Abstract
Exodus of migrant workers from different cities in India has brought the issues of migrant workers into light. The discourse in the public domain mainly focusses on male workers where women are more portrayed as mothers. Gender studies scholars (Mazumdar et al. 2013) have always raised concerns on the overemphasis of the social angle of women’s migration. This paper brings forth how migrant workers, all women, had organised their productive-reproductive continuum in Delhi and Gurugram as construction workers and domestic workers. They had come to the National Capital Region (NCR) in search of livelihoods. Their work continuum is discussed in the backdrop of the economic distress that led to migration, the working conditions (wages and leaves) and social security provisions (maternity benefits and childcare) they were entitled to as workers in the cities. The objective of the paper is to understand the structures that influenced the organisation of productive-reproductive continuum of migrant informal sector women workers and also to demonstrate the processes of multiple marginalisation.
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Notes
The National Capital Region is a central planning region centred upon the National Capital Territory in India. It includes NCT of Delhi and several districts surrounding it from the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. In this study, interviews were conducted in Delhi and in Gurugram (it comes under the state of Haryana).
The dataset is used from the author’s own research.
As per National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) definitions of temporary migrants and permanent migrants are as follows: Permanent migrants are migrants who are having more or less permanent settlement in the place of enumeration, irrespective of where he/she is having any contact with the native place. Temporary migrants are those who undertake a sojourn to a place different from a native place. It may continue for years without permanent settlement.
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) defines short-term migrants as those who migrate from source for less than 6 months and for more than 1 month.
Ibid.
Sainath, P. (2006) “India’s Brave New World, The Agrarian Crisis, Farm Suicides, and the Wages of Inequality”. Source: Mobile Creches (2008), Distress Migration: Identity and Entitlements accessed from https://84d629ab-3c72-4a2c-b038-8bf9fe4f27ff.filesusr.com/ugd/eec0d5_0487141def6c4d688a457efe0869b2b2.pdf in March 2020.
Labour chowks or nakas are places where workers gather for work. There are many places in the cities which are marked as labour chowks where labour contractors come, negotiate terms and employ groups of workers.
Thekedars are labour contractors.
During socialisation in their natal families on work and patriarchal values around women’s work, women are prepared for uncertainty after marriage. They learn to be flexible and be prepared for any kind of uncertainty after marriage (Dube 1988).
The construction workers are also protected by Interstate Migrants Workmen Act, 1979 and Contractor Workers’ (Abolition) Act. They were never implemented.
When the study was conducted, the unskilled minimum wage in Delhi was Rs. 534 and in Haryana Rs. 328.52 for construction sector.
The minimum wages for unskilled construction workers in Delhi in 2018 was Rs. 534 per day and in Haryana itt was Rs. 328.25 per day.
A renowned NGO working on early childhood development and had been running crèches on construction sites in NCR.
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The author gratefully acknowledges the inputs and guidance received from her Supervisor Dr. Neetha N and Research Advisors, Dr. Rajni Palriwala and Dr. Sumangala Damodaran during the research.
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Sengupta, S. Organising Work as Migrant Domestic Workers and Construction Workers in the National Capital Region of India. Ind. J. Labour Econ. 63, 1165–1182 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-020-00286-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-020-00286-7