This issue of Social Scientist, guest-edited by Indu Agnihotri, brings together a set of papers on the lives of women focusing on issues of work and livelihood, interwoven with their daily struggles in different regions of India. The papers are…
The history of work is closely tied to the emergence of industrial capitalism. The transformations brought about by the industrial revolution catalysed significant research on understanding labour and its different aspects in Europe and the rest of the world (Hobsbawm…
This study focuses on the role of women in the agrarian struggles of North Malabar, in the present state of Kerala. Though women played an important part in these, little attention has been paid to their crucial role and struggles…
This paper mainly focuses on Santal women’s economic condition in the Birbhum stone quarry industry (1970–2010), which is a part of the Chotanagpur plateau region. There are plenty of rock pits here which are the site for the stone quarry…
Public policy in India views women’s labour, especially care work, through a narrow, gendered lens. This is evident from how the Government of India (GoI) treats anganwadi workers and helpers, who form an exclusively female workforce working at the grassroots…
The craft sector has long been an integral part of India’s cultural heritage and economic landscape, providing livelihood opportunities for numerous artisans across the country. Among these, women engaged in the traditional art of phool-patti embroidery in Aligarh hold a…
In the neo-liberal era, India has seen increased participation of women in informal sector work, mainly as unskilled labourers, even as the female labour force participation (FLFP) rate declined to 17.5 per cent in 2018 from 30.2 per cent in…
This paper focuses on the political economy of sexual relations in a capitalist system, where the relationship is mediated, structured and regulated through four major institutions – the Family, Community, Market and State. These collectively control and consume women’s domestic…
Pramila Pandhe had weathered many storms and shouldered multiple responsibilities before I came to know her – a short, gentle woman, quite unlike my image of a leader – when she took charge as the Office Secretary of the All…
That Kavita Singh (1964–2023) was one of the leading art historians of her generation was never in dispute. Her command over Mughal and Rajput miniatures, illustrated and illuminated manuscripts, scroll-painting, the arts of the book as well as the visual,…