Interrupted employment and its impact on family: A study in Mumbai, India

Growing magnitude of population, urbanization, globalization, and technological changes currently present new problems all over the world with respect to employment. In India, the employment situation has changed considerably in the recent years. Many who were enjoying the assured long term jobs had to loose their job in the middle of their career years. This interrupted employment scenario and how these families are adapting in the new economic scenario is analysed in this paper. This situation is analysed in a human right angle.

This paper is based on a primary study conducted in the city of Mumbai (a fully urbanised city where a large number of industries are/were closing down) in India. Information was collected from 250 ex-workers whose employments were interrupted due to closure or huge retrenchment. Two stage sampling technique was used. First, the industries which were closed down or retrenched large number of workers, were selected. From these, a total of 250 ex-workers were selected using purposive sampling method using snowball technique (100 from non-textile industry and 150 from textile industry). The respondents for the semi structured questionnaire were the ex-worker or his/her spouse. Few case studies were also conducted.