SURVEY OF RESEARCH IN INDUSTRIAL

SOCIOLOGY
(1987-2002)*

Sharit K. Bhowmik**

This paper attempts to assess the research done in the field of

industrial sociology during the period 1987 and 2002. Only
published work have been noted. The review does not cover
unpublished M. Phil. and Ph. D. dissertations, nor does it take
into account unpublished research reports. While industrial
sociology has made an impact of the social sciences, much
more needs to be done in terms of research, especially in the
emerging areas.

** Professor, Department of Sociology, University of

Mumbai, Mumbai 400 098.

The Process
At first the task did not appear very difficult. We are
fortunate that the ICSSR has a series of journals devoted
especially to covering the current researches in each discipline.
Thus if I relied on the specific sections of the ICSSR Journal of
Abstracts and Reviews in Sociology and Social Anthropology it
would be possible to cover most, if not all, of the work done.
The journal summarises articles published in leading research
 2

journals and also reproduces book reviews from these

journals. An analysis of the relevant entries in this journal
should be almost sufficient to complete the task. Besides this, a
survey of journals like Sociological Bulletin, Contributions to
Indian Sociology and, of course, Economic and Political
Weekly, would more or less complete the task. Unfortunately,
we found that the ICSSR journal was not published regularly.
In fact the journal had been discontinued for a number of
years, hence there was a gap in our information. There were
some books and articles that had not been reviewed. We tried
to locate such books, and we have included these in the
chapter.
After collecting all the summaries, we had to sift through
them. Some had to be dropped because they did not fit into the
category of sociological research. They were mainly works in
history or economics. This does not mean that all work done by
those who are not sociologists were dropped. We have included
the works of several such researchers who are not
sociologists, strictly speaking. The criterion adopted was of
whether the concerned research really had sociological
significance.
After sifting through the material collected, they were
classified into different sections. The initial idea was of
grouping the researches into different categories but we found
that this served another purpose. It also helped us in knowing
 3

in which areas researches are popular and which areas are

neglected. For example, we have a large number of studies on
labour and trade union, industrial organisations, women and
work and, industry and environment. Other areas, that are
important but are neglected by sociologists are, work and
technology and, studies on the labour market. Both areas are
comparatively new in sociological research in India, but
sociologists need to concentrate on them as they are of growing
importance. In the case of the labour market, sociologists tend
to shy away because they think that it falls in the realm of
economics. However the current researches show that this is
far from the truth. Serious economists have realised that
complicated mathematical models on the labour market may
seem very sophisticated in textbooks and the classrooms but
they cannot explain the reality of the myriad network of social
institutions that influence its behaviour. Sociology can fill in
this gap. Unfortunately, though economists resort to sociology
to help them explain complications in the labour market,
sociologists seem to shy away from this exercise.
In the case of work and technology, the situation is more
dismal. We found only a few works that were relevant. There
was only one book that dealt with this issue but we did find a
few articles. However, the bulk of the articles are from a single
issue of Economic and Political Weekly that had focussed on
information technology. Clearly there is a greater need for
 4

work on this aspect. Work in the information and

communication technology sector is growing. The
International Labour Organisation has focussed on this as the
sole issue in its report for 2001. This technological revolution
has led to greater outsourcing of jobs to the developing world
—especially those familiar with the English language. New
managerial strategies are used in these sophisticated industries
that need to be studied and analysed. Some new intensive
research will emerge in the near future as funding
organisations like Indo-Dutch Programme in Development
Alternatives (IDPAD) has encouraged work in this sector. A
few other research funding agencies have backed projects in
this area, but unfortunately, the major thrust of research
funding is still in the conventional areas.
After this brief introduction let us proceed to what exactly
were the researches.
Organisation of Industry: Managerial Strategies and
Problems
In this section we shall attempt to review the researches
relating to industrial organisation and structure. In 1982, the
Sri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources
undertook a survey of 51 organisations in order to understand
the nature of industrial organisations in the country and to
analyse their influence on labour management relations, more
 5

specifically supervisory-management relations. The report of

this study was written by Baldev R. Sharma (1987A). The
study was significant in the sense that for the first time such a
large sample of industrial organisations was taken for study
and quantitative data on them were collected. The report
stated that both private sector and public sector organisations
believed that safety, security (at work) and monetary benefits
constitute the most important needs of the employees.
However, there are important dimensions of the organisational
climate such as participation in decision making, redressal of
grievances, training and advancement. Sharma also refers to
the theoretical controversy between human relations and
scientific management approaches, more specifically on the
tendency to separate mental work from physical work in the
latter approach. In trying to resolve this controversy, he
suggests that monetary benefits alone cannot overcome
workers’ alienation, as the title of the book, Not by Bread Alone
suggests.
Four years later, in 1986, Sharma conducted a restudy of
one of the organisations covered by the survey (Sharma
1987B). He found that all the variables remained unchanged
expect one, namely, monetary benefits. However, he found that
though it now ranked higher, increase in emoluments did not
affect production. He concluded that perceptions of
 6

organisational reality are intimately related to the action and

inaction of management.
A. V. Subharao (1987) selected two steel plants for
studying co-operation and conflict between labour and
management. One of these plants was in the private sector
(Tata Steel in Jamshedpur) and the other in the public sector
(Bokaro Steel Plant). Subharao found that industrial relations
at Jamshedpur were better than at Bokaro. This difference was
primarily because there was only one recognised union at
Jamshedpur and it was possible to have joint consultations
between union and management. In Bokaro, on the other
hand, there were a number of recognised unions and each tried
to compete with the others in trying to get more benefits. The
author’s reasoning appears to be somewhat simplistic.
The Industrial Disputes Act has always had mixed
reactions. While trade unions and labour have supported it,
managements have been critical of it. C. K. Johri’s paper on
industrial relations (Johri 1990) deals with this issue. He
strongly advocates that the industrial relations system must be
reformed to permit greater freedom to managements. He feels
that the Industrial Disputes Act hinders such a process. Hence
he suggests that the Act should be repealed and labour should
be provided with social insurance as a form of protection. This would

pave the way for more effective management on the one hand,
and ensure some security to labour on the other.. Johri’s
 7

suggestions seem unrealistic. Social insurance for workers is a

very difficult proposition. We will deal with the dimensions of
this problem in a later section on social security.
C. S. Rangarajan (1997) studied how workers,
supervisors and executives perceive their work. The author
holds that role conception is an important aspect of one’s
participation in the work organisation as role performance
depends upon role conception. He examines the organisational
dimensions of the bureaucratic structure. The study also
attempts to understand the problems of migrant labour while
adjusting with urban-industrial order and their traditional
values.
K. Mamkoottam (1994) discussed the changes in labour
management relations after the reforms of 1991. He notes that
after liberalisation, there was a need for changes in technology
and manpower planning so that industry could compete in the
global market. Initially, the employers insisted on a
deregulated environment with a flexible labour force, while the
workers and trade unions resisted these moves. However there
is a gradual process of change taking place in both the
manpower strategies adopted by the employers and the
response to the imperatives of change on the part of the employees
and unions. He concludes that a development of professionally
oriented human resources management strategies and
positively oriented collaborative employee / union strategies
 8

are beginning to emerge. Mamkoottam’s predictions may now

look like wishful thinking because, ten years after he published
his article, the divide between labour and management seems
to have hardened. In most of the large formal sector
organisations, the employees are more interested in holding on
to their jobs as these are being reduced in large numbers.
These moves leave very little option for building positively
oriented collaborative strategies.
Pradip Khandwala’s study of innovative corporate
turnaround (Khandwala 1992) produces an enquiry on how
‘sick’ organisations go about regaining health and shape. Of
the 65 cases taken, 16 belong to India. The main findings show
that turnarounds are caused by a variety of factors. These
include change in the helm of affairs in the corporation, change
in organisational structure, change in product mix, change in
market focus—from domestic to international are some of
them. We shall deal with the problem of recovery of ‘sick’
industries in the section on labour where we will look at studies
on worker co-operatives. These represent how turnaround was
possible with the help of those at the bottom of the
organisational hierarchy.
The problems of unionisation of the managerial cadre is
the focus of a study by Baldev R. Sharma (1993). His study
deals with how managerial staff are forming their own
associations known as Officers’ Association (OA). The book
 9

has an exhaustive survey of the existing literature in the field

and has a vast amount of data on managerial unionism. He
finds that the OAs are found only in the public sector and their
main objective being welfare of their members. Though
Sharma tries to show
Strategic management as a technique is new in India and
there is hardly any research on it. E. A. Ramaswamy (1994)
notes that this is precisely because industrial management in
India comprises largely knee-jerk responses to crises. His study
of a rayon factory in Coimbatore addresses several important
issues in the contemporary industrial relations scenario. It is
the outcome of over twenty years of research of the author.
The study examines the role of the state in management of
industrial relations has not been positive. The author also
discusses other issues such as the relevance of collective
bargaining and bilateral negotiations, the nexus between
unions and political parties and the relations between unions,
workers and management. This longitudinal study shows how
brittle the union-worker relationship can be and how easily the
workers shift their loyalties from one union to another and the
irrational attitudes of the management towards the unions.
Debi S. Saini has edited a volume on different aspects of
labour and law (Saini 1995). The papers offer a critical
examination of the existing labour laws in the country. These
are divided into four sections. The first section examines the
 10

existing labour laws and finds that they provide protection to

only the organised sector. The second section provides
descriptions of the pathetic working conditions of migrant,
bonded and agricultural labour. The third section discusses the
issues of globalisation, industrial restructuring and industrial
relations laws while the fourth section has papers dealing with
alternatives in labour justice dispensation.
Though Multi-National Corporations have made their
mark in India and there have been heated debates on their
functioning, there are hardly any significant studies of the
conglomerates. We found only two such studies during this
period. Jairus Banaji and Rohini Hensman, the first one,
studied industrial relations in two major Dutch MNCs
operating in India, namely, Philips and Hindustan Lever
Limited (Banaji and Hensman 1990). The study provides a
comparison on industrial relations in the establishments of the
same MNC in India and Europe. The authors find that foreign
companies in Mumbai have created a section of workers whose
consciousness is dominated by the fact that they are employees
of international organisations. These workers are also
unionised but their unions are not linked with any of the
national federations. The authors see merit in this as the
national federations are politicised and ruled by political
parties. The internal unions have greater stake in the working
class in the concerned organisations.
 11

