WorkFREE

WorkFREE brings together scholars, activists and civil society institutions from India and the United Kingdom to pilot what we call ‘UBI+’ in four informal settlements in inner-city Hyderabad, India. UBI+ combines universal basic income (UBI) and needs-focused, participatory community organising in order to support people to increase their power to meet their needs. The project is funded by the European Research Council (grant number: 805425) and emerged out of frustration with mainstream efforts to ‘save’ workers at the margins of global capitalism. Current efforts often make people’s lives worse because they fail to ask people what help they need and do not address the underlying structural conditions pushing them into difficult circumstances in the first place. We wanted a trial that was rooted in principles of solidarity rather than charity. It will be reporting results in 2024 and 2025.

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