BENGALURU, India :  For the past twelve years, LabourNet has nurtured over 1 million livelihoods across the country. They work to uplift informal workers by providing skilling opportunities, growing real wages, and enabling decent working conditions across industries.  They are now looking to involve young college students in their endeavour to transform the informal sector. Their flagship Capstone Project will give students a chance to work on high-impact interventions in a purpose-led and performance-driven organization.

The Capstone Project was inaugurated on 13th January at Christ University, Bannerghatta Road Campus. The inauguration ceremony was attended by the students participating in the project along with representatives from both the university and LabourNet. In attendance from Christ University included Dr Fr Biju K Chacko, Director; Dr Jyothi Kumar, Dean; and Dr Prerna Srimaal, Coordinator for the BA Liberal Arts programme. From LabourNet, the event was attended by Dr Gayathri Vasudevan, Chairperson; Dr Neena Jaju Pingaley, Head of Learning and Development; and Dr Padmini Ram, Head, CLARE and Director, Urban Ethnographers.

The Capstone Project furthers the 3-year industry-academia relationship between LabourNet and Christ University. It is built upon the foundation established by Christ-LabourNet Academic Research Endeavour (CLARE). The success of that has encouraged LabourNet to open such collaborations with various universities, and hence CLARE is now Centre for LabourNet’s Academic Research Endeavour (CLARE).