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Center for Social Policy
McCormack Graduate School
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA 02125-3393
Phone: (617) 287 5550
Fax: (617) 287 5544
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Informal Labor in India Featured in UMass Boston Forum
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Author(s):
n/a
Source(s):
Center for Social Policy
Date: October 4, 2004
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Thousands of women around the world work for below- poverty incomes as part of local or global
production chains. They may also work as "own account" operators, as for example street vendors,
or in traditional casual employment (construction workers). They are part of what has been
called informal employment.
The Center for Social Policy (CSP) at UMass Boston presents a forum this fall on informal jobs
and laborers in India to be held at UMass Boston. The forum, entitled, "Globalization of Production
and Poverty: Informal Jobs in India", will take place Monday, October 4, 2004 at UMass Boston's
Healey Library in the Instructional Technology Center, Presentation Room Two, 11:00 am to 12:30 pm.
The forum features a dialogue by policy activists & researchers on informal employment in
urban as well as rural areas of the Indian state of Gujarat & surrounding regions.
Researchers and activists from the U.S. and India will speak about their recent research
documenting the experiences of women in "informal jobs". Françoise Carré, CSP; Martha Chen,
Harvard University and WIEGO; Renana Jhabvala, SEWA (the Self- Employed Women's Association);
and Jeemol Unni, Gujarat Institute of Development Research, India all spent time with women
laborers whose jobs are often left out of mainstream protections. Cigarette rollers, tobacco
pickers, construction laborers, vegetable vendors, embroiderers, and home base garment workers
were among some of the laborers they visited. The forum will feature a discussion by the
panelists, a question and answer period, and documentary photography.
"These workers are increasingly affected by the globalization of production," says researcher
Françoise Carré, Ph.D., of CSP. "They are affected by production through subcontracting
arrangements that span national boundaries. They can also be affected by competition for the
products they make stemming from distant areas or by the import of machinery."
Presenters at the forum will focus on the situation of these workers in India. These activists
and academics will draw upon their experience with organizing and field work in the India state
of Gujarat and neighboring states. All are welcome.
"Globalization of Production and Poverty: Informal Jobs in India" is co-sponsored by the College
of Public and Community Service (UMB), the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy (UMB),
MITR - Indian Student Association (UMB), and Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and
Organizing (WIEGO).
The Center for Social Policy, at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, UMass
Boston, engages in applied research aimed at addressing social and economic inequalities in
Massachusetts, New England and across the country.
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