75% Indian aspirants got temp jobs in 2012: Study

Sovon Manna TNN 

Kolkata: Only 12% job seekers in India got a permanent recruitment in 2012 while as many as 75% of aspirants were placed in temporary agency jobs and the rest found other services as their livelihood, says a study carried out by Staffing Industry Analysts, the global adviser on contingent work. The exclusive study pegs the Indian staffing market at around Rs 26,650 crore. 
    According to the study, the Indian labour market is unique as approximately 90% of Indians work in the unorganixed or ‘informal’ sector and only 10% work in the organized or ‘formal’ sector. Of those working in the organized sector, a large proportion (68%) are employed in the public sector. The unorganized or ‘informal’ sector jobs include home-based work, selfemployment, employment in household enterprises, small units, on land as agricultural workers, labour on construction sites and a myriad of other forms of casual or temporary employment. The recruitment and revenue figures have been calculated in the study for the calendar year 2012 because Indian companies will release financial figures after the fiscal ends in March 2014. 
    Replying to an e-mailed query, Adam Pode, director (international research) at California-based Staffing Industry Analysts, told TOI, “There is nothing ominous in the temporary job market having the lion’s share of the staffing industry. This is similar to all the largest staffing markets in the world and shows the sophistication of the Indian market. Employers understand the importance of temporary workers to aid them through the peaks and trough of the economy.” 
    According to the study, Bangalore-based Adecco topped the list of HR solutions firms in India with Rs 1,460 crore in revenue and a 5.5% market share pipping India-headquartered Team-Lease, which is also based in Bangalore. According to the study, the top-three firms account for approximately 15% of the total market and the top-ten firms 26% with the remaining 75% or 20,000 staffing companies — mostly niche or boutique firms employ the rest.

Source :::: The Times of India, 04-03-2014, p.19,  http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2014/03/04&PageLabel=19&EntityId=Ar01905&ViewMode=HTML

India has more bomb blasts each yr than Af, Syria

Is Among Three Most Dangerous Places Globally

Deeptiman Tiwary TNN 

New Delhi: You are more likely to die in a bomb blast in India than in Afghanistan. Strange as it may sound, government data shows that India is among the most dangerous places in the world as far as bomb blasts per year are concerned—next only to Iraq and Pakistan, with even war-torn Afghanistan and Syria doing better. 
    In fact, along with Pakistan and Iraq, India accounts for almost 75% of bomb blasts in the world. 
    Figures from the National Bomb Data Centre show that India witnessed 212 bomb blasts in 2013—more than double of what Afghanistan (with 108 blasts) suffered. Bangladesh and Syria, facing internal strife, have done better with 75 and 36. 
    While the number of blasts in the country has decreased from 241 in 2012 to 212 in 2013, casualties have increased, with 130 deaths and 466 injuries in 2013 as compared to 113 deaths and 419 injuries in 2012. 


DUBIOUS RECORD 
India, with Pakistan and Iraq, accounts for almost 75% of bomb blasts globally India saw 212 bomb blasts in 2013, Afghanistan 108, Syria 36 Blasts down (from 241 in 2012 to 212 in ’13), but casualties up (130 from 113) From 2004-13, an average of 298 IED blasts killed 1,337 In India, public targeted in 58% strikes, globally 69% 
Source: National Bomb Data Centre 

Public targeted in 58% attacks in India 
New Delhi:Analyzing IED blasts in the country, a government document says between 2004 and 2013, “there have been an average of 298 blasts and 1,337 casualties in India”. This is higher than Afghanistan which, in the past five years, has witnessed a maximum of 209 such attacks in 2010. 
    However, India has done slightly better than the rest of the world in terms of the share of attacks targeted at the common public. While in the rest of the world, 69% of attacks are directed towards public, India registered 58% in this category with the rest being targeted at the security forces and government property. 
    But even these figures could change. While security forces managed to decrease attacks on them by almost 40% last years as compared to 2012, attacks on public remained almost the same. “This is due to improved drills and alertness of security forces. A similar alertness and training is not there with the people,” an officer of the security establishment said. 
    An analysis of the attacks in India shows that the northeast region (Assam and Manipur worst affected) and Maoist areas (Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand registering most blasts) have contributed to over 80% of IED attacks while J&K saw a 50% rise in bomb blasts last year as compared to 2012.


Source :::: The Times of India, 04-03-2014, p.14,    http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2014/03/04&PageLabel=14&EntityId=Ar00103&DataChunk=Ar01402&ViewMode=HTML

DISGRACE: INDIANS IN CHAINS

The Global Slavery Index 2013 has revealed that about 14 million people are trapped in some form of slavery in India. A look at some of the lives scarred by that experience

Young girls sold into slavery, their salaries paid to their handlers; boys promised jobs in factories and pushed into low-paying or no-paying menial tasks; families indebted and then forced into bonded manual labour: This is the picture of modern slavery in India.

RAJ K RAJ/HTPreeti at a transitory rehabilitation centre. She was brought here after being rescued three months ago from her employer’s house in Delhi.

Krishna*, for instance, left his home in a UP village for a factory job in the city and ended up an unpaid domestic help in Gurgaon. He is 17. Preeti*, 18, was hired as a maid and forced to work from dawn to midnight in Delhi and made to sleep outside the house.

Last month, when Australia-based human rights group Walk Free released its Global Slavery Index 2013, the random incidents emerged as tabulated data. And the facts thrown up are shameful for the world in general, and for India in particular.

About 30 million people are enslaved worldwide — half of them are in India.

States such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar emerge as major culprits, with high levels of hereditary forms of debt bondage in rural areas, and of human trafficking.

In terms of the prevalence of slavery (as a proportion of the population), India ranks fourth, behind Mauritania, Haiti and Pakistan, in that order.

Modern slavery is defined as the denial of freedom and the exploitation of a person for profit or for sex, usually through violence, coercion or deception.

‘Slaves’ could be entire generations of families working in marble quarries or brick kilns to pay off debts, young girls brought from the north-eastern states to serve in brothels in big cities, or boys put to work in sweat shops.

A common response to the findings is the question ‘How can people be treated like slaves in this age?’. Yet, in Delhi alone, three recent instances of the torture of domestic help have left many fumbling for answers.

According to the Walk Free report, “Poverty and India’s caste system are significant contributing factors to its modern slavery problem”.

Despite being banned by the Supreme Court in 2006, child labour continues to be widespread due to weak enforcement. India has 12.26 million working children, aged 5-14, according to the 2001 Census, with the majority of those children coming from Uttar Pradesh.

Child marriage and forced marriage are another grave form of exploitation, one that is prevalent in Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes’ (UNODC) 2013 India Assessment Report. “With skewed sex ratios, it is impossible to find a bride for each man and ‘importing a bride’ has become the only solution,” said the UNODC report. Punjab (893 females per 1,000 males) and Haryana (877 females per 1,000 males) have the lowest sex ratios in the country.

Ruchira Gupta, president of Apne Aap Women Worldwide, an NGO that fights sex trafficking, is not surprised by the findings. “South Asia is the epicentre of bonded labour and slavery. But the issue does not get attention because its victims are considered disposable,” she says. “Stricter laws are the need of the hour.”

* Some names have been changed to protect identities

GRIM REALITY

Modern slavery includes debt bondage, forced marriage, exploitation of children and human trafficking 72.14% of the world’s 29.8 million modern-day slaves are in Asia 3 mn sex workers exist in India, according to the UNDP Many of India’s enslaved have not been moved from one place to another. They are enslaved in their own villages.

Source:::: Hindustan Times (Mumbai), 10 Nov 2013, p. 07,  http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx