Centre for South Asian Studies

Description

Our British Academy-GCRF (Global Challenges Research Fund) project seeks to analyse and understand how ‘the state’ in South Asia has addressed labour rights and health provision of workers during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides a cross-country and cross-regional comparison between India (Delhi, Kerala) and Sri Lanka. It seeks to map variations in state responses to workers’ employment issues and health concerns and relates these to differences in state structure (unitary-federal), regime type (militarisation-electoral democracy), the strength and mobilisation capacity of workers and the nature of party-political competition.

The project brings together five academic partners and operates in collaboration with three non-profit organizations or unions. The five academic partners are Prof Wilfried Swenden (Principal Applicant, University of Edinburgh), Prof Kanchana N. Ruwanpura (Co-Applicant, University of Gothenburg), Dr Papia Sengupta (Co-Applicant Jawaharlal Nehru University Delhi), Dr Aardra Surendran (Co-Applicant Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad) and Dr Muttukrishna Sarvananthan (Co-Applicant  Point Pedro Institute of Development, Point Pedro, Jaffna).  The non-profit organizations associated with the project are the Centre for Education and Communication (Delhi) and the Women’s Centre (Colombo and  Vavuniya).