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Sat Jan 11 20:49:57 IST 2003

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Dear friends,
>  The copy of research proposal has been given here. Please
>  comment on it, this will help and enrich my study, and efficient
>  and optimal use my and CSDS/Sarai resources.Basically ,I am
>  working on Daily Labour Market(Labour Chowck) in Delhi.I want to
>  explore my research to find out the correlation between
>  communication,information and daily labour market in mega city,
>  Delhi.
>  With Regards
>  Narender Thakur
>  #224, Sutlej Hostel
>  JNU,ND-67
>  Ph.011-26185393


Daily Labour Market (Labour Chowk) in Delhi

Introduction
In all urban centers there are several squares where daily-wage job seekers gather in the morning and eagerly wait for prospective buyers of their labor power. The buyers may be petty contractors or direct employers. The laborers compete among themselves to offer the lowest supply price of their labor power. They are hired for days work or few days of work. Those who fail to get a job offer at the squares on a particular day even resort to hawking around in the vicinity of the square in the hope of being spotted by prospective hirers. At times, while hawking, the laborers shout out aloud their occupations and the offer of their labor power. The entire process of job search, from squatting to hawking closely resembles the buying and selling that takes place in any commodity market. The scene is akin to a haat (weekly market) or, say, the hawkers at railway platforms announcing the sale of groundnuts or tea.
		Such labor markets have existed and do exist at different stages of capitalist development. In 19th century England it was the stage of relative surplus value extraction when similar markets appeared. As noted by Marx (1887):
	In the notorious district of Benthal Green, a public market is held every Monday and Tuesday morning, where children of both sexes from nine years of age upwards, hire themselves out to the milk manufacturers. The contract is binding only for a week. He quotes the Children Employment Commission: The scene and language while this market is going on are quite disgraceful.
In Delhi:
There are a lot of numbers of migrants working in Delhi. There are different pull and push factors of this internal migration Most of the migrants are coming from North India especially from Bihar, U.P. These migrants are throw either by the unemployment conditions in the country-side or attracted by the information received about employment opportunities in the urban area (mega city of India; Delhi) 
In Delhi like other mega cities the process of globalization has been introduced in 1991.The procedure of divestment of industries most of the workers are influenced. They are losing their jobs from the public enterprises. And it is not easy access for new-comer to getting job. Similarly, most of the migrants are looking/searching for work. I can frame the research questions to explore my proposed study in Daily Labor Market Labor Chowk in Delhi.
Research Questions
1. What was the source of information about work/square opportunities in Delhi, when laborers were living in their native place?
2. How they are communicating to their families in their native villages, what is the source of communication? How they are managing their relationship among those who are working in Delhi?
3. What type of media they used for getting regular information about their native place? 
4. How they got information about work and square (Labor Chowk) after coming in Delhi? Which media they prefer? Radio, Television, newspapers, etc?
5. Is there any mediator (Thekadar) who is controlling their labor supply? (What is the role of Thekadar between laborers and employer?)
6. What is the source of information of derived demand for labor, to Thekadar (mediator)?
7. Are they changing their squares from one place to another in Delhi (according to high probability of getting work/wages at particular Square, how they are getting information about probability of getting work and wages?) (It is a question of mobility)
8. How they are communicating with their employer and mediator? 
9. How they enjoy? How they celebrate their festivals?
10. How the mediator and employer are communicating?
11. How much money they spent for their livelihood? And how much money they save for remittance? Are they save their money in bank, or they keep with their relatives? And how they remit their money which channel they used? And for what purposes? (Investment), Period, on monthly basis or annual?
12. What is the estimated earning per week/month and working hours per day?
13. What is the nature of skill of laborers at present and in past?
14. How they are going to their Labor-Chowk (Means of transport).
15. How they will manage their earnings to remit in their countryside?
16. Is there significant correlation between information and work opportunities? 
17. What is the level of educational background and informal training of migrants? What is the gender and caste distribution/composition 
18. How they are coming in Delhi (means of transport) 
19. Are they organized politically and socially? (Member of Trade Union etc.)
We can frame the objectives and hypotheses with the help of research questions that have been explained above. But it is matter of word limit that is why we are limiting ourselves here.
Methodology
The methodological exercise for the study may be begun with a census of all such squares in Delhi that represent the Daily Labor Market; Labor Chowk, which showed that there are 99 squares of this kind in the entire urban area. However, the selection may be made on account of location advantage. Nevertheless, the sample must be randomly selected to represent population/universe 
We can apply the pre-tested questionnaire in the specific study. We can also interviewed to the workers/laborers and mediator (thekadar) I have personally visited three Labor Chowk in Delhi. Those are located; i) Kingsway Camp Labor Chowk near Delhi University, North Delhi ii) Munrika Labor Chowk near Jawaharlal Nehru University, South Delhi iii) Mayur Vihar Labor Chowk near Maharaja Agersain College of Delhi University in Trans- Yamuna Area of East Delhi

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