India, May 1 -- A generation ago, poultry rearing in India meant small-scale backyard farming. Today, it has all the hallmarks of industrial production, with organised production lines, including climate-controlled sheds, automated feeding and manure collection systems, and flocks of tens of thousands of birds managed by a workforce that is inadequately protected under the country's labour law framework.

A forthcoming scoping study by ALPN Research Foundation shows how inter-state migrant workers and other vulnerable groups, such as women and children, live on-site in close proximity to the bird sheds. They face multiple vulnerabilities, such as wage exploitation, gender wage disparity, and occupational hazards. This growth has been a re...