A major problem with such an argument is that it fails to

take into account the political conditions at the time of
independence, in 1947, that gave rise to these internal unions in
MNCs. In 1948 there were mainly three trade union
federations, namely All India Trade Union Congress of the
communists, Indian National Trade Union Congress of the
Congress and Hind Mazdur Sabha of the socialists. These
federations were arch rivals of each other but they had one
thing in common. They were all against the indiscriminate role
of foreign capital. This made them inherently anti-MNC.
Hence it can be argued that the MNCs themselves encouraged
their workers to form internal unions (instead of joining a
federation) as these organisations were less likely to be against
foreign capital. On the contrary, these workers were very
proud of their employment in foreign owned companies. They
felt superior to the run-of-the-mill workers in other factories
or mills. One must also consider the fact that most of the
MNCs did not have unions under colonial rule. These company
unions came up only after independence. Hence, one needs to
raise the question why the same employers, who were reluctant
to allow their workers to unionise before independence,
suddenly allowed them this right at a time when unions were
becoming increasingly against foreign capital.
V. Janardhan’s (1997) article on MNCs examines the
manner in which companies, especially in Asia, are globalising
 12

and the strategies they tend to follow. The paper provides an

analysis of the strategies adopted by a leading multinational
corporation, British American Tobacco and its Indian
affiliates.
Entrepreneurship Studies
There have been some significant studies on
entrepreneurship during the period under review. These
studies are broadly of two types namely, studies on
development of entrepreneurship with a focus on small
industries and, studies on industrial or business houses. There
have been a few significant studies on business families.
Dwijendra Tripathi is well known as a business historian. He
collaborated with another well known historian from Gujarat
University, Ahmedabad, Makrand Mehta, to produce a very
insightful book on business houses in western India (Tripathi
and Mehta 1990). The book is a study in entrepreneurship but
it does not produce an action plan. Rather it seeks to
comprehend the forces impinging on occupational choices and
business strategies. Tripathi has also done a comparative study
of industrialisation and entrepreneurship in India and Japan
(Tripathi 1997) wherein he attempts a comparative
explanation of the different foundations that underlie the
subsequent contrasting experience of the two countries.
 13

Another work on business houses was undertaken by V.

S. Patwardhan (1990). He has studied the Garwares as an
industrial house as a part of a larger study undertaken to trace
the growth of entrepreneurial families in Maharashtra. The
author undertook this work precisely because it is widely
believed that there are no indigenous entrepreneurs in the
state. His object was of studying the existing houses so that
others could replicate these entrepreneurs.
The above two studies deal with the richer business
houses. Entrepreneurship is not restricted to only the rich.
There are different types of entrepreneurs who may not find
that the sailing is as smooth as the major industrial houses.
One such study is by Peter Knorringa (1996). He studies the
Jatav (who belong to the scheduled castes) shoemakers of Agra
attempts to analyse the motivations, opportunities and
compulsions in the small-scale shoemaking sector. Knorringa
has done a detailed ethnographic study of the relations
between the Jatav shoemakers who are Scheduled Castes and
the traders or exporters who belong to upper castes. He finds
that the relations between the small self-employed shoemaker
and the owner are based on the traditional relations in the
caste hierarchy. Thus even in a commercial, monetised
environment, caste relations are difficult to shake off.
Sudipt Dutta’s (1996) study on family business traces the
history of some of the larger business houses in India. He notes
 14

that the role of the family is very important in understanding

functioning of industrial houses in India. He states that nearly
70% of the hundred largest corporations and 99.9% of all
enterprises are owned or controlled by families. At one level
Dutta observes that Indian business has similarities with
western business. However in practice there are wide
differences as the business houses in India have unique
methods of conducting business as these are based on tradition
and age-old values. In another study, Dutta (1996) tries to
establish that Indian businessmen come into their own only
around the age of 40. He goes further in stating that successful
family business depends not only on the ability of their young
sons but the timing of their coming of age.
Rabindra Kanungo’s (1998) book is a collaboration
between scholars in India and abroad. It tries to meet the need
to develop comprehensive research-based models of
entrepreneurship so as to increase the readers’ understanding
of the subject and also act as a practical guide for action. The
articles are grouped into four heads. The first deals with
conceptual models of entrepreneurship, the second focuses on
entrepreneurs as individuals particularly women
entrepreneurs, the third part contains articles focussing on the
enterprises and, the last part deals with management skills for
small business.
 15

Takashi Shinoda’s (2000) study analyses the

entrepreneurial development among different social groups in
Gujarat. It attempts to study the caste and social backgrounds
of small entrepreneurs.
Douglas Hynes’s (1999) study of labour in the power loom
sector also has shades of what Knorringa found in Agra. This
study looks at discourses about the past by looking at the
representations of the past formulated by owners, workers and
trade unionists in the cities of Surat and Bhiwandi. A
particular focus here is with the willingness of different
participants in the power loom industry to accept a portrayal
of past relations as having been ‘like a family’. For workers,
nostalgic attitudes and more critical recollections both serve as
a means of contesting a present characterised by serious
strains between capital and labour, by serious fears of losing
work and, by widely shared perceptions that collective actions
are futile. The author contrasts these views with those of the
employers and the trade union leaders.
Studies on Labour Markets
As mentioned earlier, sociologists have by and large
neglected the study of labour markets. We shall look at some of
the current studies. John Harris, K. P. Kannan and Gerry
Rodgers (n. d.) have produced a slender volume of their
research conducted on the labour market structure in the city
 16

of Coimbatore. The purpose of their research was to develop a

methodology for the study of labour markets in general so as to
capture the multifarious aspects which escape attention when
labour markets, especially in developing countries, are viewed
as being divided into segments, namely, organized/formal and
unorganised/informal.
L. K. Deshpande and Gerry Rodgers (1994) have edited a
book on the responses of the policies of structural change to the
labour market in India. An understanding of the labour
market and its response to the post-1991 policies is essential for
the efficacy and success of the policies. This book tries to
explore this aspect. Besides the introduction by Deshpande and
Rodgers, the articles are grouped into four sections. These are,
aggregate employment level, institutional arrangements,
technology and labour and, policy issues in economic reform.
Bam Dev Sharda’s (1998) study on labour markets and
status allocation starts by pointing out that economic theories
of labour market explain differences in earning with models of
demand and supply. However with increasing diversity in the
labour force, there are other issues such as race, ethnic groups
and gender that influence wage differentials. In India, the
changes in policies since 1991 will create a more diverse labour
force. Sharda feels that the rapid changes in the labour market
will lead to changes in mobility and income levels. These will
influence status allocation. In other words, if a permanent
 17

worker enjoying fair wages loses his job due to restructuring

and has to join a lower paid insecure job, it will result in
change in status. The social implication of such trends need to
be studied by sociologists.
Bali Ram (2001) takes a look at data from 80 countries in
order to understand the relations between gender and the
labour market. Basing his analysis on decennial time series
data between 1960 and 1980, he finds that at the early stages of
industrialisation, sex segregation is low but it increases during
the intermediate stage. He concludes with the note that sex
segregation and women’s economic marginalisation are
primarily a reflection of overall societal economic inequality
whether or not it accompanies industrialisation. There is
nothing original in what has been observed. In fact sociologists
have all along maintained that gender differentials are created
by a patriarchal society. One wonders why time series data
from 80 countries needed to be studied to come to the same
conclusion.
The daily labour market in Delhi was studied by C. S. K.
Singh (2002). Based on a sample of workers from the job
‘squares’ or ‘naakas’ in the city, the study finds that labourers
in this market represent pauperisation of the peasantry rather
than a migration of choice for better wages. All workers
covered had no awareness of the labour department of the
 18

state or of trade unions. Moreover, they did not have any

rational expectation of jobs in the formal sector.
The issue of gender discrimination in the labour market is
discussed by Lalit and Sudha Deshpande (1999). They argue
that, while gender discrimination has not been eliminated, it
has been reduced by the forces of the labour market. The only
way of overcoming it is by growth of the economy whereby
more jobs will be created. The experiences of the East Asian
countries shows this. The reduction of gender discrimination
has taken place because of the sustained high demand for
labour brought about by high investment ratios.
Renana Jhabvala’s (1999) work discusses the main
problems workers in the informal sector face. The most
important one is poverty. On the one hand this can be seen in
the form of low wages that the employed get and on the other
hand, there is growing unemployment. The wage rate is low
precisely because there unemployment is more than the
number of jobs available. Workers are willing to work for low
wages because they know that the alternative to this is no
wages. The employers offer low wages and they know that they
will get workers to work at these rates. The choice the workers
face is of employment with low wages or no employment. They
accept the former on the principle of ‘something is better than
nothing’. She then discusses the interventions that can be made
on behalf of labour. These include, intervention through trade
 19

unions, helping in asset building, enhancing employment

opportunities, reducing migration and, providing for social
security.
Work and Technology
One of the preoccupations with sociologists in the 1950s
and 1960s was exploring the relationship between traditional
cultural practices and work in the factory. The more recent
problems in this context revolve around the role of changing
technology and work. The studies on this subject cover
different aspects of the consequences of changing technology
on work. The more important ones are on workers response to
new technology and the impact of technology on women
workers. The subject of flexible specialization has drawn some
attention.
The impact of technology on work has been dealt with in
cases studies presented in a book edited by Amiya Bagchi
(1994). A major feature of this book is that it neither tries to
explain the micro-electronic revolution as an anti-worker
strategy nor does it attempt to eulogise it. There are a few
significant studies in this book. One of them, by Bagaram
Tulpule and R. C. Datta (1994) examines the textile industry
where air-jet looms have been introduced. The authors find
that the cost of implementing new technology is relatively
higher in this industry as labour cost is lower. Hence new
 20

technology does not really help the management in cutting

costs. Another paper by Datta (1999) on the use of new
technology in the textile industry shows that management do
not make substantive gains in reducing costs through new
technology. Efficiency is also not increased substantially.
Hence in some industries management do not adopt new
technology as it does not necessarily improve quality nor does
it increase profits.
Workers response to new technology is discussed in a
study by Lakshmi Nadkarni (1998). The author has studied a
few factories in Pune and has interviewed the workers
extensively. She finds that workers in general are not opposed
to the introduction of new technology as they know that this is
one of the means of improving the products. They felt that they
should be given training so that they could cope with
technological change. These responses are different from those
of the trade unions which opposed new technology as it could
displace labour.
The issue of flexible specialization was first raised by
Mark Holmstrom (1993). He argued that the Italian experience
of small industries using microelectronic machinery could be
the future for India’s industries. He studied the electronics
industry in Bangalore (which came to be known as India’s
silicone valley) and found that it has a potential of emerging as
the ‘high road’ to flexible specialization. The small industries
 21

used Computerized Numerically Controlled (CNCs) machines

and Computer Aided Design (CADs) to manufacture high
precision equipment. The labour they employed was highly
skilled, like those in the large industries. Another study of
Holmstrom (1997) elaborates on the concept and its
implications. He notes that flexible specialisation happens
when clusters of smaller firms co-operate in production
marketing and product development. This requires trust and
collective provision of ‘real services’. Holmstrom finds that
though engineers and workers are quality conscious and there
are innovative techniques used, the entrepreneurs are often too
suspicious to co-operate or share information. Had there been
greater trust, the system would have been much more
profitable.
Other studies on this issue (Laurisden in Bagchi 1994;
Das and Panayiotopoulis 1996) showed that most small
industries used the ‘low road’ of flexible specialization which
comprises low technology and low skilled, low paid labour. In
fact it can be seen that in labour surplus countries like India,
the choice is always of the low road. Production in the up-
market fashion industry is mainly done in sweat ships.
Garments are shaped by women workers who work for long
hours on extremely low wages. Similarly, most of the cloth is
produced in power looms situated in Bhiwandi in Maharashtra
where workers earn around Rs. 50 – 60 a day for working for
 22

10 hours. Even the high-technology industry of Bangalore that

Holmstrom has studied, could be taken as a form of low-road if
we compare the wages and working conditions with those of
the same industries in developed countries. These employees
may be well-paid by Indian standards but they earn between
one-fifth to one-eighth of what their counterparts in developing
countries would earn for the same work.
The rapid spread of the information technology combined
with deregulation and upgrading of telecommunications in
virtually all countries has given considerable impetus to
outsourcing or delocalisation of work. Economic and Political
Weekly (2000) brought out a special issue dealing with this
subject. We will discuss only those articles that have relevance
to work and technology. Swasti Mitter (2000) in the
introduction notes that the development of tele-working
represents a convergence between a number of different
trends, many of which have major implications for
environmental, social and economic policies. How the industry,
governments and policy makers respond to these changes will
seriously impact on the future of the economy, on employment
potential and on the quality of work-life of the people.
Swasti Mitter and Asish Sen (2000) discuss the issue of
Calcutta (Kolkata) becoming another Bangalore in attracting
outsourced software services from abroad. The paper discusses
on the facilities required to make this possible. We may
 23

mention that soon after 2000, the government started a

software park in Salt Lake area of the city and it has been
successful so far. Mitter and Sen (2000) suggest remote
processing, rather than software services could provide a
better entry to the global information economy, especially for
the traditionally disadvantaged groups such as women.
Sujata Gothoskar (2000) discusses the issue of tele-
working and gender. Her paper attempts to assess the
problems arising from these new developments for women in
the context of occupational gender division of labour in
Mumbai. Does tele-working afford new opportunities for
women or is it yet another means of increasing women’s double
burden in the guise of high technology and relatively better
paid employment?
Labour in the Formal (Organised) Sector
The formal or organised sector plays an important role in
the country’s development. As compared to the informal
sector, this is a much smaller sector in size. The last Census,
held in 2001, showed that around 27% of the population
resided in urban areas and the rest in rural areas. The labour
force in the country numbered 400 million. Of this a mere
7.5% (around 30 million) was engaged in the formal sector
while 370 million were engaged in the informal sector. Women
constituted one-third of those engaged in the informal sector
 24

and one-seventh of those employed in the formal sector. More

than 250 million workers were engaged in the rural informal
sector. The urban informal sector comprised around 100
million workers.
The distinction between the formal and informal sectors
is crucial for understanding employment relationship.
Workers in the formal sector are engaged in factories,
commercial and service establishments. Around 70% of the
workers in this sector are employed in government, quasi-
government and public sector enterprises. The private sector
provides employment to only 30% of the labour in the formal
sector. The wages of formal sector workers are substantially
higher than those engaged in the urban informal sector.
Moreover, a range of labour laws, guaranteeing permanency of
employment and provision for retirement benefits, protect
their jobs.
Organised labour came under a lot of pressure after the
Industrial Policy Statement of 22 July 1991. This laid the basic
blue print for liberalisation. The policy envisioned a greater
and significant role for the private sector. The public sector
came under fire and it was expected to withdraw from all areas
except the core sectors. The liberalisation policy had some
important effects on labour in the formal sector. The policies
adopted led to down-sizing of large industries by shifting
production to out of the urban-industrial centres and by
 25

offering voluntary retirement schemes to workers. These new

processes led to new dilemmas for the trade union movement
which had till then operated almost exclusively in the formal
sector. Many of the studies discussed in this section deal with
these issues. But before that let us look at other issues that
were of interest to researchers.
E. A. Ramaswamy is a sociologist who has perhaps made
the greatest contribution to the sociology of industrial
relations. His main contribution is in adding the sociological
perspective to industrial relations and labour studies. These
had largely remained in the domain of economics (labour
economics) and law (labour law). He made practising
managers aware of the sociological input in labour and
management studies through his articles in business journals.
Ramaswamy had contributed a monthly column to the popular
magazine, Business India, in the mid-1980s to early 1990s. A
selection of these pieces was published as a book (Ramaswamy
1997). The articles are mainly on trade unions and labour
management relations. He also deals with the social context
and its effect on industrial relations. This book can be viewed
as a major contribution in industrial sociology. Besides this,
Ramaswamy’s (2002) book on different aspects of human
resource management remains as one of the best sources for
teaching the subject.
 26

Ramaswamy (1988) had earlier conducted a study on

labour relations covering four major cities, namely, Mumbai,
Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai. He provides case studies of
union activities and management responses in some major
industrial concerns located in the four cities. His work looks
into the specific nature of workers, employers and government
in each of these cities. There are interesting comparisons. It
would be expected that in Kolkata the government would be
more pro-worker than in the other three cities because since
1977 the state has had an elected communist government.
However his study finds that unions and employers often
collude and the workers are left out. Similarly in Mumbai, the
new form of militant trade unionism started by Dr. Datta
Samant had a wide acceptability among the workers because
taking recourse to legal measures meant time consuming and
expensive court cases. This work is undoubtedly a major
contribution to the discipline. Its main criticism is that it is too
empirical with an almost absence of any theoretical
formations. Nonetheless it has encouraged other scholars to
take interest in labour and trade union studies.
C. S. Venkata Ratnam and Anil Varma (1997) have
edited an important volume on industrial relations in India.
Each paper in the volume contains the main features of
industrial relations of different industries. The wide variety of
 27

cases itself make this an important manual for those interested

in industrial relations.
P. J. Patel’s study of industrial relations in a
manufacturing unit attempts to extrapolate wider theoretical
implications regarding two social processes, namely, social
polarisation and social mobilisation. He finds that the social
legitimacy of the employer gets eroded when workers, spread
across different locations of a company, align to articulate their
grievances in the framework of relative deprivation. Deepening
of social cleavage within the organisation helps to mobilise
workers into collective action. Workers then seek support from
macro structures like political parties.
Very few studies are there on the role of caste in the
formal sector. G. Karunanithi’s (1991) study deals with this
aspect. He takes up the study of two industrial units in
Madurai, one of which is in the urban area and the other in the
rural area. He covered areas such as recruitment and
promotion of employees, their interaction in the mills and their
relations with trade unions. He finds that caste is not as stong a
guiding force in the urban mill than in the rural mill.
The 1974 rail workers strike has been regarded as a
landmark in the labour movement. Unfortunately there is only
one significant study on this strike (Sherlock 2002; 1994).
Sherlock’s study of the strike takes into account the events that
preceded it. There was simmering discontent among rail
 28

workers at least two years prior to the strike. On the one hand
the workers were getting tired of requesting the government
over and over again for better pay and improvement in
facilities. The main sufferers of the railway’s anti-worker
policies were the loco running staff who could be regarded as
the backbone of the industry. The engine drivers, firemen and
assistants in the Madurai Division in Tamil Nadu had adopted
a militant approach that spread to other divisions. Along side
there was the Jai Prakash Narayan (popularly known as JP)
Movement that was mobilising masses to protest against
corruption and misrule. The leaders of the trade union
federation leading the strike, All India Railwaymen’s
Federation, were closely aligned to JP Movement. The strike
was a combination of the two forces, namely, the growing
unrest of the rail workers and the attempt to politicise the issue
as a protest against the government of Indira Gandhi.
Leela Fernandes (1998) attempts to analyse certain forms
of cultural politics as a means of demonstrating the varying
layers of structural inequalities that serve to constitute the
working class. By examining the linkages between class, gender
and community in the jute mills it is possible to move away
from a focus on the ways in which cultural difference
forecloses class politics. Instead the focus can shift to the ways
in which different forms of class based political practices may
 29

contest and reproduce the intersecting structural hierarchies

that constitute the working class.
A book on industrial labour edited by Jonathan Parry
and others (1999) has some interesting studies on labour (the
title mentions ‘industrial labour’ but many of the studies deal
with labour outside industry). Some of these have been covered
in an earlier section. The main high light of the book are the
two papers by Jan Breman, the introduction and the
conclusion. Breman discusses in detail about labour in the
formal sector in the introductory chapter. He believes that
there is no simple dichotomy between formal and informal
sectors. His essay covers issues like the now outdated debate on
labour commitment, but he also tries to show that the extended
family of the worker was an important factor that helped in his
migration to industrial centres at low wages. The paper throws
up new insights to studying labour. Breman also argues
strongly for revival of fieldwork as a source of data collection,
a tradition he finds dwindling in sociological research in India.
Jonathan Parry’s (1999) study on workers at Bhilai Steel
Plant at the ethnographic level tries to discuss work and work
groups in the plant. His findings suggest that public sector
employment and the company township with its large number
of labour which has migrated from different parts of the
country encourages different communities to integrate. New
solidarities are created that run contrary to traditional caste /
 30

community based solidarity. In the small manufacturing units

in the private sector however, he notices the opposite trend as
recruitment procedures and the composition of the work-
groups tend to reproduce primordial loyalties. He also details
the negative aspects of labour in the public sector. They earn
well, have secure jobs but they try to do the least amount of
work. Parry’s observations on caste solidarity are not original.
M. D. Morris in his classic study on emergence of an industrial
work force noted that in the textile mills workers of similar
caste ranking formed a cohesive group. Even Muslims were
included in this group. However, those excluded were the
untouchable (dalit) workers. Uma Ramaswamy’s study on
workers in textile factories in Coimbatore noted that was a
‘loose grouping of castes’ among the working. Parry could
have observed if this solidarity extended to Scheduled Caste
and Scheduled Tribe workers. His observations on shirking are
unfortunately similar to the prejudice the middle class has
towards well-paid workers. There is a general feeling that they
don’t work. However Parry should have tried to explain how,
despite this large scale shirking, Bhilai Steel Plant has been
making profits despite deregulation after 1991.
A book edited by T. S. Papola, P. P. Ghosh and Alakh
Sharma (1994) on labour, employment and industrial relations.
The papers published form a collection of essays from the
journal Indian Journal of Labour Economics. The papers cover
 31

a wide range of topics that include problems of liberalisation

and open economy, heterogeneity of work and labour markets,
conflicts, and problems of productivity and sharing. This
collection, though with a strong affinity to economics, would be
useful for students and researchers.
A paper by Debashish Bhattacherjee (2000) on
globalisation and labour makes interesting reading. The paper
discusses industrial relations in a historical and structural
context. The essential thesis of this paper is that the gradual
spread of market principles has led to wide inter-regional and
inter-sectoral differences in the levels of economic activity
resulting in turn in considerable variation in the nature of
labour-management relations. Consequently, an erstwhile
‘national’ industrial relations system has given way to many
‘local’ industrial relations systems. Hence he concludes that
globalisation of capital leads to localisation of industrial
relations.
The changing role of trade unions after 1991 has been
studied by a few sociologists. In the next few paragraphs we
shall summarise some of these.
Changing Role of Trade Unions in the Formal Sector
The trade union movement had a remarkable impact on the
character of Mumbai. Stephen Sherlock, an Australian
researcher, notes that the power of organised labour in
 32

Mumbai was due to the support it got from a sympathetic

government. However after the reforms of 1991 the attitude of
the government changed. As a result the trade union
movement has started loosing much of its capacity to influence
class formation at the level of consciousness and struggle. Past
successes were the result of determination and sacrifice of the
pioneers in the field. The fruits of this struggle were canalised
into organisations which depended on an environment created
by the state. The changed circumstances should have prompted
the trade union movement to change its tactics. Unfortunately
this has not happened as there appears to be some reluctance
on the part of the trade unions to recognise the limitations of
past achievements and to relate to the new working class.
The veteran sociologist N. R. Sheth (1993) takes a critical
look at the trade union movement. The point he stresses is that
there are three parties in the industrial relations scenario,
namely, employer, workers and trade unions. He notes that
while conventional trade unions are supposed to organise
workers against employers, the employers have begun to see
methods of participative management as a means to combine
with workers against unions. He further contends that unions
and employers too collude against the workers. This is mainly
because of the political links of the unions. If the political party
supports certain policies that are anti-worker, the trade union
too would follow that policy.
 33

Though there are several hard truths in Sheth’s paper

there are some problems too. For example, his impression that
workers’ participation in management is a tool for the
management to turn workers against unions is not correct. In
most cases in the public sector, elections to the participative
bodies are usually contested on the basis of trade union
affiliation. In other words, trade unions strengthen their base
through these bodies. Moreover, trade unions can use these
participative bodies to further their objectives of making
employers transparent in their dealings. In fact in the present
crises of trade unions, it is recommended that workers’
participation in management could be a means of reviving
trade unionism. We will deal with this point in more detail
when we discuss on worker co-operatives in another section.
The other point made by Sheth, that trade unions may
not represent the interests of workers because of political
reasons may be correct. He has given the example of the CITU
in West Bengal which will never organise any protest if it is
against the interests of the state government. For example
CITU protests strongly against privatisation of the public
sector in India but its West Bengal unit is silent when the state
government privatises state government undertakings or has
joint partnerships with the private sector. The same could be
said of INTUC under Congress regime and BMS under the
UPA regime. The INTUC did not protest against the reforms
 34

of 1991 though every other union did so. Similarly BMS was
much muted in its criticism of certain anti-labour policies of
the UPA government.
For a long time, the absence of a database on employment
and trade union formation in organised industry has posed
major difficulties for researchers and policy makers, and
perhaps to activists. In order to overcome this void the
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, a German labour research
organisation, commissioned studies in eight industries to
determine the extent of trade unionism and casualisation
(Davala 1992) in them. These included, Tea, Jute, Coal, Ports
and Docks, Engineering, Power and, Chemical and
Pharmaceutical. The researchers collected the data by
personally visiting the chosen industries, enterprises and trade
unions. A census was taken on the concerned enterprise rather
than a sample. This has provided the total data on the subject.
The studies in the book are important for the study of industry,
trade unions and casualisation. Some of the industries covered
—Ports and Docks, Coal and Power—were in the public sector
while others were in the private sector. One of the major
findings is that casual and contract labour is replacing
permanent labour in all these industries.
The state’s influence on trade unions has been discussed
by some social scientists and by trade unions themselves. The
earlier works tried to explain that the government after
 35

independence was pro-labour and it had passed laws to protect

the working class. This may be to some extent correct if we
compare labour policy during the colonial period when the
government was hostile to labour and to trade unions. E. A.
Ramaswamy in his earlier work Power and Justice had pointed
out that the state’s prolonged interest in protecting labour was
actually harming the movement. Instead of challenging the
employers, trade unions had become more interested in getting
state support for their demands. Bhowmik’s (1996, 1998)
articles on trade unions and the state brings out similar
findings. He finds that multi-unionism, regarded as the main
problem of the labour movement, is caused to a large extent by
the laws granting protection to labour. The Trade Unions Act
of 1926 has remained unchanged till the present. It allows
seven workers to come together to form a union. However the
Act only provides guidelines for registration of trade unions, it
does not provide for recognition. Recognition is left to the
employer’s discretion. Hence even a union representing a
fraction of the total workers can get recognised as the
representative union by management. Similarly, the Industrial
Disputes Act allows disputes to be raised by unions or
individual workers.
An assessment of the trade union movement after
liberalisation has been done by Ratnam et al. al. (1994) and by
Sawant (1994). Both books have included papers that represent
 36

different views on the subject. Sawant’s introductory chapter

gives a broad view of industrial policies in the country since
1948. The publication also has papers representing the
employers’ point of view as well as that of labour. In general,
studies on labour after 1991 try to show the declining
conditions of labour.
Worker Co-operatives
Worker co-operatives are organisations that are owned
and controlled by workers. Though they are not uncommon in
the developed countries and they have been in existence for
several decades (in fact since the late eighteenth century) they
hardly exist in developing countries. As compared to the
developed countries, worker co-operatives in India started
fairly late. The first such co-operative was started in the tea
industry with workers of a tea plantation in West Bengal
taking over the control of the plantation (Bhowmik 1992). In
Tripura too the state government encouraged workers of sick
or closed plantations to take over and manage these. A few
such plantations are still functioning.
Soon after liberalisation the Sick Industries (Special
Provisions) Act was amended. The Board of Industrial and
Financial Restructuring was set up under the Act and its main
purpose was to examine sick or closed industries in the private
sector and suggest how they could be improved or if needed,
wound up. One of the provisions in the Act stated that the
 37

