Society for Labour and Development

What Society for Labour and Development does

Society for Labour and Development (SLD) is a non-profit labour rights organization founded in 2006 and headquartered in New Delhi, India. It focuses on the rights, welfare, and empowerment of workers — particularly women workers — engaged in India's informal and global-supply-chain sectors, including garments, leather and footwear, seafood processing, domestic work, and tea plantations. SLD delivers a portfolio of programmes spanning labour education, gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) prevention, legal aid clinics, inter-state migrant worker support, action research, and convening of multi-stakeholder consultations with supplier factories and brands. Operations run across seven Indian states through a headquarters office in New Delhi and field offices in Kapashera, Faridabad, Kanpur, Veraval (Gujarat), and North Bengal, supported by community resource centres ('Workers Cafe') and dedicated Migration Centres. The organization is staffed by a team of approximately 30+ professionals — including an Executive Director, Trustees, Senior and Junior Fellows, Programme Managers, Project Managers, Field Organisers, and Finance/HR functions — most of whom hold qualifications from institutions such as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), IGNOU, and IIPS Mumbai.

SLD operates on a non-commercial revenue model. All programmes and services — labour education, gender training, legal aid, migration support, and worker organising — are provided free of cost to beneficiaries. Funding comes from donations, grants, and foreign contributions under India's FCRA framework, with income, donors, and audited financials not publicly disclosed on the organization's website. There are no commercial products, pricing tiers, or proprietary technology platforms; SLD's technology footprint consists of standard office and content tools (Canva, Adobe Creative Suite, content management systems) used to produce reports, communications, and campaign materials. Since 2015, SLD has also convened the Inter-State Migration Alliance (IMA) to address migrant-worker vulnerabilities across source and destination states, and from 2017 onwards has run multi-stakeholder consultations with supplier factories and brands to foster safer workplaces for women workers.

Name

Society for Labour and Development

Legal name

Society for Labour and Development

Website

https://sld-india.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Society for Labour and Development is a non-profit labour rights organization founded in 2006 and headquartered in New Delhi, India, that supports women workers and migrant labourers across seven Indian states — delivering free training, legal aid, gender-based violence prevention, and migration support in garment, leather, seafood, domestic work, and tea plantation sectors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

New Delhi

HQ country

India

HQ region

Asia

Offices6 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

SLD is a non-profit labour rights organization that delivers free programmes in labour education, gender equality training, inter-state migrant worker support, legal aid, and action research for women workers and vulnerable labour communities in garment, leather, seafood processing, and domestic work sectors across India. Services are funded by donations, grants, and FCRA contributions, and delivered through field offices, Workers Cafe community resource centres, and Migration Centres in seven states.

Product overview

Society for Labour and Development (SLD) is a non-profit labour rights and advocacy organization, not a technology product company. SLD operates programs focused on Labour Education, Gender Equality, Migration Support, Global Production Network, Legal Aid, and Action Research. These are social impact programs and advocacy initiatives, not commercial software products or technology offerings.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Labour Education Program
• Gender Equality Program
• Migration Support Program
• Legal Aid Program
• Global Production Network Program
• Action Research Program

Quantifiable outcome

• Trained 4,500 beneficiaries in the last five years on gender, leadership, behavioural training, and labour laws
• +4 more outcomes

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Inter-State Migration Alliance (IMA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015SLD initiated the Inter-State Migration (ISM) programme in 2015 to develop comprehensive strategy addressing issues of workers from both source and destination sites. The alliance works with partners in Uttar Pradesh and other states to support migrant workers.
• Like-minded Progressive OrganizationsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerBuilding networks with like-minded progressive organizations for discussion, deliberation, dialogue and support for workers' cause. Fostered nine collaborations from 2017 onwards.
• Supplier Factories and BrandsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMulti-stakeholder consultations organized with supplier factories to facilitate an enabling environment towards creating safer workplaces for women workers. Brands were present in Delhi consultations leading to fruitful dialogue.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Mobile Creches: India-based NGO serving children of migrant and informal-sector women workers with childcare, health, and education services. Comparable to SLD in target population (migrant women workers) and rights-based intervention model.
• SEWA (Self-Employed Women's Association): India's largest women-workers' organization serving informal-sector women in garment, domestic, and agricultural work. Closely comparable to SLD in target beneficiary (women informal-sector workers) and rights-based organizing model.
• Centre for Education and Communication (CEC): Delhi-based NGO working on labour rights, migration, and informal-sector worker welfare. Directly comparable to SLD; explicitly referenced in SLD's team member employment histories.
• Aajeevika Bureau: India-based NGO focused on safe migration, livelihood support, and labour rights for inter-state migrant workers. Highly comparable to SLD's migration programme and worker-advocacy model, and is explicitly referenced in SLD's team backgrounds.
• Cividep India: India-focused labour-rights NGO working on garment, leather, and electronics supply-chain worker conditions, combining grassroots work with policy and brand engagement. Directly comparable to SLD's global-production-network focus.
• Azad Foundation: India-based NGO empowering women from marginalized communities with livelihood, mobility, and rights-based training. Directly comparable to SLD's women-worker focus and field-organizing model; also referenced in SLD's team backgrounds.

Emerging players

• Swayam Shikshan Prayog: India-based NGO advancing women's economic empowerment and resilience in rural and informal communities. Comparable in mission to SLD's women-worker empowerment programmes, but with a broader rural development scope.

Broad incumbents

• Caritas India: Large nationwide NGO network delivering humanitarian, health, and social-justice programmes. Comparable mission footprint; referenced in SLD staff recognition records; broader scope and larger institutional scale than SLD.
• Plan India: Large international NGO operating across India on child rights, gender equality, and youth economic empowerment. Comparable in mission breadth; referenced in SLD staff backgrounds; offers overlapping programmes at much larger scale.
• ILO Decent Work Team for South Asia: International Labour Organization's India/South Asia operations promoting labour standards, gender equality, and migrant worker rights. Overlapping mandate with SLD at a much larger scale; potential convening or partnering entity rather than direct competitor.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/SLD_India
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@sldindia
• Facebookfacebook.com/sldtrust
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sld-india
• Instagraminstagram.com/sld_india

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles17 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Society for Labour and Development