Women and Children's work in the Unorganised sectors in Hyderabad

Rekha Pande University of Hyderabad

Purani Haveli

Developing World and Liberalization

• The economies of the developing world are moving towards liberalization and free markets.

• The ideology and the guiding dialogues in the global world is the movement towards capitalism.

• The free play of markets, liberalization, privatization and competition have become the key words in the path towards globalization.

• This is followed by the withdrawal of the state from more and more welfare oriented activities

India and the New Economic Policy

• India adopted the New Economic Policy in 1991.

• The World Bank gave substantial loans to tide over the crisis.

• The human development in India prior to this was characterized by low levels of attainment and sharp regional and gender disparities.

Poverty and income disparity

• As the global opportunities continue to be unevenly distributed, the consequence is, poverty.

• The worst hit in this transformation is the unorganized sector, which is already marked with income disparity and dominated by the poor and under privileged and women.

Women and Informal sector

• Like most South Asian countries, India is characterised by the involvement of a large proportion of the population, primarily women, in the informal labour sectors.

• Many of these are home based workers whose difficulties are exacerbated by very low wages, involuntary migration, the need to enter into other allied activities, and poverty.

• Women in this sector who carry the double burden of poverty and discrimination.

Women in Unorganized sectors• India has a labor force of 300 million, majority of which are women.

• 90% of this labor force belongs to unorganized sectors.

• The number of women workers engaged in unorganized sectors increased from 94% in 1971 to 96% in 1991.

• Women here continue to be invisible in economic statistics and are ignored by legislators and planners.

Different trades• Bangle making.

• Agarbatti (incense stick) making.

• Beedi Making.

• Trades in the Old City of Hyderabad, India—which can be characterised as home based work in the Informal sector.

More women in unorganised sectors

• This sector is characterised by ease of entry, reliance on indigenous sources, family ownership of enterprises, small scale of operation, intensive labour and adapted technology, workers with skills acquired outside the formal school system, and an unregulated and competitive market.

Casulisation• Many women working in this sector suffer from a lack of opportunity to work, low and discriminatory wages, and exploitative conditions resulting in casualisation.

• They further lack social security, face occupational health hazards, and do not have access to new technologies, skills or knowledge.

• Though not a homogeneous group by way of caste, class or economic activity, deprivation and discrimination are common factors experienced by all workers in this sector.

Global Gender Gap Report

The Switzerland-based World Economic Forum (WEF) has placed India in 112th position, in a list of 134 countries, in its latest report ‘Global Gender Gap Index 2010’.

The report measures equity in four fundamental areas -- economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.

Problems women face• Women who carry the double burden of poverty and discrimination.

• Migration and entry into other allied activities leads to rural poverty.

• Globalization, has complicated the issue.

Contribution of the informal sector

• Estimates of the size, contribution, and composition of the informal sector vary widely according to the size of enterprises considered, the inclusion or otherwise of agriculture, and the degree of women's informal work included in calculations.

• In India, the term 'informal sector' does not appear in official statistics nor in the National Accounts Statistics (NAS).

• The terms used in the Indian NAS are 'organised' and 'unorganised' sectors. The organised sector comprises enterprises for which statistical data are available from official budget documents or reports.

Home based worker• Home based work is not an analytical category. Instead, complex relations of production and distribution are characterised by the producer being neither wage worker nor self employed but something in between.

• The legal definition of worker and self employed in India is drawn from western liberal assumptions of an autonomous and self-contained individual, a concept which cannot be applied adequately to home based producers.

Kinds of Home based work

• Home based workers can be divided into three categories:

• 1.independent producer,

• 2.dependent producer who works at home but who relies on a subcontractor for raw material

• 3.wage worker who works on the premises of her employer.

India Map

Hyderabad• The section of Hyderabad ,now referred to as the Old City, was planned nearly 400 years ago.