BIFR could hand over management of the company to its

employees if they formed a co-operative and expressed
willingness to take charge. Kamani Tubes was the first
company that was converted to a worker co-operative under
the Act. B. Srinivas (1993) has conducted a full-fledged study
of this experiment. The eight chapters in his book describe the
case of Kamani empire that broke up in 1980. He also
describes the problems the workers and their families faced
after Kamani Tubes closed. Some workers sold their houses,
some withdrew their children from school, other delayed their
daughters’ marriages and some migrated to their villages in
search of work. Three workers committed suicide. The study
examines whether worker takeover of a factory can be a
possible means of reviving a sick industry by making workers
masters of their own destiny. Srinivas has provided detailed
analysis of the formation of the co-operative and workers’
participation in its functioning.
Unfortunately, Kamani Tubes has failed. E. A.
Ramaswamy studied this demise. He found that the failure was
mainly because the leaders had not continued the democratic
processes of decision-making. The financial problems were also
there but failure of participation made workers wary of the
leaders. The old divide between workers and managers was re-
created; the main difference was that the workers now
regarded the leaders as the management. As a result,
 38

productivity fell and so did the profits. The worker

shareholders too lost interest in the functioning of the
company.
Kamani Tubes was a sensational case that had attracted
attention of the media throughout the country. At the same
time there are other cases, that were not as high profile as
Kamani but they still continue to function, though not with
high profits. Bhowmik (Ibid) has analysed the case of such co-
operatives in the tea industry, one case in West Bengal and
three in Tripura. He found that the trade union played a major
role in motivating the workers (this is also true of Kamani
Tubes). The specific factors for the tea industry were that
workers were isolated in the plantations, their belonging to
tribal groups also was important as this added to social
solidarity. Besides this, the role of the state is also important.
The plantations in Tripura have succeeded because the state is
favourable but the plantation in West Bengal was not
successful, not because the co-operative failed, but because the
state government opposed it. Bhowmik and Sarker (2002)
conducted a study on worker co-operatives in Kolkata. These
co-operatives were also formed out of closed factories in the
1980s. Some of them are still in existence. The reasons for the
continued existence of some were due to the backing of their
unions, high rate of participation in decision-making and the
initial backing of the state government.
 39

Labour in Plantations
The plantation industry is the largest employer in the
formal sector, after the Railways. The total number of
permanent workers in the tea plantation industry is over one
million with another 500,000 temporary workers. Though
these workers are in the formal sector in the sense that they get
legal protection in their work, their wages are very low and
their problems are not widely known because they lie isolated
in the plantations away from the public gaze. Bhowmik, Xaxa
and Kalam (1996) studied the working class in tea plantations
of West Bengal, Assam and Tamil Nadu respectively. The
conditions of the workers in the south (Tamil Nadu and
Kerala) were much better than that of Assam and West
Bengal, though the bulk of the labour force (75%) is employed
in the two latter states. The southern states not only paid better
wages, they also adhered to the provisions laid down by the
Plantation Labour Act with regard to housing, education,
sanitation and water supply. The plantations in the northern
part were woefully lacking in these amenities.
Sarker (1994) highlights the changing patterns of life of
tribal workers in tea plantations of North Bengal. He finds that
some of the roles of the unions directly influence the life of the
workers while others do it indirectly. Collective bargaining has
a direct bearing on their working life whereas trade unions
have an indirect bearing on their cultural, religious and
 40

political institutions. In another study, Bhowmik (1993) found

that nearly all the tea plantation workers in North Bengal are
unionised, though this has had little effect in increasing their
wages or living conditions. The workers know that if there
were no unions their conditions would be even worse.
Women play a major role in tea production. In fact tea is
the only industry where women workers form over half the
workforce. However they are marginalized in their work as
well as in the trade unions. Shobhita Jain (1987) has studied
the role of female labour in a plantation in Assam. This is an
important and in-depth study on the subject. She concludes
that there is greater equality among the sexes in the plantations
because of the ethnic background of the workers. They are
from tribal communities in Chota Nagpur region and there has
been a tradition among the impoverished of granting more
freedom to women than in the caste Hindu communities.
Sarker and Bhowmik (1998) explore the reasons. They
find that though tribal societies have lesser degree of gender
discrimination, it is there none the less. The plantation workers
in the tea plantations of Jalpaiguri district and of Assam are
mostly tribals from the Chota Nagpur region. Work in the
plantation is also very gender specific and women are rarely
promoted to the ranks of supervisors or gang leaders. These
posts are invariably occupied by men. The trade unions too
reflect the same structure, with office bearers being mainly
 41

males. Moreover, the engagement of women in household work

keeps them away from union activities. The trade unions
leadership (who are mainly drawn from the Bengali middle
classes) have not tried to intervene and change the situation.
Plantations all over the world engage migrant labour.
Ravindra K. Jain (1993) has dealt with the continuities and
discontinuities between recruitment of labour within Tamil
Nadu for export to other countries, especially Malayasia. These
workers were engaged in the rubber plantations. He looks at
the process of labour control in both the ‘enclaves’ (the
plantations) and the ‘hinterland’. He discusses briefly on the
Articulation Theory and the Deproletarianisation Theory to
explain the process of labour migration and control between
Tamil Nadu and Malayasia. His paper includes an interesting
postscript on the ethnography of colonialism.
Studies on Voluntary Retirement
Many of the large companies have resorted to down sizing
in order to reduce labour costs. The concerned workers are
forcibly made to ‘voluntarily’ retire. The methods were earlier
subtle but crude. The targeted group of workers could be
frequently harassed by the management, they could be
transferred to other plants or offices of the company in other
areas etc. All these were done with a view that the workers
would not be able to bear this harassment and they would seek
a compromise. After the reforms of 1991, the employers’
 42

organisations all demanded that government should frame an

‘exit policy’ that would enable any industry to close down. This
was fiercely opposed by trade unions and government decided
against such a policy. At the same time, it allowed companies to
reduce their work force through a process known as the
Voluntary Retirement Scheme. The companies could offer
voluntary retirement to their workers by giving them a better
retirement package than what they would have got under the
law. This would lure workers to accept these terms and quit. In
reality what happened was that companies did offer the VRS
but if the response was not as much as expected, they would
use other tactics to ‘convince’ their workers. For example one
of the commonest ones was of spreading the rumour that the
concerned factory or office would close down within a short
while and workers would be transferred to another plant far
away. Hence if workers did not accept the time-bound offer of
VRS, they would have to either move to the other factory or if
they wanted to resign then, they would get only the
compensation provided by law and nothing more. Hence, it
was found that the first offer of VRS had lukewarm response
but the second round (after these rumours were spread) had
much better response.
Myrtle Barse (2001) has studied the impact of this scheme
in some large companies in Mumbai. She finds that it has had a
marked impact on the nature of employment and in changing
 43

the quality of life of the workers. The paper has case studies of
workers who have taken VRS and how their lives changed.
Most could not find alternative work and their compensation
evaporated within a few years. Their living standards reduced
drastically and some could find low paid work in the informal
sector. She suggests that the government or other organisations
such as their trade unions or NGOs should help workers who
accept VRS in investing their money properly and also
providing for health insurance.
Noronah (2001) studied the Bombay Dock Labour Board
and how globalisation has changed its functioning. He notes
that by setting up the BDLB a modicum of social security was
provided for sudden economic crisis and at times of recession
when work was not readily available. The advent of
globalisation and containerisation has reduced the need for
labour. The Board had to resort to VRS for the workers which
turned out to be disastrous for them and for the Board too as it
faced a funds crunch after paying the large sums as
compensation. This is one case of when both employer and
employee suffered because of VRS.
Ratan Khasnobis and Sudipti Banerjea (1996) come to
similar conclusions while studying VRS in Durgapur in West
Bengal. The study explores the mechanisms behind the
workers’ acceptance of VRS in the Durgapur Industrial Area
of West Bengal. Though there is willingness on the part of
 44

workers to accept compensation in some cases, there is sizable

number of instances of coercion from the management forcing
the workers to accept the deal. Moreover, the amount is used
for unproductive purposes. The worker thus has little left to
start self-employment ventures.
Labour in the Informal Sector
The bulk of the country’s labour force is in the informal
sector. As mentioned in the earlier section, the formal sector
employs only 7% of the total labour force. The rest are in the
informal sector. A major section of the workers in this sector
are engaged in agriculture, even so, at a conservative estimate
there are around 100 million workers in the urban informal
sector. Though this sector has been in existence for long, it
gained formal recognition only in the mid 1970s by the ILO.
The term ‘informal sector’ was coined by Keith Hart, an
economist, who was studying the labour market in Accra,
Ghana in early 1970s. He was unable to place the large number
of workers who did not have permanent employment and who
floated around, changing their occupations. For lack of a more
appropriate word, he called them the informal sector as
opposed to the well regulated and legally protected formal
sector. This sector has always been regarded as a residual
sector. It was believed in the 1970s and 1980s that with the
expansion of industrialisation, this sector would be drawn into
the formal sector. This appeared as wishful thinking because
 45

