Dear Reader,

Recent hostilities between Iran, the US, and Israel have triggered cascading global consequences, from gas shortages to rising food insecurity. While long queues for cooking fuel in India are a visible sign of this disruption, another deeply affected yet less visible group is Indian workers across the Gulf. Millions of these workers depend on cross-border mobility for their livelihoods. A few thousand live and work in Iran itself—the epicentre of the conflict—while many others are now stranded in India, unable to return to their jobs in the Middle East despite having secured employment.

Workers heading to the Gulf come from across India but typically assemble at key transit hubs along the western region. One such hub is Ahmedabad, where, as reported by The Migration Story, thousands of skilled and unskilled workers are anxiously waiting for clarity on when they can travel. Many have already obtained visas and completed the necessary documentation for their jobs abroad. Although recruitment agencies usually cover international airfare from these hubs to Gulf destinations, workers must bear the cost of domestic travel, accommodation, and other preparatory expenses. To manage this, most take on debt. As uncertainty drags on, their financial burden deepens. Each day of delay not only increases their liabilities but also threatens the fragile financial balance of the families who depend on their remittances for survival.

The idea of a secure government job—with the public sector perched at the ‘commanding heights of the economy’—has long shaped India’s social contract. For generations, it promised stability in an uncertain labour market. But this model is changing, as a growing experiment in Himachal Pradesh suggests. An investigation by The Reporters’ Collective finds that the state government is increasingly replacing traditional recruitment with “Mitra” positions. These are temporary workers paid small honorariums to carry out public services across departments.

The scheme is framed as a way to generate employment and expand grassroots services. However, it mirrors the logic of the gig economy—short-term labour, minimal benefits, and no guarantee of permanence. The result is a quiet but transformational shift in public employment, where the state itself is beginning to adopt the flexible labour practices once associated with private tech platforms. This transition is unfolding even as thousands of sanctioned posts remain vacant and recruitment exams face delays, cancellations or opaque timelines. Meanwhile, more than six lakh job seekers continue to compete for shrinking opportunities in secure public employment. Critics argue that the model reflects a deeper policy shift—instead of expanding public employment to address joblessness, governments are restructuring work itself—reducing long-term liabilities such as pensions by turning stable jobs into flexible, low-cost labour arrangements.

Manual scavenging has been outlawed in India since 1993, with even stronger punishments enacted twenty years later in 2013. Sadly, the inhuman practice continues apace in cities, towns and villages across the country. Despite sustained activism against this practice, workers, many of whom are on informal contracts, are obliged to climb down into sewers without protective equipment to clear blockages and waste. Each year, hundreds of workers die from inhaling toxic fumes in sewage lines, though their deaths are rarely, if ever, formally counted.

In Indore, which has the tag of the cleanest city in Madhya Pradesh, two sanitation workers lost their lives on 2 March, despite the city using a 'cleaning machine' at that site. Viral videos show that one sanitation worker, who was an "outsourced employee", descended into the sewage hole to retrieve a pipe that had fallen in. When he did not emerge, the second man followed, to his peril. Neither had masks or protective equipment. No municipal official was present at the site to supervise or intervene. Ground Report talks to the families of the deceased, who even while grieving the death of their breadwinner have received only a paltry compensation, even as the municipal corporation washes their hands of any meaningful responsibility.

The Probe explains one of the mysteries of the Indian ecosystem. A yawning gap between the findings of the CAG, the Constitutionally mandated watchdog on government spending, and the abysmal percentage of judicial convictions based on these findings. Examining this seeming paradox, the story explains why the explosive narratives of scandals like 2G and Coalgate—defined by the provocative concept of "presumptive loss"—often evaporate under the cold rigour of the law.

This disconnect stems, the analysis explains, from the fundamental difference between administrative oversight and criminal jurisprudence. While an audit identifies governance failures and "windfall gains" to private entities, a court of law demands concrete evidence of quid pro quo and criminal intent. Consequently, cases that topple governments frequently collapse in trial because "notional losses" do not equate to "proceeds of crime.". This systemic failure suggests that unless investigative agencies can bridge the gap between bad policy and criminal conspiracy, the CAG’s reports will remain mere political autopsies rather than leading to legal accountability.

For more such stories from the grantees this week, please read on.

Warmly,

Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF