Labouring Women: Issues and Challenges in Contemporary India
Praveen Jha, Avinash Kumar and Yamini Mishra
Price
1290
ISBN
9789390122073
Language
English
Pages
343
Format
Paperback
Dimensions
140 x 216 mm
Year of Publishing
2020
Territorial Rights
World
Imprint
Orient BlackSwan

It is well known that notions of work and employment in official data systems undermine women’s work. Difficulties abound with respect to the recognition and measurement of women’s ‘invisible’ work, made more complicated by distinctions such as paid and unpaid work; economic and non-economic activities; and market and non-market labour. All of this invisibilises and underestimates women’s unpaid and under-paid work.

While the gender gap in paid work has narrowed only slightly in developed countries, these have increased in ‘emerging economies’ such as India. Labouring Women explores these unfavourable trends and analyses the current position and condition of women’s work. It argues that despite the supposed development, policy changes and talk of equality, experiences of labouring women show that their challenges have multiplied, both at work and at home, with longer working hours and greater reliance on unpaid work.

Supplemented by detailed statistics, this volume examines critical issues faced by women workers at local and national levels, including: the dichotomy between paid and unpaid work; changes in wages and their links with policy reforms; women and land rights in India; changing patterns of women’s participation in work; a study of some women domestic workers in the NCR; and the real effect of policy reforms on the public workforce.

A major and significant volume that brings together debates on the conceptual and methodological issues around women’s labour, Labouring Women will interest scholars of sociology, economics, gender studies and development studies, as well as policymakers, NGOs, and international agencies such as the ILO.

Praveen Jha is Professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning and Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Avinash Kumar is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Yamini Mishra is Director, Global Issues, Amnesty International, London, United Kingdom.

Introduction
Praveen Jha, Avinash Kumar and Yamini Mishra

1. Women's Labour through Life Narratives
Mary E. John
2. Time Poverty and Women’s Work
Jayati Ghosh
3. Women's Participation in Domestic Activities: Leisure, Care Services and Status Production
Vinoj Abraham
4. Capitalism and Unpaid Work in India: A Conceptual and Methodological Proposition
Chirashree Das Gupta, Isha Ralli and Mohit Gupta
5. Exploring Paid and Unpaid Work Dichotomy: A Care–Employment Perspective
Neetha N.
6. Labour Relations within the Household: A Study of Women Domestic Workers in the National Capital Region
Archana Prasad and S. Krithi
7. Labouring Livelihoods: Vulnerabilities and Visibilities in Women's Labour and Livelihoods
Ritu Dewan
8. Back to the Barracks: Changing Pattern of Women's Work Participation in India
Nisha Srivastava and Anjor Bhaskar
9. Public Investment towards Promoting Women's Livelihoods: An Assessment
Kanika Kaul and Saumya Shrivastava
10. Women and Common Property Resources: Towards Innovative Practice Beyond 'Participation'
Sumi Krishna
11. Women and Land Rights in India: Towards a Democratic and Gendered Formulation of the Land Question
Smita Gupta
12. New Cartographies of the Digital Commons: Going by Feminist Wisdom
Anita Gurumurthy

Notes on the Editors and Contributors
Index