• At that time, Golconda Fort, the then headquarters of the Qutub Shahi Kings, was unable to contain the growing population within the fort premises and hence there was a need to expand.

• The new city was planned on the road running east from Golconda as far as Masulipatnam, the famous Andhra eastern seaport, in order to link trade and commerce routes with the urban centres.

Hyderabad , 400 years back

• It was then divided by main intersecting highways into four quarters. The north-western quarter was reserved for the royal palace, with the east allotted to the nobility. The remainder of the city, divided into 12 mohallas (localities) spread over an area of 10 square miles, was inhabited by the common people.

• Besides nearly 14,000 shops, there were mosques, hammams (public baths), Ashoor khanas (a mourning place for Shias to shed tears for the martyrdom of Hussain), langarkhanas (to distribute food to the poor), Dar-ul-Shifa (public hospital), and sarais (guest houses or bungalows where travellers, traders, missionaries and men of fine arts assembled from different corners of the world after long and arduous journeys).

• Gardens also adorned many of these buildings. • Within no time Hyderabad grew into an important trade centre whose major exports included diamonds, textiles, sugar, iron and spices, and which imported commodities such as Arabian horses, pearls, porcelain and carpets.

• The city went into decline following a decision by the conquering Mughals to shift the capital to Aurangabad in 1687, which was then the new centre of political and commercial activity.

Hyderabad in 21st cen

• Today in the twenty-first century, the Old City of Hyderabad is a high density population area divided into Circles I, II, and III.

• The majority of the people are Muslims and there have been intermittent outbreaks of communal conflict.

• Hyderabad was subjected to twin blasts arising from sectarian conflict.  

Hyderabad today

Political unrest has been accompanied by increasing mobility among the residents of Hyderabad.

In the twenty-first century, more and more people from the area have begun taking jobs in the Gulf countries, but very little of the money has found its way back into the old city.

Old city vs slum• The increase in population and growing urbanisation have both taken a toll leaving an overpopulated slum area.

• The term 'slum' is used here in the context of the operational definition provided by the United Nations expert group, UN-HABITAT. This organisation designates a slum as an area that combines to various extents the following characteristics: inadequate access to safe water; inadequate access to sanitation and other infrastructure; poor structural quality of housing; overcrowding; and insecure residential status.

• To these one might add the low socioeconomic status of residents.

Hyderabadi Bangles• The harsh reality of the beautiful bangles for which Hyderabad is famous is that they are the product of the exploited labour of women and children.

• There are more than 500 shops flanking either side of the world famous Charminar today selling their wares.

• Hyderabad is an amazing mix of the ancient and modern, embodied in one of the oldest shopping centres in the city, the Lad Bazaar, where both bangles ,agarbattis and beedis are sold along with a large number of other goods.

Bangle production• Bangle production takes place both at karkhanas as well as in homes.

• By and large, the houses in the Old City are very small, generally with one room or, rarely, two rooms, including a kitchen. Bathrooms are either very small or non-existent. After the daily chores are completed and food cooked for the day, many of these houses are converted in small karkhanas to produce bangles.

• Bangle making requires a furnace to burn constantly therefore the tiny spaces where the trade occurs are very hot and dusty. While generally well lit, rooms are filled with the smell of burning chemicals.

4 steps in bangle making

•Preparing an organic mould from vegetable based glue and colouring this as required.

• Giving the coloured glue the shape of a bangle with the help of metal moulds or brass bangles

• Refining and perfecting the shape of the bangle with the heat of the small furnaces

• Finally, embedding creatively arranged and designed coloured stones into the bangle to enhance the beauty of the final product. These stones are heated on the furnace

• The more intricate the design, the higher the value of the bangle.

• At the time of marriage, bangles are given to a Muslim bride by both her own family and by her in-laws, thus creating a heavy demand for these during the marriage season.

• The stones used for bangle-making are not indigenous but are imported from Austria, Germany and France.

.

