58% of Ahmedabad is in casual jobs: CEPT University

Nearly 60% of the people living in Ahmedabad do casual jobs, found a study doen by post-graduate students at CEPT university. The project was a part of a studio 'Understanding the city' offered to foundation programme students — where 150 students took up 150 blocks of 1 square kilometre each to — analyse areas including roads, buildings, pipes, population.

While understanding the job situation in Ahmedabad, the students found that participation of women in the market is just 34%.

"Our study conducted over a major part of the city. The shocking aspect was that the majority of our city doesn't have a fixed income or a job with social security. Out of 2.07 million jobs (representative figure), 58% are into casual labour," professor Rutul Joshi, studio coordinator said.

The students did an exhaustive search property wise, considering households as a job centre. Household employes at least 4 people that include a maid, milkman, newspaper, laundry, etc.

"All this is linked with housing and transport. Invariably this segment of people are also dependent on public transport and walking. They live in a dense low-income neighbourhood across the city. It is a comprehensive study, we can draw a lot of parallels and things that we can take on a policy level while designing future spaces," Joshi added.

Sharing his experience, 27-year-old Parth Patel said, "The study was an eye-opener for all of us to understand the job market. It was sad to see so many people in casual jobs. We found number of women in casual jobs as against regular jobs."