Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

This paper focuses on female workers in the informal, unorganized garment industry of home-based work in the domestic sector of Bhiwandi city, a suburb of Mumbai, known for its power-loom textile production in India. Based on interviews of Muslim women workers working in this informal garment sector of Bhiwandi, the paper explores the concept of “precarity” as elaborated by Guy Standing. Working with temporary contracts and hired by subcontracting agencies, this paper highlights and analyzes the situation of women workers who participate in both paid and unpaid family labour and contribute to the wellbeing of the household and are stuck working under provisional uncertain employment settings. An important characteristic of these women workers in Bhiwandi is that most of them are employed in the unorganized sector unlike the men who are mainly in the power loom sector. These women are employed in the garment sector which provides wide opportunities for semi-skilled, as well as unskilled Muslim women workers, representing the lower strata of the society. Globalization of economy has created a flexible labour market which has led to a large number of women workers concentrated in the unorganized sector. Muslim women workers in particular remain disadvantaged due to factors such as relative backwardness in education, employment, and health compared to others. Most of the poor women earn their livelihood working from homes due to familial resistance. This paper also looks into the issue of marginalization, deprivation, and discrimination of gender that revolve around the question of unequal wages, lack of maternity benefits, and lack of childcare facilities.