News Room

In the latest episode of The Migration Story podcast, JustJobs Network's Isha Gupta unpacks how the recent Tiruvallur ammonia gas leak tragedy reveals deeper systemic issues in India's interstate labour migration. From informal recruitment networks and missing worker records to language barriers, employer-provided accommodation, and gaps in labour protections, the conversation examines why workplace safety cannot be separated from the broader migration journey.

India has succeeded in getting more young people into classrooms, but getting them into quality jobs remains a challenge. Through an analysis of PLFS 2025 data, this data story examines the disconnect between education and employment and highlights the structural barriers preventing many young people, especially women, from making a successful transition into work.

Recent protests over a leaked examination paper have also brought renewed attention to India's employment challenge. In this piece, Shipra Nigam, Research Director at JustJobs Network, writing for The Hindu, argues that the intense competition for government jobs is not simply about a preference for public sector employment. It reflects a deeper issue: while educational attainment has expanded significantly, the economy has not generated enough secure, productive, and dignified jobs for young people.

A new survey shows that nearly 69% of non-working urban women in India have left their jobs mainly because of childcare and household duties. In comparison, just 3.8% of men say the same. This gap points to how social expectations still put most caregiving on women, making it tough for them to stay in the workforce.

As per National Statistics Office's recent survey, nearly 69 percent of non-working urban women cite childcare and domestic responsibilities as the key reason for staying out of the workforce.

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.

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.