Creating New ‘Places’: Women and Livelihoods in the Globalising Town of Burdwan, West Bengal

Neoliberal globalising processes in the Indian economy have dramatically infl uenced its socio-cultural and economic life. Penetrating deeper into the Indian psyche and social fabric, this neoliberal policy is changing India’s landscape, particularly the urban one. However, there has been a protracted debate amongst scholars over the impact of economic globalisation on gender relations. Some are emphatic about the opening up of new avenues of employment for both women and men, and increase in income, quality of life and status, while others are vocal about the stark inequalities produced by economic reforms within and between nation-states and also about the increasing occupational segregation by gender. The relative position of women in the changing economic regime has been sparsely documented and new gender agreements await research by scholars. According to Ganguly-Scrase (2003), it has now become necessary for globalisation to be theoretically understood on the basis of empirically tested assumptions regarding its effects on the lives of women at the regional and local levels. While the overall impacts of neoliberal globalisation have been detrimental to women’s interests, some women — particularly those who were better placed in terms of social or economic status — have tried to grab the market-based opportunities thrown up by the new economy. Women in most Indian communities are conventionally trained to accumulate what has been termed as ‘household-specifi c human capital’ as against ‘marketspecifi c human capital’ (Pollack 1985: 585). While the latter category augments productivity in the labour market, strengthening earnings skills and upgrading familial and social status, the former can only be used at home, and as wives and mothers, in reproductive labour. Interestingly, many women in urban and middle-class India, irrespective of the size of the urban centre, have emerged as determined to acquire and enhance their marketable skills and add to family incomes. Often, they have resorted to or taken advantage of opportunities thrown up by an expanding informal sector, and new jobs and businesses that are loosely regulated.