Papers by Sirisha C. Naidu
Journal of Agrarian Change, 2024
The literature on agrarian change in India has largely employed class categories based upon data ... more The literature on agrarian change in India has largely employed class categories based upon data on land, assets and occupational status, which collapse women's class relations into those of (mostly male) households heads. In this paper, we interrogate this understanding of class building on the work of Carmen Diana Deere. Employing the first ever national time use survey conducted in India in 2019 we interrogate class as a labor process that intersects with caste and gender. Our analysis of the data using a Marxist-feminist framework suggests the following. First, there exist intrahousehold gendered differences in class locations. This calls to question theoretical frameworks that assign a cohesive class location to all household members which underlie data collection in India and elsewhere. Second, individuals participate in multiple labor processes depending on their caste and gender. Hence, they may be subsumed to capital in varied and sometimes contradictory ways. Finally, we find that both men and women engage in reproductive labor in addition to other forms of labor, which varies by caste categories. This finding further underscores and supports previous research on the importance of an expanded conception of work that includes reproductive labor. In sum, we argue for a more complex understanding of class in India, one that incorporates its caste and gender dimensions.
Journal of Agrarian Change , 2023
Efforts to decentre/decolonize our understanding of capitalist development in the Global South ca... more Efforts to decentre/decolonize our understanding of capitalist development in the Global South call for more complex and differentiated categories of work that acknowledge the significance of both non-waged and reproductive labour. These categories would allow us to more clearly ‘see’ the varying intersections of gender, class and caste within this world of work. Even as the literature on work in the Global South acknowledges the importance of forms of non-waged work, there is still more work to be done to sufficiently incorporate the labour of social reproduction. In this paper, which emerges from an effort to apply a feminist social reproduction lens in the field, we propose understanding work through four conceptual dyads: waged productive labour, non-waged productive labour, waged reproductive labour and non-waged reproductive labour. Through an in-depth description of three specific cases from a time-use survey we conducted in rural Punjab, India, we argue not only that all four dyads are required to encompass the world of work but also that this more expansive conceptualization can help us produce richer analyses of the intersections of class, caste and gender.
Review of Radical Political Economics , 2023
This paper offers a reformulation of social reproduction theory's (SRT) circuit of social reprodu... more This paper offers a reformulation of social reproduction theory's (SRT) circuit of social reproduction that is suitable for the Global South. Drawing from existing literature, the paper argues that wage labor is not always central to social reproduction and that there exist multiple labors of social reproduction associated with capitalist production, non-capitalist commodity production, and subsistence production. These stylized interrelated labor processes, which are co-constituted with nature, represent the circuits of social reproduction. The circuits clarify how working people engage in social reproduction even when the wage economy is inadequate for survival. They also offer a basis for interrogating crises of social reproduction when the totality of work time does not guarantee socially determined necessary consumption. These reworked circuits present opportunities for identifying both potential sites of exploitation as well as sites of resistance in the Global South.
Agrarian South, 2021
The Fast Track Land Reform Program (FTLRP) in Zimbabwe effected changes in the racial, class, and... more The Fast Track Land Reform Program (FTLRP) in Zimbabwe effected changes in the racial, class, and gender structure of land ownership. However, while changes in the racial and class structure have been well explored in existing literature, their articulation to gender in the agrarian structure is not yet well understood. This is because the literature has mainly accounted for gender in relation to the formal redistribution of land to women through titling, and not as a structural element of agrarian reform that locates women within the labor and capital nexus of land ownership. This article aims to fill this gap in our understanding of the gendered agrarian component of FTLRP by locating gender within the political economy of the agrarian reform and by evaluating gender in relation to the capitalist accumulation structure which the land reform sought to alter.
Labour Questions in the Global South , 2021
Analysis of the behaviour of the peasantry has historically focused on three main issues: perceiv... more Analysis of the behaviour of the peasantry has historically focused on three main issues: perceived peasant backwardness and modernisation of peasant agriculture, the role of the agrarian economy in national economic development, and the relationship between agrarian transformations and emancipatory politics. While feminist agrarian studies have highlighted a fourth element-the gendered nature of exploitation attached to social reproduction in the process of agrarian transitions-the conceptual dimensions of this gendered labour remain vague in the literature. We seek in this paper to address this lacuna by focusing on the labour processes associated with rural and agrarian economies through a theoretical exploration of reproductive labour as an agrarian question. We argue that under the global neoliberal economic regime and the resulting labour fragmentation, capitalist markets increasingly rely on such reproductive labours whose dimensions are now different. Beyond denoting women's historical burden of reproduction, we argue that every productive activity is a mere act of survival, disarticulated from accumulation and therefore assumes less importance to both national and global concerns. Our analysis thus argues for a shift of an exclusive focus on exploitation under capitalist value creation to survival not just of labour but of human life under phases of capitalist accumulation. We suggest that reproduction constitutes the core of the agrarian question of labour, and that it has implications for the politics of societal transformation.
