Good quality of work and employment exerts beneficial effects on working people's health and wellbeing. This is not only due to favourable material and social consequences, but equally so to the opportunities of meeting important psychological needs, such as the experience of autonomy and personal control, of self-esteem and recognition, and of purpose in life. Conversely, exclusion from work, precarious and poor work act as powerful threats to human health and wellbeing. These opportunities and threats are unequally distributed across the globe, and in particular between economically advanced and less developed countries. Among the latter, large parts of the adult population are working in the informal sector, with poor earnings and low security, and often exposed to occupational hazards and discrimination. Despite international proscription, child labour and forced labour still exist, and a tremendous burden of disease due to adverse working and employment conditions calls for preventive activities at local, national, and international levels.

India, a rapidly developing country, shares some of the benefits of economically advanced countries, but is also faced with serious challenges of social inequalities in life chances and health, and with farreaching socioeconomic and socio-cultural disruptions. As the labour market underwent a substantial transformation more recently, industrial and service sectors have expanded quite extensively, and while some traditional occupational hazards disappeared, chronic psychosocial stress at work is now becoming an important threat to the health of employees. At the same time, different from most western countries, the agricultural sector continues to grow, exposing its workforce often to physical adversity and noxious environments.

Against this background the book Work and health in India offers a timely, most welcome and important contribution to a growing public awareness that this country, too, needs major investments into improved working and employment conditions as a main pathway towards sustainable human development. The three aims of the book support this goal – first, to draw attention to this matter by describing and explaining the broader Indian context, second, to demonstrate the topicality of the problem by presenting selective empirical evidence, and third, to offer recommendations to policy makers on how to improve working life in this country.