Archives of Indian Labour

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://dans.nls.ac.in/handle/123456789/3878

ARCHIVES OF INDIAN LABOUR

(copied over from the original)

The Archives of Indian Labour was set up in July, 1998 as a collaborative project of the V.V. Giri National Labour Institute and the Association of Indian Labour Historians. The Archives of Indian Labour is dedicated to the cause of preserving and making accessible the fast depleting documents on the working class with the belief that,

"Archive is to society what memory is to human beings"

The Archives was instituted in order to address the urgent need for preservation of rapidly decaying documents and material on labour and to provide for greater public access to these. It has long been felt that documents and data on Indian labour -now and in the past - are being irretrievably lost. This was primarily due to the neglect and lack of an organised initiative to preserve these documents in India. The Archives of Indian Labour was constituted to overcome this lacuna of adequate documentation of the life and labour of the working class. Its long-term objective is to act as a specialised repository of records and voices of workers, and preserve textual, visual and oral records on labour in India.

The archive, apart from being a repository of sources and documents also builds collections and initiates research in the field of labour history. The collections are generated through projects commissioned especially for the purpose and through institutional documents donated by various organisations. Documents related to the labour movement (generated by workers' organisations, state and business enterprises) are preserved at the archives, in addition to personal narratives, memoirs, video and audio material. The archives combine this effort with an effective public dissemination system of which the offline and on-line access to the digital archives is a major component. Seminars, working papers, film shows, and publications ensure effective ways of disseminating information generated by the archives and other research programmes. The core activities of the archives are, thus:

  • Digital Archiving
  • Research and Collection
  • Public Interface and Dissemination

Some unique features of the Archives are:

  • Full-fledged digital structure: The documents and material on labour related issues are stored and made available in digital form. This is the first fully digital archives in the country and aspires to be the prime repository of labour related records.
  • Integrated Multimedia Storage and Retrieval System: The Archives is enabled to store records and material in different media formats, such as printed material, audio, video and digital forms and provide access to these through an integrated delivery system.
  • Enhanced Public Access: The digital access system installed at the Archives enables fast and meaningful delivery of documents through different access modes, such as offline networked PCs at the Archives, through CDs, and now over the World Wide Web. This enables a far greater access directly to the documents right to the level of page of a document or a tagged audio and video clip than a traditional archival system. A much wider public now can have access to basic information on conditions of labour over time.
  • Integration of historical and contemporary records: The digital archives enables simultaneous access to records of both the historical and contemporary periods. This provides historical depth to contemporary issues and situates historical changes in a contemporary perspective.
  • Focus on Records of the Unorganised sector labour: The archive has through special collections focused on the activities of workers of the unrecorded sector. A large number of interviews of workers and labour activists and documents of the labour movement in the sector have been stored and can be accessed.

You Can Help Us

Archives of Indian Labour preserves any kind of resources on issues related to labour, including:

  • Personal correspondence and biographical material of labour leaders
  • Documents of trade unions
  • Journals and newspapers addressing the labouring poor
  • Pamphlets, leaflets and posters issued by trade unions
  • Relevant papers of employees organisations
  • Relevant documents of business corporations
  • Oral testimonies, personal narratives of participants in labour struggles
  • Photographs, video tapes and films on labour
  • Work songs and other similar material of workers' culture
  • Trial proceedings in courts of law
  • Records of individual and collective labour disputes
  • Papers on international working class bodies
  • Records of the Ministry of Labour, National Commissions on Labour and other Government Agencies

The prospective social partners, in building up the archive, include:

  • Trade Unions
  • Employer's Organisations
  • Documentation Organisations
  • Libraries
  • Government Departments
  • Journalists
  • Research Institutes
  • Individual Researchers
  • NGOs
  • Social Activists

You could help us by contributing valuable data to the Archives of Indian Labour. Please feel free to contact us at:


Archives of Indian Labour
Integrated Labour History Research Programme
V.V.Giri National Labour Institute
Sector 24, NOIDA
Uttar Pradesh, PIN: 201 301
Tele: 91-120-2411469
E-mail: ilhrpnli[at]gmail.com

ASSOCIATION of INDIAN LABOUR HISTORIANS (AILH)

The Association of Indian Labour Historians is a professional body of historians, social scientists and scholars interested in furthering the historical understanding of the conditions of labour and labouring people.

The Association was founded in December 1996. The AILH provides a forum for interaction among scholars through regular meetings, seminars, conferences and publications. A major objective of the Association is to preserve, generate and make accessible documents and materials relating to the history and heritage of the Indian working class.

The Association, through its activities, also aims to revive and disseminate research on Indian labour. These are pursued through collaboration with universities, research institutions and similar bodies and with individuals associated with the labour movement.

Dr. Rana Behal
42 Deshbandhu Society
15 Patparganj
Delhi 110092
Ph-91-11-2721744

Integrated Labour History Research Programme

The Integrated Labour History Research Programme (ILHRP) is a specialised research programme on labour history research, set up in collaboration with the Association of Indian Labour Historians (AILH), a body of professional historians and scholars interested in history of labour. The overall aim of the ILHRP is to initiate, integrate and revive historical research on labour in India and is the first of its kind in the country. The programme has three mutually reinforcing components such as digital archiving of Indian labour; writing labour history of India; and interdisciplinary research. The archive systematically collects and preserves various documents and material concerning the working class in digital form, through collaboration and networking with various stakeholders (such as trade unions, NGOs, governmental departments and business houses). Networking with similar agencies (national and international) involved in digital archiving is also a crucial aspect of the archive. So far, the archive is the country's largest digital repository of labour documents, with more than 15 gigabytes of data on the World Wide Web, for public access. The collections for the archives are generated through commissioning and monitoring research and collection projects on prioritised areas of labour history, which involves negotiation and networking with experts and agencies, both within and outside the country. The programme also organises regular academic discussions, seminars and colloquia on the prioritised areas of labour history. The programme has so far more than 50 completed/ ongoing research and collection projects. Since year 2000, the programme has published 18 working papers and organised around 85 seminars/discussions, including 10 international seminars on labour history.

