Labour Market Flexibility in India: What do the Existing Literature Reveal?

Abstract

The new policy regime has created several new opportunities of growth and development for the firms, industries and workers; albeit with increased challenges not only to remain in business but also to grow and develop. Labour market rigidities in India are considered by several scholars as a serious impediment to increase the level of output and employment particularly in Indian manufacturing industry. On the other hand, there is another section of scholars who argue that the reasons for the slow growth of output and employment needs to be explored differently, as employers in India have been resorting to various means of labour use flexibility. So, a fair degree of flexibility already exists in the Indian labour market. In this paper an attempt has been made to put together and analyse the existing literature related to flexibility in the Indian labour market.