capital–labour substitution and the new ecosystem of software-mediated work. Drawing from data on work and the experience of workers in a digital economy, we suggest a new engagement with digital labour, closer scrutiny of unregulated working conditions, and democratic control over tech-enabled digital platforms. 

After the event, Dr Haritas presented a copy of the thematic issue to Prof. Balaji Parthasarathy of the IIITB (pictured).

Read the chapter in open access : Filipe Calvão and Kaveri Thara, “Working Futures: The ILO, Automation and Digital Work in India”, International Development Policy | Revue internationale de politique de développement, 11 | 2019, URL : http://journals.openedition.org/poldev/3097 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/poldev.3097