The intricate Bangle is sold for any thing between Rs. 450

and Rs. 4000 per

pair

Agarbatti makingincense sticks)making, is one of the flourishing trades in the Old City.

Out-sourcing is common in this trade, women and children deal only with the agents who provide the material for making the paste and the sticks.

The sale of incense sticks increases during the festival season.

Five steps in agarbatti making

• Agarbatti making is done in five steps as follows:

cutting the bamboo sticks into thin pieces or slices

• putting paste over the bamboo slice or stick

• drying the agarbatti

• perfuming and packaging the agarbatti under different labels.

The factory owner• Large factory owners generally outsource the bulk of the production to contractors who have the work done by women and girls.

• These workers are involved in the first four steps of production.

• However, perfuming and packaging occurs at the factory.

• While men and boys are not involved in production, they may be involved in the factory packaging and transportation of the finished incense sticks.

The Contractor• Contractors give the work of producing large quantities of lower quality sticks mainly to home-based workers.

• Home-based agarbatti workers are provided with the raw materials associated with agarbatti production: bamboo sticks, jigat powder (a chemical mixed with saw dust) and charcoal for rolling.

• The equipment used is a low wooden board three feet square in size around which the workers squat to roll the sticks.

• The contractor then supplies the rolled raw agarbattis to factories for drying, perfuming and packaging. The agarbattis are finally separated and priced according to their perfumes and packaging.

Features of the trade

• Women here work both in karkhanas and in homes.

• The women and children told us they preferred to finish their household chores and then come together in a karkhana to work since they can spend this time chatting with friends.

Work Environment• Unlike the hot and dusty workplaces of the bangle trade, the big and small karkhanas are generally neat and tolerably clean.

• They, are very small and badly lit.

• There are no crèche facilities and women are generally not encouraged to bring small children to karkhanas.

Girl’s labour• Only women work as agarbatti rollers although they are often assisted by girls.

• Since there is a strong belief that children have small and nimble fingers and can cut very thin slices, the labour of children ranging from five to ten years is generally preferred for this work.

• Unfortunately this belief is a myth which conceals the exploitation of the children as a source of cheap labour.

Children's work• Cutting the bamboo sticks is done with a blade on a small wooden platform provided by the contractor. The thinner the agarbatti, the better is its value.

• Making the paste is regarded as a specialised skill and children generally do not take part in this aspect of production.

• However, they do assist in rolling the paste around the incense stick. In addition to thin bamboo sticks used for agarbatti.

• children also cut thicker sticks which are used for eating hand-made ice creams and fruits.

Wages• Agarbatti rollers are paid on a piece-rate basis. Workers in Hyderabad are paid at a rate of Rs. 9 per kilogram of the agarbatti paste.

• However, pay also depends on the quality of stick. If the incense stick is thin then women are paid Rs. 9 for making 1200 agarbattis.

• If the sticks are thick then they are only paid Rs. 6 for 1200 agarbattis.

• In neither case can the women earn more than Rs. 325 per month.

Family earnings• Earnings of a family of six were reported in the range of Rs. 600 to 800 ($US15-20) for a six day week even when the women were assisted by three children.

• The raw material and labour costs of the women and children involved in rolling raw agarbatti together are valued at only 10 percent of the total costs.

• All the high value processes—perfuming (30 percent) packaging (30 percent) and marketing and overheads (30 percent)—are controlled by male manufacturers.  

Health issues• Women and children working in this trade suffer a range of common health problems. They are subject to backache due to continuous bending.

• In fact, they are vulnerable to a variety of postural and locomotive system problems due to the highly confined and repetitive nature of their work.

• Many contract skin ailments and/or lose their sense of touch. Their blistered hands are evidence of the gruelling nature of the work they do which often leaves permanent scarring and elevated palms even in the case of children.

• This is the result of exposure to ophthalmic acid ethers used in the production of agarbattis. Workers can also lose their sense of smell due to the all-pervading fragrance of the incense sticks.

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