IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ijlaec/v68y2025i1d10.1007_s41027-025-00554-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From Rural Struggles to Urban Realities: Labour Market Experiences of Dalit Migrants

Author

Listed:
  • Upendra Sonpimple

    (The University of Edinburgh)

  • Vicky Nandgaye

    (Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS))

Abstract

The paper elaborates on the reasons for Dalit migration from rural to urban areas, and their experiences of caste discrimination. The post-migration effects were examined by analysing the construction industry, which is one of the largest unorganised sectors in India. Caste is an unavoidable social fact in India, which hampers the everyday existence of the Dalit community. Violence and rigid caste structure elude Dalits away from rural areas and compels them to migrate to urban spaces. Migration becomes the only resort to escape dehumanisation and caste atrocities. Urban sphere gives a promising picture of casteless egalitarian society. However, the study revealed that the urban spaces do not remain untouched from such caste-based discrimination in construction industry. The urban spaces witness transformation, which makes caste invisible, but does not annihilate it.

Suggested Citation

  • Upendra Sonpimple & Vicky Nandgaye, 2025. "From Rural Struggles to Urban Realities: Labour Market Experiences of Dalit Migrants," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 68(1), pages 239-262, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:68:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s41027-025-00554-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s41027-025-00554-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41027-025-00554-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41027-025-00554-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dalit migrants; Migration; Construction workers; Street corner; Unorganised labour market; Caste discrimination;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:68:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s41027-025-00554-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.