Labour Reforms and Decent Work in India: A Study of Labour Inspection in India

Globalization is an over arching phenomenon which is reflective of and contributing to the radical developments in the field of technology, communications, competition in the product and factor markets, role of state and so on. Globalization, thus understood, has posed enormous challenges to the institutions of labour regulation. Labour regulation is one component of social regulations that seeks to govern the labour market and the industrial relations system. Employers and critics of labour regulation in India seek reforms in almost all spheres of labour regulation; they have criticized the so-called "Inspector Raj" and labour bureaucracy and demanding reforms in both. Trade Unions too criticize the deficiencies in the inspection system, but from a different perspective. The regional governments have been keen to introduce reforms in labour inspection system in response to employers demands. Thus, the institutional framework of labour market governance is in a flux. View points clash, controversies galore and perspectives are lost. Studied literature on some aspects of them such as labour inspection is desirable even necessary. This monograph on labour inspection is an attempt in this regard. The monograph will be useful to labour administrators, policy makers, trade unions, employers, as well as to academics interested in the world of work.