Consultant

Consultant

WRI India, an independent charity legally registered as the India Resources Trust, provides objective information and practical proposals to foster environmentally sound and socially equitable development. WRI India’s mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations. Through research, analysis, and recommendations, WRI India puts ideas into action to build transformative solutions to protect the earth, promote livelihoods, and enhance human well-being. We are inspired by and associated with the World Resources Institute, a global research organization. Currently over 400 researchers are working with WRI India in our offices at Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

About the Project:

The rapid pace of construction in Bengaluru creates new urban challenges in terms of both environmental and socio-economic outcomes. The construction sector accounts for more than one-third of emissions globally but also employs more than 10% of the labour force in India.

Bengaluru has released its first Climate Action and Resilience Plan (BCAP) in November 2023 with WRI India as a knowledge partner to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike. BCAP identifies the building sector as a critical area for Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission reduction due to its significant contribution to the city's carbon footprint. According to the 2019 GHG Baseline Inventory, residential and commercial buildings account for 53% of total emissions. To address this, BCAP outlines several mitigation pathways to reduce emissions from the building sector through promotion of ‘green’ building construction.

Green buildings make use of alternative materials, designs and practices which minimize environmental impact and reduce energy consumption. Transitioning from conventional practices towards ‘green construction’ offers new opportunities for ‘green jobs’. Green jobs are “jobs involved in economic activities that help protect or restore the environment or conserve natural resources”. There is an urgent need to assess the existing working conditions and skill profiles of construction labour, especially women workers, to facilitate the utilization of these opportunities. This will help us to identify key policy levers for ensuring the ‘green transition’ can also be fair to all stakeholders in the sector.

Scope of Work

WRI India plans to utilise services of an external consultant for facilitating the focussed group discussions (FGDs) on the topics of green construction, access to skill training, labour welfare, and social protection for construction workers. We are seeking applications from service providers/ professionals for the same.

WRI India plans to conduct a series of focused group discussions (FGDs) across Bengaluru, to understand the challenges and opportunities for construction workers in the buildings segment, a major stakeholder for the transition to green construction.

• 10-16 FGDs with representative groups of construction workers in the period during

  July-September 2025

  .
• These FGDs will have

  6-8 participants

  in each group and are expected to be conducted for

  1 to 1.5 hours each

  .

These FGDs are expected to explore the scope for fair urban transitions in Bengaluru’s construction sector, by being mindful of the challenges faced by the labour force.

Deliverables

The successful completion of these FGDs will include conduct of 10-16 focused group discussions with representation from male and female workers across skill levels. The mobilization of these workers will be done by WRI India with help from organisations engaging with construction workers and builders/contractors across different large and small real estate projects. The consultant will be responsible for undertaking the following field activities with support from the WRI India team:

• Translation of FGD questions into Kannada and/or Hindi
• Translation and explanation of informed consent form to FGD participants in Kannada and/or Hindi
• Facilitation of FGD sessions in Kannada and/or Hindi based on mobilization
• Transcripts of FGD session audio recordings, after each session
• Translation of FGD session audio recording transcript into English, after each session
• Consolidated reported in English at the end of all FGDs with major insights from sessions

Duration:

within 3 months

Preparatory work: Translations of FGD questions and informed consent form (1 week)

Conduct of FGDs: 6-8 weeks

Report preparation: 2 weeks

Group No.

Details of group to be mobilized

Indicative Date

• Group 1-3 Workers with experience in large construction projects (July 14-Aug 3)
• Group 4-6: Workers with experience in small construction projects (Aug 4-17)
• Group 7-9: Workers with experience in green construction projects (Aug 17-31)
• Group 10-12: Workers with experience in large construction projects (Sep 1-7)
• Group 13-15: Workers with experience in small construction projects (Sep 8-14)

Selection Criteria

We are looking forward to receiving applications to undertake the aforesaid data collection and reporting activities. The applications will be assessed on the following criteria:

• Experience in conducting focussed group discussions
• Experience in engaging with marginalised groups
• Proficiency in speaking and writing English, Kannada and Hindi

Location:

Start date: July 15, 2025

Interested individuals are requested to submit their applications by 7 July 2025 at shrimoyee.bhattacharya@wri.org and kiranshaila.ramesh@wri.org