far from being absorbed, it grew in size and established its own
identity. Unfortunately in India, despite the large numbers
involved, this sector remained invisible. All benefits that were
given to labour were in fact given only to the organised sector.
It was only after 1991, when a large number of companies went
in for downsizing and labour from the formal sector were
forced to join the informal sector that government started
noticing this sector. In the following few pages we will detail
some of the studies on the informal sector and the problems.
The studies conducted on the informal are grouped in three
sections. The first covers the dimensions and conditions of
work. The second section deals with attempts at organising the
workers in this sector and the third section covers studies on
social security.
Working in the Informal Sector
Jan Breman’s contribution to the study of labour in the
informal sector has been recognised for long. He has studied
the condition of non-agricultural labour in South Gujarat for
several decades. He wrote a book covering his personal
experiences in his studies and the first hand information on the
lives of the workers (Breman 1996). The book, titled Footloose
Labour records Breman’s journey among the disposed. It is
about wage labour in the lower echelons of the non-agrarian
economy of South Gujarat. He draws attention to increased
 46

labour mobility and migration in recent years, both of which is

drastically understated in official statistics. Breman has
written an excellent paper (1999A) on the evolution and
dimensions of the informal sector in India. This paper is one of
the most comprehensive articles on this sector.
Breman, in collaboration with Arvind N. Das brought
another book illustrating the condition of informal sector
labour (Breman 2000). This book is basically a picture book
with photographs by Ravi Agrawal. The text is by Breman and
Das. This can be regarded as a unique sociological study on the
subject. The lucid text, combined with stark pictures becomes
an effective combination to put forth the exploitative
conditions of these people.
O. P. Sharma’s (1997) paper highlights the issues
concerning unorganised labour in the context of trends in
employment policy. The focus is on the post-1991 period. The
author is critical of the reforms and he tries to show that
conditions of labour have become worse. Ishita
Mukhopadhyay (1998) studies the changing pattern of labour
use in the informal sector in Calcutta (Kolkata). She notes that
Calcutta has had a high percentage of workers in the informal
sector for long. She finds that though the all India trend shows
an increasing trend of marginalisation and casualisation of the
labour force, the situation in Calcutta has changed somewhat
after the Left Front regime (since 1977). The main constituent
 47

of the Left Front, CPM, has tried to unionise all sections of the
labour force, including those in the unorganised sector,
through its trade union (CITU). Mukhopadhyay feels that this
has made labour more conscious of its rights. However, despite
unionisation, she does not explain why wages in Kolkata
remain the lowest among the metropolitan cities in the country.
Workers in small scale industries, in services sector (guards,
domestic servants etc.) earn less than half of what the same
categories of workers would earn in Mumbai or Delhi. The cost
of living may be lower in Kolkata hence it is possible to survive
on lesser income, but it is not as low as the wages offered. Of
late one finds the migration of people from West Bengal to
Mumbai and Delhi has increased considerably. They obviously
avoid going to Kolkata, which is nearer to their homes, because
of poor wages. It would be interesting to know why despite the
strong presence of trade unions, wages are so low.
In spite of the growing literature on the informal sector,
there are several gaps not only with respect to the data on the
size of the sector, but also with respect to the concept and
definition of this sector. Amitabh Kundu and Alakh N. Sharma
have edited a collection of papers (Kundu and Sharma 2001)
that try to grapple with these problems. The other issues are
the characteristics of the sector, its contribution to national
economy and the areas for policy and programme
implementation. The contribution of women to this sector has
 48

also been studied. The editors stress on the importance of

support systems for informal units and suggest ways and
means of promoting social protection to informal sector
workers. The discussion in this book also refers to the post-
liberalisation period.
Manjit Singh (1991) studied the labour process in the
garment industry in Delhi. He notes that in the informal sector
it is not capital but labour that is unorganised. He also
highlights the difficulties in unionising workers in this sector.
Dharmalingam (1995) explores labour conditions in another
section of informal sector worker—brick kiln workers in Tamil
Nadu. His study shows that the brick kiln workers are so
underpaid that it becomes difficult for them to reproduce even
the labour expended. The industry is expanding rapidly
because of the increase in construction activities. The industry
shows extreme contrasts. Dharmalingam states that the rich
brick kiln owners have distorted social relations and widened
the social distance between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. The
industry has also had negative effects on the environment by
felling trees for fuel. The consequences of this are felt more by
the poor who are deprived of fuel.
K. G. Agrawal (1988) had studied the living and working
conditions of casual labour in Kanpur. This is a slim volume, a
mere 84 pages. The workers covered include those employed as
casual labour in the PWD, Railways, MES, textile mills and
 49

unattached casual labour. The labour force is made up of the

uprooted casual labour from the rural areas. Most of them
have small land holdings that are insufficient to cover the basic
needs of their families. They are mostly seasonal migrants who
visit their villages during the monsoons to work on their fields
or in those of others. A section of them are recruited through
agents of contractors. The others are helped by their kinsfolk
in finding employment. One of the striking features of the
study is that there is a transition in the social composition of
the workers. In the pre-independence era these workers mainly
belonged to the untouchable / ex-untouchable castes. Agrawal
finds that at the time of his study the upper castes too were
joining the ranks due to impoverishment.
Nandita Shah and Nandita Gandhi (1998) studied the
plastic processing industry in Mumbai. These units are mainly
in the small scale or home-based sector. It tries to examine the
impact of the economic reforms of 1991 on this industry. It
examines industrial restructuring and how this affects women
workers at their workplace and in their homes.
Jesim Pais (2002) tries to examine this process of growing
casualisation of the workforce and its links with the quickened
pace of liberalisation all through the 1990s. He notes that a
growing literature seeks to demonstrate the links between
specific policies of liberalisation, such as deregulation of the
labour market, export promotion and trade liberalisation, with
 50

the process of casualisation, informalisation and feminisation

of the labour force. In order to be able to understand these
issues, Pais’ study seeks to examine the changes in patterns of
industrial employment in light of the statistical evidence
available.
Industrial Restructuring and Informal Work
There are a number of studies on the impact of the
closure of the textile industry on the lives of the workers. This
industry had played an important role in the growth and
development of two major cities in Western India, Mumbai
and Ahmedabad. The closure of this industry has resulted in a
large section of workers in the formal sector being forced to
take up low paying, insecure jobs in the informal sector. It is
noticed that there was a rapid decline in Mumbai’s textile
industry after the long strike of 1981-82 led by the fire-brand
trade union leader, Dr. Datta Samant. Many blame him and
his union for the subsequent closure of the mills. However, how
does one explain the rapid decline of the textile industry in
Ahmedabad? There were no strikes there. When work stopped
in Mumbai, the industry in Ahmedabad should have boomed
because of the shortage of cloth due to the strike. Instead it too
started to fall. Hence it would be too simplistic to blame the
workers or irresponsible trade unionism for the catastrophe.
 51

Darryl D’Monte book, Ripping the Fabric, on the decline

of the textile industry is an important study on Mumbai. The
book is really a history of the decline of Mumbai’s textile mills.
He analyses the situation and the actors involved, namely, the
government and its policies, the representative union,
Rashtriya Mill Mazdur Sangh, the exploitative mill owners
who were looking for an opportunity to close their operations
as the mill lands were more lucrative if sold for housing the
affluent and, the underworld which was introduced to the
scene by these actors. He notes that the decline of the textile
industry occurred due to a host of reasons but none of these
were attributed to labour. The problem of disposing of mill
lands is discussed in an earlier paper (D’Monte 1998).
Bhowmik and More (2001) examine the socio-economic
adjustments of families that have undergone decline in living
standards within a brief period of time. This study covers the
lives of workers who lost their jobs during and after the long
drawn strike of 1981-82. Over 100,000 of the 250,000 mill
workers lost their jobs. Even after the mills re-opened after the
strike the conditions of the workers were no better because
most mills shut down soon after. By 1991 the total workforce
had shrunk to 85,000 and at present it is around 30,000. The
mill workers who had for decades enjoyed secure and
respectable jobs were now forced to seek employment in the
informal sector and they have joined the ranks of the urban
 52

poor. The study tries to examine the social institutions through

which they can survive.
The condition of workers in Ahmedabad has attracted
more studies. Supriya Roychowdhury (1996) studied the
impact of industrial restructuring in the textile industry in
Ahmedabad. The decline in the textile industry took place in
the decade 1984-94. She found that sections of organised
labour were being pushed out of the formal sector in the
process of industrial restructuring. The representative trade
union (Textile Labour Association, started by Mahatma
Gandhi) did nothing to help. Most of these workers were
forced to eke out their existence by working in the informal
sector. Jan Breman (2001) too comes to the same conclusion.
He found that over 100,000 jobs were lost resulting in the
informalisation of a vast majority of the sacked workers. He
asserts that Gujarat can thus be understood as an experiment
for trying out what will happen to state and society under a
policy regime that does not attempt to harness the most brutal
consequences of a market-led mode of capitalist protection.
Another study of the textile industry in Ahmedabad was
conducted by S. S. Mehta and Dinesh Harode (1998). They
state that closure of industrial units in developing economies
may lead to serious consequences since their limited investable
resources and relatively limited alternative employment
opportunities cannot easily absorb resultant loss of jobs,
 53

