The ILO India Country Office conducted on 23 June 2023 a tripartite workshop to disseminate the findings of two recent research studies on assessing policy readiness of green jobs, decent work, and Just Transition.
There was a consensus reached on the need for defining green jobs, creating a skills roadmap, incentivizing green technologies, and strengthening institutional mechanisms including tripartism, social dialogue and Occupational Safety and Health. These progressions will secure India’s ability to implement green jobs and the just transition through policy.
The workshop led to fruitful discussion and it was noted that stakeholders supported the study findings and shared examples of initiatives promoting green jobs and decent work in their organisations. Participants also made suggestions for future PAGE investigation, including focusing on the private sector’s role in the green transition, unpacking how to enforce decent work in import-heavy sectors, building climate change adaptation capacity, addressing gender aspects, and promoting unionisation in textile factories in Jharkhand.
The workshop, attended by over 40 participants, presented the research studies focusing on two sectors: the energy sector at the national level and the textile and garment sector at the state level. There were attendees from both government and employers’ organisations which largely led to the workshop’s success. Participants from government agencies at the workshop included representatives from the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Ministry of Commerce (Department for Promotion of Industrial and Internal Trade), Ministry of Coal. Ministry of Textiles, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Skills Council for Green Jobs, Jharkhand state level bodies such as Department of Labour, Employment, Training and Skill Development, and Jharkhand State Khadi and Village Enterprises Board. Participants from employers’ organisations included representatives from All India Organisation of Employers, Standing Conference of Public Enterprises, and All India Manufacturers’ Organisation.
The ILO’s tripartite constituents – representatives from government, employer’ organisations and workers’ organisations – were present, as well as research institutes and technical experts who contributed to the studies, and UNIDO. The workshop formed part of the UNIDO-ILO joint work programme under PAGE on 23 June 2023.
India has been PAGE Partner Country since 2018 and has collaborated thoroughly with PAGE to unite the UN system including ILO and UNIDO to transform the Indian economy in line with the SDGs and to implement a Just Transition.
Source: PAGE, East Asia Forum, UNDP