Footloose Labour Working in India's Informal Economy [Paperback]

Thisstudy of the working poor in India examines the lives of those who, pushed out of the agrarian labour market, depend on casual work.This penetrating anthropological study of India's working poor examines the lives of migrant workers from two villages in south Gujarat who depend on casual work. It reveals that little has been done to improve their quality of life, which is defined by caste and class relations.This penetrating anthropological study of India's working poor examines the lives of migrant workers from two villages in south Gujarat who depend on casual work. It reveals that little has been done to improve their quality of life, which is defined by caste and class relations.In a penetrating anthropological study of the working poor in India, Jan Breman examines the lives of those who, pushed out of the agrarian labor market, depend on casual work. By considering two villages in south Gujarat, the author discusses the mobilization of casual labor, demonstrating that this is characteristic of an employment pattern that dominates the rural and urban economy of large parts of South Asia. Elaborating on the social profile of the work migrants, the author shows that little has been done to improve their quality of life, which is defined by caste and class relations.Introduction; 1. Changing profile of rural labour; 2. Inflow of labour into south Gujarat; 3. Contact between demand and supply; 4. Quality of the labour process; 5. Mode of wage payment and secondary labour conditions; 6. State care for unregulated labour; 7. Proletarian life and social consciousness.'The author has been working in the economy of South Gujerat for half a lifetime, and his knowledge of it, and particularly of labourers within it, is profound.' Asian Affairs