production and revenue. Moreover the present legal and

institutional framework to deal with the problem of industrial
sickness in India has been found inadequate, particularly in
protecting the interests of the workers. The textile crisis in
Gujarat makes the inadequacies of the present framework
quite glaring.
Organising the Unorganised
We can see from the above discussion that the labour in
the informal sector is heterogeneous and also has certain
specific features that distinguish t from labour in the formal
sector. The labour in this sector is poorly paid and they have
insecure jobs. Both factors make it difficult to organise them
into collective organisations like trade unions. However,
collectivisation is perhaps the only way these workers can fight
for their rights. How do they organise themselves is the main
problem. There have been some studies on organising the
unorganised workers.
The National Labour Institute (now known as V. V. Giri
National Labour Institute) has been conducting camps in
different parts of the country to raise the consciousness of
workers in the informal sector. Vidyut Joshi (1990) has done
an evaluative study of these attempts. The study helps in
understanding the problems encountered in organising the
 54

informal sector workers. It also suggests feasible organisational

strategies.
Rajeshwari Deshpande’s (1999) study of the Hamal
Panchayat in Pune is another case of organising the
unorganised. The Hamal Panchayat is a successful attempt at
mobilising the labourers in the informal sector. It has been
attempting to create a broad-based political alliance of
unorganised workers and the urban poor forcing both state
and civil society to recognise their specific identities and
acknowledge their contribution to the economy and society.

The different experiences and the strategies in organising

labour in the informal sector are discussed in a book edited by
Ruddar Dutt (1997). The papers presented cover theoretical
issues as well as case studies of organising these workers
through unions, credit societies and co-operatives. . Another
such book is edited by Sarath Davala (1994). The papers
published are mainly by activists who share their experiences.
There are also papers on different strategies for organising.
Both volumes are important contributions towards
understanding the problems faced by labour in the informal
sector and the likely solutions.
Social Security
One of the ways of providing some relief to labour in the
informal sector is through social security. In India, social
 55

security and retirement benefits are much sought after. These

are provided to labour in the formal sector. Hence the
eagerness to get jobs in this sector. In case social security, that
would include educational facilities for children and health
facilities for all, was provided to all citizens would there be
such a clamour for jobs in the formal sector? For the poorly
paid worker in the informal sector who has neither security of
employment nor resources to cover major illnesses, life is one
endless struggle against poverty. However, is it possible to
support a social security financially? These are some of the
questions raised by some of the studies quoted below.
The withdrawal of the Welfare State in India has
accentuated the problems of workers in the informal sector.
Noronah and Sharma (1999) raise this and related issues in
their paper on displaced workers. The welfare state had
protected common citizens by providing them free medical aid
and education. It also provided work at the time when work
was not available and food grains at cheap rates when there
were food shortages or when prices rose abnormally. The
withering away of this state has caused great burden on the
people. To make matters worse this withdrawal took place at a
time when industries, especially the older ones, were closing
down, rendering thousands jobless.
The state of Kerala has been successful in promoting
social security through welfare boards. Each board represents
 56

a trade and workers in that trade are members of the board.

The board provides for a number of facilities for its members
based on the funds it has. Funds for the board are collected
through contributions of the workers and the employers. In
some cases a levy is imposed on the trade / industry concerned.
S. Mohanan Pillai (1996) has conducted a study on the welfare
boards in Kerala. The paper also examines the functioning of
the oldest board, namely the Kerala Headloader’s Welfare
Scheme.
R. C. Datta (1998) finds that the neglect of social
opportunities due to lack of adequate progress and social
security has been detrimental to economic and social
development. He further states that in order to remedy this
situation public action must play a central role in ensuring
expansion and monitoring social security. He focuses on the
Mathadi (head load) labour markets in Mumbai. He finds that
the Mathadi Boards are a case of public action enabling these
manual workers in the informal sector to achieve protective
social security benefits.
Renana Jhabvala’s (1998) states that in the context of the
changed world economy and the decline of the welfare state
there is considerable debate on the need to provide social
security to the informal sector. Her study looks at the possible
mechanisms for social; security provisions, insurance, security
funds and state supported childcare. This theme is further
 57

explored in an edited volume by Jhabvala and Subramanian

(2000). The papers in this collection deal with the various social
security schemes and the experiences of mass organisations in
evolving and implementing some of these schemes.
Women and Work
In this section we shall try and assess the studies relating
to gender. It is interesting to see that the major work in this
category was undertaken by sociologists in the 1990s. We do
not find much work in the late 1980s but as we progress to the
1990s, the volume increases. This perhaps indicates that
though the subject of women and work in the urban-industrial
sector was not given its due importance in the earlier phase, its
importance is increasing. There are however serious gaps in
research in this section. For example a large section of the
research is concentrated in the informal sector. Undoubtedly,
women workers for a third of this sector and hence it is natural
that it should attract interest of researchers. However, a
similar interest in the formal sector would be interesting. We
have little information on how women in these industries fare,
except for the fact that their numbers are dwindling. The
Information and Communication Technology sector has
attracted a large number of female workers. In most cities
where this type of outsourcing is done, females predominate in
the labour force. These may be better paid and skilled jobs, but
 58

given the fact that the jobs are insecure, the workers hardly
have any rights at their workplace and no post-retirement
benefits, these holders of such jobs are actually in the informal
sector. These is need to study this growing phenomena. There
have been some studies on this sector but they are just the
minimal. Perhaps there will be greater promise of studies in
the near future.
A question being discussed since the 1970s is how
women’s employment affects their domestic activities. The
issue of women working the ‘double shift’ is often raised in
developing countries. The first shift is in their place of work,
where they work for a wage. The second shift starts at home,
where women have to continue doing household work. ISA
Baud, a Dutch sociologist, has tried to explore this problem in
her study of gender aspects of industrialisation in India and
Mexico (Baud 1991). The study takes into account the petty
production units employing mainly casual female labour.
There are descriptions and discussions of women’s
employment in the textile and shrimp processing industries in
India and the shoe industry in Mexico. Alongside the author
examines the differential position of women in the household in
all three cases. She goes on to discuss the factors which
determine the differential bargaining position of women in the
household situation in relation to the different forms of
production.
 59

Baud (1992) has examined the effects of industrialisation

on women workers in developing countries. Her paper is
concerned with the changes occurring in women’s employment
during the current industrialisation process. More specifically
the study deals with how women’s employment varies within
large, small scale and artisanal forms of production and the
implications this has for women’s bargaining power within the
household. Hilary Standing (1991) explores a similar theme.
Her study on women’s employment and family in Calcutta
(Kolkata) focuses on the impact of their intra-household
relations and familial ideologies. Standing uses a mixed
methodology combining a sample survey of women workers
along with detailed structured and unstructured interviews
with several members of the household of each of the employed
women.
Uma Kalpagam (1994) explores different aspects of
labour and gender in her collection of papers. The different
papers deal with diverse issues but there is a thematic unity in
the sense that most of the studies deal with patriarchy and
gender. Examples from the garment industry, electronics and
service and processing sectors show that women get ‘crowded’
in unskilled, low-wage jobs. Kalpagam finds that the
patriarchical role of the state reinforces cultural norms where
women are constructed as dependent. This provides the
rationale for women’s subservience to males in the family,
 60

household, property ownership and other facets of their lives.

This further justifies the treatment of women as the labour
reserve to be employed at lower wages. Finally, her analyses
shows that it is only where women have organised themselves
to articulate their demands that one finds a ray of hope and, of
course, the only option for getting rid of the overall oppressive
system.
Joseph and Prasad (1995) discuss the reality of gender at
work. The book focuses on women and their facets of work in
the marine food processing units, construction workers,
operating of an NGO among rural women and study of labour
administration and labour law enforcement in Maharashtra.
The authors discuss the role of a trade union that became
productive with the active participation of women. However,
women within it are marginalized. The book also talks about
the NGO Disha which works on the ‘gender and development”
approach where women are seen as resources and as full-
fledged participants in development. The labour
administration system in Maharashtra is critiqued as it
highlights the biased recruitment process. It also exposes
limited employment for women, the problems they encounter
while balancing home with their work.
Another interesting study on women in fish processing
industry (besides the ones by Baud and Joseph op. cit.) is by
Warrier (2001). The author has based her findings on an in-
 61

depth survey of 60 workers from Kerala and a broader sample

of 250 from the different production centres. The paper
discusses the nature of the fish processing industry in India at
a general level and focuses on issues concerning the migrant
women workforce. This industry is situated in various parts of
the country and its labour force is almost exclusively of
migrant women. A preponderant majority are from Kerala but
of late women from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and
Karnataka have also joined. The migrants are recruited by
agents who not only provide them work but also maintain
control over their work and life.
Leela Fernandes’ (1997) monograph on women in the jute
mills in Kolkata focuses on the political processes through
which categories are constructed. She highlights the tension in
India between a ‘national’ level discourse of a unitary
‘working class’ and the political fragmentation of workers and
trade unionists in the local context. She moves beyond the
narrow confines of unionised politics to examine the
negotiation of power in the everyday life of the family,
neighbourhood, shop floor and other areas.
The book contributes towards a better understanding of
workers’ politics and trade union practice and the
marginalisation of women workers in the organised (formal)
sector. It also brings out women’s resistance to the ideology of
domesticity and the devaluation of their work roles, the
 62

restricted scope for independent collective action and

generational transmission of hierarchies among them.
An interesting but important study on women and work
under patriarchy is by Nirmala Banerjee (1999). In this essay
she dissents from the most prevalent interpretation of women’s
secondary position and pay which argue generally that greater
employment opportunities can give women more
independence. She is critical of the hard-core Marxist
approach of Maria Mies who explain that capitalism relies on
‘housewifisation’. Banerjee points out that in East and South
East Asia, capitalism has in fact drawn women into the labour
market rather than binding them down as housewives.
Banerjee points out that a major cause for women’s
marginalisation was due to a trade union movement that did
not specifically take up gender issues. The trade union
movement undoubtedly had an enormous impact on the lives
of the working people. However the same organisation was
used to protect only male workers and in effect it turned
against women workers. Banerjee does not clarify whether the
trade union movement is inherently anti-female as it
progresses or is it because its orientation is changed by vested
interests. Moreover she does not suggest any solutions. Would
she recommend scrapping of the trade union movement or
would she want separate trade unions for women?
 63

