Page 4 - Lessonnote_ Change and Development in Industrial Society

Disinvestment
➢ Privatisation of public sector or government companies.

➢ The government is trying to sell its share in several public sector companies, a process
which is known as disinvestment. Many government workers are scared that after
disinvestment, they will lose their jobs.
➢ More and more companies are reducing the number of permanent employees and
outsourcing their work to smaller companies or even to homes.
➢ For multinational companies, this outsourcing is done across the globe, with developing
countries like India providing cheap labour. Because small companies have to compete for
orders from the big companies, they keep wages low, and working conditions are often
poor. It is more difficult for trade unions to organise in smaller firms.
➢ Almost all companies, even government ones, now practice some form of outsourcing and

contracting. But the trend is especially visible in the private sector.
➢ India is still largely an agricultural country. The service sector – shops, banks, the IT
industry, hotels and other services are employing more people and the urban middle class
is growing, along with urban middle class values like those we see in television serials and
films.
➢ But we also see that very few people in India have access to secure jobs, with even the
small number in regular salaried employment becoming more insecure due to the rise in
contract labour.
➢ At the same time as secure employment in large industry is declining, the government is

embarking on a policy of land acquisition for industry.
➢ These industries do not necessarily provide employment to the people of the surrounding
areas, but they cause major pollution.
➢ Many farmers, especially adivasis, who constitute approximately 40% of those displaced,
are protesting at the low rates of compensation and the fact that they will be forced to
become casual labour living and working on the footpaths of India’s big cities.

How people find jobs
• In older days it was from word of mouth personal relationships “near and dear friends”.
• Later it moved to newspapers, magazines, ads.
• Nowadays, there are websites and HR requirement of major companies like MNC’s.
• Employment exchanges register your name and qualification and they call you whenever

there is a job available.
Contractors
• In the past, many workers got their jobs through contractors or jobbers.
• In the Kanpur textile mills, these jobbers were known as mistris, and were themselves
workers. They came from the same regions and communities as the workers, but because
they had the owner’s backing they bossed over the workers. On the other hand, the mistri
also put community related pressures on the worker.