Globalisation, Gender and Employment Relations in India Prof. Vibhuti Patel

1. Globalisation, Gender and Employment Relations in India Prof. Vibhuti Patel Head, Department of Economics SNDT Women’s University, Smt. Nathibai Road, Churchgate, Mumbai-400020 Phone-+91-22-22052970, Email-vibhuti.np@gmail.com

2. Globalisation-A Historical Context • Marked feature of neo liberal policy is enlightened self- interest activated through market forces. • Impact on urban, rural and dalit /tribal poor women as paid, underpaid and unpaid workers of the economy • During the 1990s, employment of middle-aged men and women decreased and employment of adolescent girls and child labour increased. Women were and are given less skilled and underpaid jobs.

3. The Asian Scenario • South Asian (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Nepal) and South East Asian (Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia) countries, Indochina (Laos, Kampuchea and Vietnam) and China are flooded with Sweatshops, ghetto labour markets and stigmatised migrant workers. • ASEAN countries have established of Special Economic Zones that ensure flexibalisation of the labour force to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). • The relationship between the formal sector and the decentralised sector is a dependent relationship where the formal sector has control over capital and markets and the 'informal' sector works as an ancillary. • New Globalisation triangles-hub for finance capital, manufacturing hubs and suppliers of cheap labour

4. New Forms of Plunder Primitive accumulation in its classical form included • plunder, • slavery and • colonialism, while primitive accumulation in the contemporary period includes • Sweat-shops, • labour concentration camps and • criminalisation of the working class coupled with super-exploitation of the same. • Women are the last colony

5. Stabilisation Policies and SAP • As a result of Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), sacked/ retrenched formal sector workers and employees are forced to work in the informal sector. Victims of Voluntary Retirement Scheme have downward economic mobility, “From blue collar to no collar”. • Rationalisation, mechanisation and automation have had labour reducing implications. • Budgetary cuts for balwadis and crèches enhanced the burden of poor working women. FTZs and EPZs thrive on young women’s super-exploitation. The employers overlook occupational health hazards.

6. Ethnic & Communal Tensions • Co-existence of high wage islands in the sea of pauperised working class has enhanced human misery and social conflict in the context of massive reduction in the welfare budgets of the nation states in South Asia and South East Asia. • With rising ethnic and communal tension jeopardising economic activities, visible and invisible activities of underground extra-legal economy is displaying a tendency to expand. • Stigmatisation as well as instrumentalist use of Bangladeshi workers in India, migrant workers in Mumbai continues- Captured in Anand Patwardhan’s film Hamara sheher in the 1980s

7. Dual Economy Model • INDIVIDUALS WITH SIMILAR LEVELS OF EDUCATION & SKILLS get differential wages due to casualisation of the workforce. Introduction of contract system in public sector has institutionalised dual economy model. • Differential Wage Policies in public as well as private sector- • Permanent workers/employees • Adhoc /Consolidated salaried workers • Daily wagers • Clock hour workers Subcontracting by male workers to women workers-menial chores in railways, banks, teachers in educational institutions

8. Job & Wage Discrimination • Immigrants face job discrimination in pre-entry phase & wage discrimination in post entry phase. • Migrant workers remain the first to be fired and the last to be hired. • Dualistic Models promotes differentiation based on language, caste, religion, gender, age, migration status, ethnic background and exclusion from informal networks (Cooperative societies, social clubs, associations, cultural organisations) for upward economic mobility.

9. External Sector • Majority of the toiling poor rot in the external sector in which real wages change at disparate rates. • Institutions like extended family, caste and village nexus play an important role in providing safety nets to migrant workers. • Burgeoning GHETTO LABOUR MARKETS are perpetuating the law of jungle in the industrial scenario. As a result a situation arises where legal apartheid faced by micro-entrepreneurs at the foot of the economy. • Workers in casual sector are predominantly young and single men and women, while workers in regular sector are older and married.

10. Segmentation in the Labour Market • Segmentation begins in the rural areas where the asset-less poor in the margin of economy migrate to the cities. Asset owners in rural as well as urban areas are deriving maximum advantage of Globalisation. 1. Income differs widely between these segments. 2. Mobility between them is limited • The asset-less poor women are most adversely affected by globalisation as traditional support systems of kinship and extended family networks have been eroded. • Displacement due to mega development project renders poor women homeless and unemployed.

11. Researches by women’s studies scholars and gender economists in Asia (APDC, Gabriella, CAW), Africa (AAWORD) and Latin America (DAWN) over last 2 decades have shown that • Globalisation has enhanced patriarchal control over women’s sexuality, fertility and labour by superimposing commercial values on the conventional values throughout the world. • Globalisation has accentuated survival struggles of households managed by single, widowed, divorced, separated and deserted women.

12. Arjun Sengupta Committee’s Report • The Arjun Sengupta Committee report (2006) is a stark reminder of the huge size and poor conditions in this sector. The Report has revealed that in India, almost 370 million people- more than 85% of the working population in India work in the unorganised sector. • Of these, at least 120 million are women. They contribute around 60% to the national economic output of the country. • Around 28 crore work in the rural sector, of which an estimated 22 crore are in the agricultural sector. Around 6 crore are in urban areas. Women make up 11-12 crore, of which around 8 crore are engaged in agriculture.

14. Concerns of Women in the Workforce • The Employment Guarantee Scheme needs to be expanded and improved for urban workers. The focus of such employment schemes can be enhancement and constant up gradation of skills. • The National Renewal Fund should be extended to cover the unorganized sector and a substantial part should go into the retraining of workers. • Social audit of Janani Suraksha Yojana on maternal health • Crèches should be provided for children of all workers and not merely women workers irrespective of the number of employees. There could be a common fund for each industry. • Social Audit of Workers rights, existing legislations on social security and social protection of workers • Urgent need for Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at Work-place Act • Gender audit of Budget is an important tool in the hands of state for affirmative action for improvement of gender relations through reduction of gender gap in the development process. It can help to reduce economic inequalities, between men and women as well as between the rich and the poor. • Food security, public health, vocational training • Housing, land rights, relocation and rehabilitation of the displaced • continued----

15. The National Renewal Fund must be extended to cover the unorganized sector and a substantial part should go into the retraining of workers. Creches must be provided for children of all workers and not merely women workers irrespective of the number of employees. There could be a common fund for each industry. Implementation of the Unorganised Sector Social Security Act 2008 is the most crucial step for ensuring basic human rights of informal sector workers and for humanizing employment relations for women workers.

16. Think & Act ,Locally & Globally. Thank You