Banerjee and Mitter (1998) have conducted a study on

Indian workingwomen’s response to technical changes in a
globalising world. The authors examine several instances of
women from diverse backgrounds who interact with changing
technologies at their work. The analyses show that inspite of
the many difficulties the reasons why women have been the
greater losers (compared to men) are surprisingly similar.
The increase in the employment of women in the informal
sector is discussed in a few studies. Unni (2001) provides
evidence of the growing informalisation of the female labour
force in South Asian countries. There are two broad
components of the informal economy, i.e., non-wage and wage
employment. The share of the first component has been rising
in the 1980s and 1990s. Within non-wage employment, certain
invisible groups such as home-based workers and street
vendors are vulnerable to changes in the global and local
economy. The increasing casualisation of the workforce is
evidence of an increase in the second broad component. Within
wage employment, home-workers or outworkers and informal
workers in the formal enterprises are vulnerable. The low
quality of employment available to women in the informal
economy is brought out by evidence on the wages and incomes
received and differentials in earning.
While discussing the same phenomenon, V. Vanamala
(2001) notes that state-sponsored incentive schemes and
 64

exemptions to the small-scale sector have encouraged the

increase of the informal industrial sector. These concessions
are on capital investment but the state has not taken any step
to that industry provide the statutory welfare benefits and
proper working conditions for its workers. Her study of an
engineering unit shows that there is not only growing
casualisation of labour with recruitment on contractual basis,
but also an increase in feminisation of the workforce as women
are engaged to operate most production processes. This case is
somewhat unusual because most studies on small-scale
industrial units show that there is little feminisation of the
workforce. Hence Vanmala’s case study could be more of an
exception than a rule.
Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt (2001) discusses the marginalisation
of women workers in the coal mining industry. The mines
employed women in coal mines in various stages of production.
These women belonged to tribal or lower caste communities.
Their role continued to be significant as long as technology
remained labour-intensive and collieries were small and
surface-bound. The expansion of the industry and increasing
mechanisation saw a decline in women’s participation. Lahiri-
Datt’s research is based in the Ranigunj coal belt in Eastern
India. She describes how the work of resource extraction
becomes gendered, the growing marginalisation of women and
their alienation from access to environmental resources and
 65

their transformation into illegitimate and invisible beings.

While on the subject of marginalisation on women in the
mining industry it is necessary to note that this happened with
the ban on women working underground before the Second
World War. The ILO has a convention to this effect. Such a
ban has meant that women can work only on the surface. The
only jobs available are those involving labour-intensive and
poorly paid activities while the better-paid jobs were below the
surface. Hence it is not technology but a ban that led to
marginalisation of women workers in the mines.
While on the subject of job losses of women in the formal
sector it should be noted that their marginalisation came from
certain protective legislation such as ban on underground work
in mines and a ban on night work in factories. Another
important legislation was on maternity benefit. Amrita
Chhachi (1998) has discussed this issue in her analysis of the
Maternity Benefit Bill of 1929. Her study focuses on the
Bombay Legislative Assembly debates over the bill. She brings
to light the various issues raised in these debates. However her
main focus is on the main issue the bill brought to the fore,
namely, who should bear the cost of reproduction of labour:
the state, capital (employer) or the husband? Though her study
is on the Bill passed in 1929, the issues raised are very
contemporary.
Concluding Observations
 66

We have tried to cover the main researches in the field of

industrial sociology in the above sections. Both the field and
the time period are quite vast and it is possible that some of the
works published have been missed. We are sorry for that.
However we have tried our best to cover all the work that was
published during the given period and any omission is an
oversight and not a deliberate attempt to omit any study.
After going through the work done in the field one is
quite impressed by the large volume published. On further
examination we found that there were some areas where a lot
of work had been done but there were other areas where a lot
more research was needed. On such area is the informal sector.
Very little work has been done on labour or even the
employers in this sector. There are studies on work in this
sector but these are conducted mainly by economists or
statisticians. What are needed are ethnographic studies on
work in the informal sector. ---the type that Jan Breman has
done. Why is it that sociologists, especially the younger ones,
are so averse to fieldwork? Is it because it is difficult to rough
it out in the field? Or, have sociologists become soft and they
can’t stand the rigours of fieldwork? The earlier sociologists
drew a lot of their data from rigorous fieldwork. N. R. Sheth
and E. A. Ramaswamy stayed in the field, among workers, for
months in order to gain an insight to their social life and their
attitudes towards work. In more recent times we have Jan
 67

Breman and Jonathan Parry who are engaged in intensive

fieldwork. Parry has been studying workers in Bhilai since
1993 by living among them. Mark Holmstrom too did extensive
field work in the working class areas of Bangalore before he
wrote his highly insightful monograph, South Indian Factory
Worker. Sometimes one feels embarrassed to see senior
sociologists / social anthropologists from Britain and the
Netherlands coming to India and engaging in extensive
fieldwork, whereas Indians would prefer to base their studies
on secondary data. In case they use primary data, it would be
through elaborate questionnaires that are administered to
most unwilling respondents. This is a highly unreliable method
of data collection as one rarely gets correct data from
respondents through questionnaires. I always ask my
enthusiastic students to first administer the questionnaire to
them and see if they have the patience to answer the long list of
questions.
The micro-electronic revolution has brought in rapid
changes in the production process and, more important, in the
organisation of services. In just a decade, the telecom sector
has connected the remotest parts of the country. This has given
rise to telecom related services, outsourcing and new
production relations on a global scale. Unfortunately this area
has remained largely unstudied by sociologists. We have
discussed some of the studies undertaken but these are not
 68

enough. One would have expected sociologists to study the

effects of this revolution on the nature of work, social and
industrial relations, what effect these changes have had on the
youth and their vision of the future, how have women workers
been affected. Unfortunately this did not happen.
Globalisation has resulted in two extremes in
development in developing countries like India. It has resulted
in outsourcing of business from the developed countries to the
developing ones like India. At the upper end we have an
educated, westernised and technically skilled work force which
is engaged in Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs). At the
lower end we have outsourcing of production. This work is
done by poorly paid workers, a significant number of who are
women. These include workers in garment factories,
workshops producing leather goods, small scale industries
manufacturing precision instruments etc. The workers in
production units are not like their sophisticated counterparts
engaged in outsourcing in the services sector, mentioned above.
It is quite evident that this divide will continue in the future
and may in fact increase. What are the effects of these types of
work on the workers and their families? Naila Kabeer has
made a study of garment workers in Bangladesh and she finds
that despite the extreme forma of exploitation the large
numbers of women engaged in this industry have some
independent source of income that they can use to improve
 69

their households and educate their children. The other side is

that they earn subsistence wages and their savings are nil or
low. If these industries close or move elsewhere the women will
have nothing to fall back upon. Studies of this type need to be
done in India too but they have not been done so far.
Globalisation and liberalisation have given rise to many
new categories of workers. These workers are not totally
unskilled or illiterate. They include the growing business of
courier services, the increasing network of cable TV, the
spread of cyber cafes and other such activities has provided
employment to many but these are by and largely poorly paid
with no security of job and no facilities at work. Studies on
work and control over work in such activities are needed.
The new types of work, whether in the BPOs or in the low
end of outsourcing, have created employment and have
increased the choices before the people. However, most of these
jobs are neither permanent nor do they provide for any social
security or any other benefits. The next issue that has gripped
planners and activists is how laws can be made to provide for
social security to workers in the informal sector. The report of
the Second National Labour Commission has suggested that
government must try and have an umbrella legislation for this
sector that will cover the needs of most of the workers. How
can this happen? What are the growing problems of the
informal sector and how do the workers perceive them. How
 70

can we move towards solutions? These are issues sociologists

could have raised; unfortunately the reaction of sociologists to
the informal sector has been luke-warm and issues of social
security are hardly researched.
Finally, we can say that industrial sociology has made its
impact of the social sciences. However much more needs to be
done in terms of research, especially in the emerging areas.

*********************
 71

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*
Much of the data collection for this chapter was done by Ms.
Anonna Bannerji, Research Scholar, Depart of Sociology,
University of Mumbai. I am very grateful to her for her
painstaking work, without which it would be difficult to write
this chapter. Dr. R. G. Goswami of the Documentation Section
of ICSSR, helped me in locating the articles and book reviews I
needed and he sent me photocopies of these. I am very
thankful to him for his help.