This book brings together a unique collection of theoretical and empirical analyses of women's access to land, labour and livelihoods in contemporary India. The authors recognize that gender relations must be viewed intersectionally, along with other social relationships such as caste, ethnicity, religion, sexuality and age, in order to inform an integrated analysis of women's persistent disadvantage in India. The chapters examine a diverse range of rural and urban livelihoods within sectors such as tea plantations, nursing, hair salons, sex work and waste collection. Documenting the shifts in these sectors in the context of economic liberalization, the authors offer insights on the challenges of development interventions as women negotiate shifts in their livelihood options. Written to engage, the contributions to this book will be of interest both to the general reader and to academics and practitioners in development and gender/women's studies.

Autorentext

Bina Fernandez is Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Drawing on her professional experience in the development sector, her research focuses on gender and social policy. Major research awards include an Australian Research Council Fellowship (2015-2017), a British Academy Small Grant in 2010, the UNDP Human Development Fellowship in 2005, and a Chevening Award in 2001-3.

Meena Gopal is Professor at the Advanced Centre for Women's Studies at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She is also a member of the autonomous feminist collective, Forum Against Oppression of Women in Bombay and a queer feminist activist. Her research focuses on social movements, gender and labour, and public health.

Seeking to combine development practice with research and writing, Orlanda Ruthven works on youth employment and labour standards in India. Over the years she has worked with ILO, Impactt, ODI, IDPM and DFID.

Inhalt

Chapter 1. Against the grain: Indian women negotiate land, labour and livelihoods in the new millennium; Bina Fernandez, Orlanda Ruthven and Meena Gopal.- Section I. Owning Land, Disowning Women.- Chapter 2. Tribal women organising for land rights in Dahod and Panchmahaals, Gujarat; Sita Mamidipudi and Sejal Dand.- Chapter 3. Securing land rights for women: government land allocation in Odisha; Sonali Mohapatra.- Chapter 4. Deserted and widowed women's struggle for land and livelihood: a case from Maharashtra; Sneha Bhat.- Chapter 5. Claiming space, claiming rights: Inheritance and land rights for Muslim women in Uttar Pradesh, India; Niti Saxena and Soma K. Parthasarathy.- Section II. Marginalised and stigmatised labour.- Chapter 6. Female labour in tea plantations: Labour process and labour control; Ashmita Sharma.- Chapter 7. Sex work as livelihood: Women, men, and transgender sex workers in Karnataka; Shubha Chacko, Subadra Panchanadeswaran, Gowri Vijayakumar.- Chapter 8. Nhavi women in Pune city: renegotiating new opportunities for livelihood; Archana Zende.- Section III. Education, mobility and skills.- Chapter 9. Karma and the myth of the new Indian Super Woman: Missing women in the Indian Workforce; Bhavani Arabandi.- Chapter 10. "Here, we are addicted to loitering": exploring narratives of work and mobility among migrant women in Delhi; Sonal Sharma and Eesha Kunduri.- Chapter 11. All aboard the Job Train: Government-funded training and recruitment in India's apparel industry; Orlanda Ruthven.- Chapter 12: Care (un)skilled: fragmented labour markets in nursing, contemporary Kolkata; Panchali Ray.- Section IV - Collective strategies.- Chapter 13: Making waste matter: Re-imagining urban renewal and advocating for waste-pickers' right to a dignified livelihood; Sohnee Harshey and PratibhaSharma.- Chapter 14: Self-Employment, waged or unpaid work: influences on the choices of poor women; Dimple Tresa Abraham.- Chapter 15: Renegotiating patriarchal bargains? Rural women's collective livelihood initiatives in India; Bina Fernandez.