Gig Economy in the Global South

India's ITI system faces a crisis of relevance, with half its seats lying vacant despite growing demand for skills. This article examines how outdated courses, gender segregation and weak alignment with labour market needs are undermining vocational education, and argues for reforms that make ITIs more inclusive and responsive to today's economy.

India's vocational training system has expanded rapidly, but weak ITIs continue to undermine skill development. This article examines the gaps in training quality, industry linkages and employment outcomes, and outlines the reforms needed to make ITIs a credible pathway to skilled jobs.

In Bhubaneswar's scorching summers, Mamata, a vegetable vendor, restructures her entire day around the heat - working longer hours both at her cart and at home and absorbing the income loss that follows. Her story reveals what's missing from how we talk about informal work and heat: the type of occupation matters. The worksite, the task, and the stability of employment all shape how vulnerable a worker really is - and current heat action plans fail to capture this nuance.

While more young rural women are entering the workforce through skilling programmes, staying in formal employment remains a challenge. Drawing on research by JustJobs Network and PRADAN, this article explores the social, familial, and workplace barriers that shape women’s employment journeys and argues that skills alone are not enough without sustained support, safe migration pathways, and better job quality.

India's skills gap debate is shifting from blaming youth to fixing the system. With 370 million young people, the focus is now on better education-to-employment pathways, employer involvement, and scalable training models to unlock India's workforce potential.

The report draws on field research conducted among stakeholders of PRADAN’s Youth Employment Program (EEMPOWER), including workers, families, community leaders, and officials.

In this article by The Indian Express, India’s young consumers are shown powering demand, tracking credit scores and fuelling a surge in borrowing, even as millions of graduates remain locked out of stable jobs. This widening disconnect, as research from JustJobs Network suggests, raises larger questions about whether the country’s demographic advantage can translate into durable economic gains.

What does it truly take for a rural young woman in India to access and sustain formal work? This report by JustJobs Network and PRADAN traces women's journeys from aspiration to employment, uncovering the social norms, family negotiations, and institutional gaps that shape their path beyond just skills training — and what governments, training partners, and employers must do differently.

India’s Gender Budget has grown steadily, yet implementation challenges persist. Drawing on fieldwork in Odisha, JJN’s researcher Kripa Krishna examines in her piece for Ideas for India on how weak local capacity, limited accountability, and gaps in last-mile delivery undermine welfare outcomes. It argues that without strengthening public systems and evaluating existing schemes, increased allocations risk falling short of translating into meaningful improvements in women’s economic empowerment.

A workday shouldn’t hinge on finding a usable toilet, yet for many women in India, it does. In her article for The Policy Edge, Kaushiki Sanyal, Fellow, JustJobs Network, argues that the focus on menstrual leave in India's policy debates misses a more immediate and pervasive constraint: the absence of functional sanitation. She contends that without addressing this everyday barrier, efforts to improve women’s workforce participation will remain incomplete.

As digital platforms reshape work across Asia and the Pacific, new opportunities for income and flexibility are emerging — but not equally for all workers. Rising task-based work raises urgent questions about governance and the extension of labour and social protections. This report examines emerging regulatory approaches and pathways to decent work in an increasingly digital world, and comes at a critical moment as the ILO prepares a new Convention and Recommendation on platform work to be discussed at the International Labour Conference in June 2026.

JustJobs Network’s new research, supported by JPMorganChase, outlines pathways for sustainable youth employment in India.