Economic and Political Weekly , 2021
This paper employs a social reproduction framework to argue that the two main institutions of cap... more This paper employs a social reproduction framework to argue that the two main institutions of capitalism-the markets and the state-have failed to adequately provide for the working people of India during the pandemic while fostering gender inequities. While the demand for gender equity in the domestic sphere and the workplace is not new, the pandemic further underscores its urgency.
Economic and Political Weekly , 2021
We employ a feminist political economy lens to explore the impact of the current pandemic on vuln... more We employ a feminist political economy lens to explore the impact of the current pandemic on vulnerable communities in the United States and India. We examine three epidemiological public service announcements—social distancing, sheltering at home, handwashing—which are necessary to protect and save lives. However, we argue that the PSAs are deployed in an uneven social and economic terrain that deepen structural inequities across gender, caste, race, sexuality, and class. This expression of hierarchies during the pandemic also reflects the failure of global capitalism to provide for people and life. Ultimately, communities have stepped in with an emphasis on relationships of interdependence, and we see in these actions a potential way to form transnational feminist solidarity.
Using a social reproduction framework, this article explores how reproduction of rural working cl... more Using a social reproduction framework, this article explores how reproduction of rural working class households is rearticulated to capitalist production in India. Our analysis of the conditions in India reveals that the interaction of three institutions – market, state, and household – has imposed the burden of reproduction on women. In turn, women's work is dependent on private and common lands. This link, between the role of women's unpaid labour in reproducing rural households and the fact that this work remains largely dependent on land, constitutes a failure of the Indian economy to provide decent livelihoods. It also reasserts gender equity as a contemporary and unresolved question in the midst of India's agrarian transition and underscores the importance of instituting agrarian reforms and state intervention at levels sufficient for social reproduction.
This paper reports the results of a statistical investigation of the relationship between labor t... more This paper reports the results of a statistical investigation of the relationship between labor time expended in rural livelihoods, social structure, and community forest management. The object is to understand the impact of labor constraints to collective action. There are three main results. First, increasing time burden of work has a negative impact on collective forest management. Second, the gendered nature of work imposes a high burden on women and hence impedes their ability to participate in collective management even if incentives exist. In addition, lower access to social infrastructure further increases work burdens and decreases ability to participate. Finally, high levels of wealth lead to lower individual participation but this not because of high opportunity of time worked.
Even as the literature on work in the Global South acknowledges the importance of forms of non-wa... more Even as the literature on work in the Global South acknowledges the importance of forms of non-waged work, it has not sufficiently incorporated consideration of the labor of social reproduction. We propose understanding work through four conceptual dyads: waged productive labor, non-waged productive labor, waged reproductive labor, and non-waged reproductive labor. Through an in-depth description of three specific cases from a Time Use Survey we conducted in rural Punjab, India, we argue not only that all four dyads are required to encompass the world of work, but that this more expansive conceptualization can help us produce richer analyses of the intersections of class, caste and gender.
Co-authored with Smriti Rao
Abstract: The current debate over female labor force participation i... more Co-authored with Smriti Rao
Abstract: The current debate over female labor force participation in India has failed to sufficiently account for the reproductive work of women. Using NSS data on reproductive labor, we investigate the possibility that a “reproductive squeeze” raises the opportunity costs of labor force participation for women. A variety of multinomial logit regressions reveal a robust positive relationship between the shares of non-discretionary food and non-food expenditure and the likelihood of performing reproductive labor, relative to being in the labor force. We also find that an indicator of greater social provisioning by the state is positively correlated with rural women’s labor force participation, all else constant.
The paper benefi ted from thoughtful comments and suggestions from Avanti Mukherjee, Smriti Rao a... more The paper benefi ted from thoughtful comments and suggestions from Avanti Mukherjee, Smriti Rao and an anonymous reviewer, and from discussions with Panayiotis Manolakos, Swati Birla and Arvind Elangovan. The usual disclaimer applies.
Review of Radical Political Economics , 2018
In this paper we broaden Marx's immiseration thesis to articulate social reproduction under capit... more In this paper we broaden Marx's immiseration thesis to articulate social reproduction under capitalist growth. Specifically, we compare the female labor market in the context of the wage economy, the family household and the state, three institutions that influence the production-reproduction system. Our observations lead us to conclude that the neoliberal growth path has exacerbated inequities in the opportunities for female workers in both countries. Our findings affirm both the differentiation and homogenization of conditions of reproduction under capitalist exploitation.
