Sample survey of 2000 garment workers conducted by Banglaore University. 72.8% are women; 63.4% are from lower castes; 76.4% continue to visit their villages; over half paid in cash. High rates of attrition and absenteeism; workers prone to wide range of health risks. Researchers conclude that urban migration is a survival strategy for these workers that doesn't enable them to acquire permanent assets or lift themselves out of poverty.
Trade negotiations -bilateral, regional or multilateral - routinely lead to debates on the implications for employment. Factual assessments of the employment and distributional impacts of trade agreements are, however, too often missing. This book tries to address this disconnect between the prominence of trade and employment linkages in the public debate and the relative absence of factual assessments of the employment implications of trade by taking stock of the most recent evidence, and by providing guidance on the design of tools to assess the employment impacts of trade.