Informal Labor, Formal Politics, and Dignified Discontent in India

This book examines informal workers' alternative social movements in India.

Rina Agarwala (Author)

9781107663084, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 April 2013

272 pages, 15 b/w illus. 14 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.4 kg

'This study of informal workers in urban India comes at an ideal time as the country undergoes rapid economic and social change. In addition, the rich, qualitative evidence that Agarwala has carefully gleaned through semi-structured interviews and participant observation stands as a model for students of labor politics. Those interested in understanding the politics of labor, social welfare, and state-society relations in contemporary India will find this book immensely rewarding.' Akshay Mangla, Industrial and Labor Relations Review

Since the 1980s, the world's governments have decreased state welfare and thus increased the number of unprotected 'informal' or 'precarious' workers. As a result, more and more workers do not receive secure wages or benefits from either employers or the state. This book offers a fresh and provocative look into the alternative social movements informal workers in India are launching. It also offers a unique analysis of the conditions under which these movements succeed or fail. Drawing from 300 interviews with informal workers, government officials and union leaders, Rina Agarwala argues that Indian informal workers are using their power as voters to demand welfare benefits from the state, rather than demanding traditional work benefits from employers. In addition, they are organizing at the neighborhood level, rather than the shop floor, and appealing to 'citizenship', rather than labor rights.

1. Introduction: informal workers' movements and the state
2. Struggling with informality
3. The success of competitive populism
4. Communism's resistance to change
5. Why accommodation leads to minimal gains
6. Conclusion: dignifying discontent.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB], Sociology: work & labour [JHBL]