Informal Labor, Formal Politics and Dignified Discontent in India!

Agarwala, Rina (2013) Informal Labor, Formal Politics and Dignified Discontent in India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Since the 1980s, the world’s governments have decreased state welfare and increased the proportion of unprotected “informal” or “precarious” workers.  As a result, more and more workers do not receive secure wages or benefits from either employers or the state. What are these workers doing to improve their livelihoods?  Dignifying Discontent offers a fresh and provocative look into the alternative social movements informal workers in India are launching. It also offers a unique analysis of the conditions under which these movements succeed or fail. Drawing from 300 interviews with informal workers, government officials, and union leaders, Rina Agarwala argues that Indian informal workers are using their power as voters to demand the state for welfare benefits (such as education, housing, and healthcare), rather than demanding employers for traditional work benefits (such as minimum wages and job security). In addition, they are organizing at the neighborhood level, rather than the shop floor, and appealing to “citizenship,” rather than labor rights.  Agarwala concludes that movements are most successful when operating under parties that compete for mass votes and support economic liberalization (even populist parties). They are least successful when operating under non-competitive electoral contexts (even those tied to communist parties).

Endorsements:

“What a splendid book! In the face of market fundamentalism, Rina Agarwala shows how informal workers in India have managed to exploit competitive politics to wring concessions from the state. A chink of light in a bleak scene. Labor optimists and pessimists alike must read this book.”

Michael Burawoy, University of California, Berkeley

“Combining rigorous scholarship with remarkable empathy for her research subjects, Rina Agarwala illuminates the surprising capacity of informal sector workers in India to win victories even as the government turned to marketoriented policies. Her study forces us to think differently about the intersection of poverty, unions, government, and social movements.”

Fred Block, University of California, Davis

“This book explores the remarkable and surprising organizational successes of women workers in two sectors of India’s vast informal economy. In a masterful comparative analysis that cuts across three Indian states, Agarwala not only explains how these women have articulated and claimed rights as workers, but also provides a fascinating account of how their mobilization marks a new paradigm in labor organizing. For anyone interested in understanding the momentous social and economic transformation that India is going through, this is a must-read.”

Patrick Heller, Brown University

“This is a beautifully crafted, path-breaking study that upends conventional wisdom about the relentless demise of labor movements. Agarwala’s lucid analysis of the ways in which precariously employed informal workers in India have organized to improve their status bristles with insights on every page. This superb book is a must-read not only for specialists in South Asia but for anyone interested in the future of the labor movement, in the global North as much as in the South.”

Ruth Milkman, City University of New York