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"As the Indian economy integrates into global circuits of production, exchange and accumulation, the burdens of adjustment are shared unequally by different sectors, classes and regions. This study unravels the livelihood strategies and living conditions of labour in Assam’s tea sector, which has been undergoing a crisis since the 1990s. Stagnant production, decline in exports, and closures of many tea gardens have led to large-scale retrenchments in the labour force.
The study begins by contextualising the Assam tea sector in a comparative and historical perspective, and then delineates the chief employment characteristics of labour in this industry. Based on a detailed analysis of secondary data and primary field research, it goes on to examine the extent, types and implications of inter-generational occupational mobility (or immobility) among labourers in Assam’s tea gardens. In the process, it reflects on how even a sector that brought capital and labour from outside and contributed significantly to the country’s export earnings failed to create dynamic growth linkages within the local economy.
The study contributes to understanding not only the development dynamics of the region, but also the contradictory ways in which forces of globalisation and neo-liberal reforms have been reshaping the worlds of labourers in the margins.
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ISBN - 9780415523080
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Pages : 264
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