Economic Liberalization and Factory Workers in India : Based on the Interview Survey to the Workers in Gurgaon, National Capital Region of Delhi

In India, foreign direct investments have notably increased after the economic liberalization in 1991, and depending on it, rapid industrialization is now going on. The evaluation of such industrialization should be done from the employment side as well as production side. What kind of labor market is created by the industrialization ? How is it contributing to relaxation of the employment problem? The purpose of this paper is to clarify the characteristics of industrial labor market after the economic liberalization, based on the interview survey to factory workers in rapidly growing industrial area. The study area is Gurgaon district, Haryana state located in the suburb of the National Capital Region of Delhi. In this area, there is large agglomeration of automobile industries represented by Marti Udyog and Hero Honda. The results obtained were as follows. 1. Growing industrial production does not simply lead to increase of stable ""organized sector"" labor market and is tied to rapid expansion of instable and temporary labor market represented by the employment of casual workers. 2. The employment of casual workers is extremely inferior including a salary of low wage. However, it is quite easy for companies to collect such work force because of existence of enormous pool of unemployed work force in this area. 3. Generally casual workers in factories are employed by contractors, which boost instability of the employment. Factories are not responsible for the security of the employment of casual workers. 4. Because discharge is very difficult due to the strict labor law of India, increasing ratio of temporary employee brings an advantage for companies to cope with a fluctuations of production and to reduce the labor costs. But such a change in labor market may add to instability of Indian society