Labouring Lives: Industry and Informality in New India

Clothes and cars are sparkling symbols of India’s economic success but few think about the men and women who toil ceaselessly on the sewing machines and assembly lines to produce them. Based on interviews carried out over many years in Delhi’s National Capital Region Labouring Lives provides a glimpse of the world of workers in the automobile and readymade garment industries. Archana Aggarwal combines first-hand accounts from workshops and tenements with an examination of policy and law to illuminate the consequences of flexibilisation and informalisation of labour. The book forcefully argues for a shift away from the mainstream view where workers are dehumanised and markets are the sole determinant of employment wages and working conditions.