ILHRP has recently launched a project titled, "History of Dalit Movement and Labour Movement in India". The Project aims to document and research dalit movement in India focusing specially on the movement's interface with labour movement. The project attempts to fill the glaring lacunae in contemporary scholarly and political discourse by researching the sociological and historical intersection between labour and dalit movement. The activities undertaken in the project will trace the emergence, track the turning points and analyze the regional dimensions of both these movements.

International Conferences on Labour History

One of the most significant contributions of the ILHRP has been the 10 major International Conferences on Labour History organised to deliberate on significant themes like 'Towards Global Labour History: New Comparisons', 'Expanding the Frontiers of Labour History', 'Work and Non-Work: Histories in the Long Term', and 'Labour History - A Return to Politics'. These conferences provide an important platform for historians, social scientists and scholars to deliberate upon varied dynamics of labour history, furthering the historical understanding of the conditions on labour and labouring people. Scholars from around 20 countries across the world have been participating in the conferences on Labour History.

Joint Advisory Committee

The programme is continuously advised and monitored by a Joint Advisory Committee, which is constituted of nominees and representatives from both the Institute and the AILH. The current JAC Members of the Programme are:
  • Dr. H. Srinivas
  • Prof. Sumit Sarkar
  • Director General, National Archives of India
  • Dr. Ravi Vasudevan
  • Prof. Madhvan K. Palat
  • Dr. Indu Agnihotri
  • Dr. Prabhu P. Mohapatra
  • Dr. Rana P. Behal
  • Dr. Chitra Joshi
  • Dr. S.K. Sasikumar
Centre Co-ordinator
Dr. S.K. Sasikumar, Senior Fellow

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  • Item
    Resons why Trade Unions Oppose the Suggestion for Changes in Labour Law Contained in the Industrial Relations Bill
    (The Centre for against Job Losses and Industrial Closures, Bombay, 1993-01) Gonsalves, Colin; Damle, Raju
    Document based on changes in Labour Law contained in the Industrial Relations Bill.
  • Item
    Oral History Documentation of Indian Labour Movement
    (V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, NOIDA, 2003) Rajimwale, Anil; Jha, Krishna; Poulose, Bobby
    NLI Research Study Series No. 044/2003 is based on the Oral History Documentation of Indian Labour Movement. This paper is part of the Writing Labour History Series under the Integrated Labour History Research Programme of the VVGNLI. This document is related to the memoirs of more than 120 trade union activists and leaders who were part of the Indian labour movement, in its early phase. It also generated detailed biographical material on these activists.
  • Item
    National Seminar on Safety in Construction, New Delhi, November 19-20, 1987
    (National Institute of Construction Management and Research, Bombay, 1987-11-19)
    Session-wise Abstracts of the Papers by Prof. P.K. Muttagi, Chief Rapporteur, National Institute of Construction Management and Research. National Seminar on Safety in Construction , New Delhi, November 19-20, 1987.
  • Item
    Industrial Relations in India’s Export Garment Sector
    (2020) Action Research Associates; Gurgaon Shramik Kendra
    Details of the conditions of work and process of dispute resolution in Gurgaon District Cluster.
  • Item
    Meeting of the Commission with Central Organisations of Employers and Workers and Other Organisations
    (National Commission on Labour, Government of India, 1968-9-20) National Commission on Labour
    This is a supplementary document. Record of Discussions of the National Commission on Labour with the Central Organisations of Employers and Workers and other Organisations at New Delhi on October 4-5, 1968.
  • Item
    Topic Notes on Trade Unions and Employers Organisations (Section III of the Questionnaire)
    (National Commission on Labour, Government of India, 1968-12) National Commission on Labour
    This is a supplementary document pertaining to the Topic Notes on Trade Unions and Employers Organisations.
  • Item
    Report of the Committee on Worker's Education
    (Publication Manager, Government of India, 1968) Menon, V.K.R.
    This is a supplementary document. The National Commission on Labour appointed the Committee on Workers’ Education in its attempt to assess the working of the Central Board for Workers’ Education and similar activities undertaken by other agencies. This was one of the series of Committees/Study Groups set up by the Commission for covering important areas of its terms of reference.
  • Item
    Memorandum of the All India Trade Union Congress in Mysore State
    (National Commission on Labour, Government of India, 1967-10-23) Rao, S. Suryanarayana; Narayana, B.; Kuttappa, B.N.; Rao, P. Ramachandra
    This is a supplementary document. Memorandum submitted to the Chairman and Members of the National Commission on Labour by the Representatives of the All India Trade Union Congress in Mysore State at Bangalore on 23/10/1967.
  • Item
    Memorandum to the National Commission on Labour of Andhra Pradesh Trade Union Congress
    (National Commission on Labour, Government of India, 1968-2-19) Reddy, N. Satyanarayan
    This is a supplementary document related to Memorandum to the National Commission on Labour of Andhra Pradesh Trade Union Congress.
  • Item
    Death of an Industrial City: Testimonies of Life Around Bombay Textile Strike of 1982
    (V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, NOIDA, 2002) Babu, Hemant
    NLI Research Study Series No. 027/2001 based on the Bombay textile strike of 1982. This paper is part of the Writing Labour History Series under the Integrated Labour History Research Programme of the V.V. Giri National Labour Institute.