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The shift from a stable/organized labor force to a flexible workforce has meant hiring women part-
time, and the substitution of better-paid male labor by cheap female labor. The new economic policies
provide State support to corporate houses that are closing down their big city units and using
ancillaries that employ women and girls on a piece-rate basis. Homebased work by women and girls
gets legitimized in the context of increasing insecurity in the community due to a growth in crime,
riots, displacement and relocation. Sub-contracting, home-based production, the family labor system,
all have become the norm. This is being called an increase in ‘efficiency’ and ‘productivity’.
The casual employment of urban working-class women in the manufacturing industry (textiles is a
glaring example) has forced thousands of women to eke out a subsistence through parallel petty
trading activities (known as ‘informal’ sector occupations).
The Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) has forced working women into the unorganized sector
and deprived them of their rights. The women fall outside protective labor laws such as the Maternity
Benefits Act (1961), Employees State Insurance Scheme, Factories Act (1948), Equal Remuneration
Act (1976), Bombay Shops and Establishment Act (1984), Plantation Labor Act, and Child Labor
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1976.
The government finds it difficult to dismiss permanent staff in public sector enterprises because they
are organized, vocal and visible. A debate on the issue of part-time work for women creates a
justification for segmentation of laborers on the grounds of gender. Those in favor argue that working
women shoulder the burden of domestic duties as well as remunerative/ office work, so a reduction of
working hours will give them some relief. This deprives women of promotions and responsible
assignments and discriminates against women by projecting them as ‘supplementary earners.
Moreover, often the most strenuous part of work is commuting back and forth, and whether a person
works part-time or full-time, the same amount of time and energy is spent on commuting. The
argument in favor of part-time work for women does not question the existing gender-based division
of labor in the family. It throws the burden of childcare and housework on the individual woman. The
long-standing demand for family work to be supported by the State is also negated. The women’s
movement in India has suggested that ways to reduce the double burden on women could include the
provision of cheap and safe eating facilities, childcare centers that provide both custodial care and
developmental inputs for children, and better transport facilities. Studies have shown that the burden
of poverty falls more heavily on women than on men. The inequality in income and consumption
levels between women and men has also been documented. At least 11% of households in India are
supported solely by women’s income. In other words, they are ‘female-headed households’ (FHH) —
households run by widows, single women, deserted or divorced women.
FHH are usually the poorest of the poor. The combined effects on these households of the new
economic policies, which translate into (among other effects), reduced PDS (Public Distribution
System) quotas, reductions in healthcare facilities and educational facilities are crushing. Children of
FHHs suffer more due to nutritional deficiency, inadequate primary healthcare facilities, and cuts in
expenditure for the education sector. In the National Perspective Plan (NPP) for Women (1988-
2000), the government responded quite positively to demands from women’s groups for State support
to FHH. But the SAP works against the objectives of the NPP.
The number of girls working in the informal/unorganized sector for precarious wages has also
increased. National and multinational corporations operating in Free Trade Zones, Special Economic
Zones and Export Processing Zones in India employ girls in production units or hire them on a piece-
rate basis for home-based work. Using girl-child laborers is the cheapest way to increase the profit
margin.
The inflationary impact of the SAP and the reduction in paid work reduces the purchasing power of a
household, which, in turn, increases the unpaid labor of women. For example, buying cheaper food
grains or vegetables requires more time for procuring, cleaning and preparation. The unpaid labor of
women in cooking, cleaning, caring and doing chores that augment family resources (like collection of
fuel, fodder, water, looking after livestock and poultry, and processing agricultural goods) is regarded
as elastic by the SAP.
How globalization changes firms’ organizational structure. Falling communication costs allow
fragmentation of production processes. Routine tasks can be undertaken in poor countries while more
complex activities remain in rich ones. Thus, we may see functional instead of sectoral specialization
with countries focusing on different stages of production. The literature that considers this
fragmentation has ignored the fact that activity is spatially concentrated within countries. Firms do
not face a simple choice between rich and poor countries but instead between urban and non-urban
locations in those countries. This may change how globalization affects firm location. Falling
communication costs allow firms to offshore routine tasks to low wage countries without losing the
advantages of locating complex activities in rich country cities.