Post-school Experiences of the Youth: Tracing Delhi Slum Dwellers from 2007/08 to 2018

Abstract

India’s recent economic growth has not sufficiently absorbed the growth of the working-age population, particularly in employment with regular payments and social protection. In this background, this chapter examines how youth of low economic strata have experienced the labour market in their post-schooling period, using longitudinal data collected in Delhi slums over the decade from 2007/08 to 2018. The majority of young slum dwellers had higher educational levels than the older slum dwellers and experienced a greater increase in real incomes compared to the older workers. Education plays a crucial role in the earnings of young slum workers. However, the income levels of slum dwellers remain significantly lower than those of the broader population in Delhi, and the economic disparity with non-slum workers in Delhi appears to have increased over the decade. Similarly, the gender disparity in earnings among slum dwellers has not been rectified over time. Growing income disparity and gender differences in terms of work participation and earnings remain major challenges for the country.

Appendix: List of Slum Dwellers’ Occupations

• 1. Semi-professional: assistant accountant, unqualified doctor, construction contractor, cable contractor, heavy loading contractor, computer operator, personal tutor, minitruck owner, factory supervisor, research institute assistant, factory supervisor.

• 2. Daily wage labourers: agricultural labourers, miscellaneous workers.

• 3. Technicians and repairers: electrician, plumber, electrical item repairer, blacksmith, helpers in garages, vehicle mechanics, cycle repairers, motor repairers, belt repairers, repairers, factory drill operatives, cobblers, repairers in factories, and welders.

• 4. Entertainers: magician, D. J., magic show, and drummers.

• 5. Sales workers:

  Shop sales persons: small grocer, butcher, scrap shop, printing shop, telephone kiosk, leather purse shop, electric item shop, milkman, sweet shop, telephone shop, gas fitting shop, vegetable market, mobile recharge, garment showroom, electrical goods shop, petrol station, furniture shop, scrap shop, greengrocer, marble showroom, furniture showroom, timber shop, milk and curd shop, tobacconist, and labour in a malls and juice shop, photography shop, gas cooker shop, food-delivery counter, milk shop, and curd shop.

  Street and related sales workers: egg seller, boiled egg seller, vegetable vendor, buying and selling second-hand clothes, fruit vendor, fried pork meat seller, chole and kulcha seller, roadside tea seller, juice vendor, pickles seller, chowmin seller, chaat seller, roadside bidi vendor, egg seller, juice vendor, mattah seller (door to door), cloth vendor, snack seller, paan and/or bidi seller, potato seller from cart, tobacco seller from cart, chicken meat seller, pork seller, bag seller, chicken seller, pork seller, peanut vendor, spice seller, sweet seller, pickles seller, card hawker, artificial jewellery seller, selling bags in the mall, gas cooker seller.

• 6. Services workers (other than entertainer):

  Personal care and related work: barber, helper in anganwadi, beautician’s helper.

  Housekee** and restaurant service: Tea stall worker, helper in canteen, cook in restaurant, cook in a house private house cook, housekeeper in hotel, house servant, nanny (aya), maid in factory.

  Street and related service workers: shoe polisher.

  Domestic, hotel and office cleaners and helpers: clothes ironing person, private laundry person.

  Caretaker and related work: gardener.

  Messenger, porter, doorkeeper, and related work: hospital watchman, private house watchman (chowkidar), community centre watchman, private office watchman, shop watchman, school handyperson (peon), private sector office handyperson (peon), office helper, government office handyperson, and office handyperson (peon).

  Refuse workers: bungalow sweeper, house sweeper, government office sweeper, factory sweeper, hotel sweeper, refuse collector, refuse collector, refuse seller, sewage pipeline cleaner.

• 7. Construction labourers: carpenter, mason, construction labourer, plaster of Paris worker, painter, railway gang man, and whitewasher.

• 8. Manufacturing labourers: dying, tailor, hosiery maker, chick maker, labourer in ice cream factory, worker in fibre sheet factory, worker in dye-making factory, worker in clothes dyeing factory, worker in iron factory, labour in bottle factory, pasting worker in factory worker in nail polish factory, cooler and trunk making, paring wire, embroidery, threating clothes, iron dyeing machine maker, labour in iron polish factory, coil binder, embroidery, furniture making, cardboard cutting, worker in nail factory, making iron utensils and tools, helper in plastic bag manufacturing factory, helper in steel plating factory, polishing in steel factory, labour in steel factory, worker in herbal medicine factory, labourer in medicine factory, sewing clothes, stitching clothes, labourer in iron-cutting factory, helper in printing factory, cutting plastic bag, power loom machine operator, labourer in plastic goods factory, cutting clothes, cutting out clothes, tailor in export factory, embroidery clothes, hand embroidery helper, helper in garment factory, pattern master in export factory, sewing clothes at home, making iron tools, pasting work in factory, labour in stone export factory, bag making, factory worker, worker in export factory.

• 9. Transport and storage labourers: three-wheeler driver, three-wheeler drive carrying goods, rickshaw puller, electric rickshaw driver, taxi driver, minitruck driver, truck driver, tempo driver, bus driver, private company chauffer, school van driver, loading and unloading goods, and transporting goods.