Review of Radical Political Economics
This paper investigates the correlates of inequity in the distribution of exposure to air polluti... more This paper investigates the correlates of inequity in the distribution of exposure to air pollution in the state of Ohio. Although virtually all studies in the environmental justice literature analyze cross-sectional data, we construct a panel data set and estimate an econometric model of exposure utilizing the generalized method of moments. In addition, we postulate a surrogate for class position derived from data on estate tax collections. Even after accounting for some of the criticisms of the environmental justice literature, class and race are still significant correlates of the distribution of environmental burdens.
Ecological Economics , 2013
Do exclusionary forest access regimes have an unequal impact on livelihood activities? This paper... more Do exclusionary forest access regimes have an unequal impact on livelihood activities? This paper analyzes
primary data on time allocation to livelihood activities by forest communities in the Indian Himalayas to investigate
this question. Estimation results are consistent with the hypothesis that forest access regimes affect
both forest extraction behavior and other livelihood strategies. Residents of sanctuary forests, experiencing
higher restrictions on forest use, decrease the proportion of time allocated to forest extraction and livestock
activities, but compensate by increasing their time allocation to agriculture in comparison to residents of
state-controlled protected forests. However, wealthy residents of the wildlife sanctuary expend a higher proportion
of their time in managing livestock and extracting forest resources in comparison to its less affluent
residents. Thus wealth enables circumvention of access restrictions despite legalization of exclusion. Findings
of this study have implications for design of biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration policies.
Economic and Political Weekly , 2013
A widely-cited social cost-benefit analysis conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic... more A widely-cited social cost-benefit analysis conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research projected net benefits from the POSCO steel project in Odisha. Yet, a close examination of the report suggests a fl awed methodology and inexplicable changes in assumptions. As a result, the two primary benefits claimed for the POSCO project – employment and revenues to the state – seem to be grossly incorrect. The privatisation of base data used in some of the projections not only makes the task of verification arduous, but also puts it beyond the reach of
democratic oversight. The issues in applied economic research in this case can be seen as symptomatic of structural problems in neo-liberal policymaking.
Economic and Political Weekly , 2011
Privatization and informalization of production, land fragmentation and the agrarian crisis in In... more Privatization and informalization of production, land fragmentation and the agrarian crisis in India has forced a significant fraction of rural households to underconsume and widened the income gap at a time of relatively high economic growth.
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Papers by Sirisha C. Naidu
Abstract: The current debate over female labor force participation in India has failed to sufficiently account for the reproductive work of women. Using NSS data on reproductive labor, we investigate the possibility that a “reproductive squeeze” raises the opportunity costs of labor force participation for women. A variety of multinomial logit regressions reveal a robust positive relationship between the shares of non-discretionary food and non-food expenditure and the likelihood of performing reproductive labor, relative to being in the labor force. We also find that an indicator of greater social provisioning by the state is positively correlated with rural women’s labor force participation, all else constant.
primary data on time allocation to livelihood activities by forest communities in the Indian Himalayas to investigate
this question. Estimation results are consistent with the hypothesis that forest access regimes affect
both forest extraction behavior and other livelihood strategies. Residents of sanctuary forests, experiencing
higher restrictions on forest use, decrease the proportion of time allocated to forest extraction and livestock
activities, but compensate by increasing their time allocation to agriculture in comparison to residents of
state-controlled protected forests. However, wealthy residents of the wildlife sanctuary expend a higher proportion
of their time in managing livestock and extracting forest resources in comparison to its less affluent
residents. Thus wealth enables circumvention of access restrictions despite legalization of exclusion. Findings
of this study have implications for design of biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration policies.
democratic oversight. The issues in applied economic research in this case can be seen as symptomatic of structural problems in neo-liberal policymaking.
Abstract: The current debate over female labor force participation in India has failed to sufficiently account for the reproductive work of women. Using NSS data on reproductive labor, we investigate the possibility that a “reproductive squeeze” raises the opportunity costs of labor force participation for women. A variety of multinomial logit regressions reveal a robust positive relationship between the shares of non-discretionary food and non-food expenditure and the likelihood of performing reproductive labor, relative to being in the labor force. We also find that an indicator of greater social provisioning by the state is positively correlated with rural women’s labor force participation, all else constant.
primary data on time allocation to livelihood activities by forest communities in the Indian Himalayas to investigate
this question. Estimation results are consistent with the hypothesis that forest access regimes affect
both forest extraction behavior and other livelihood strategies. Residents of sanctuary forests, experiencing
higher restrictions on forest use, decrease the proportion of time allocated to forest extraction and livestock
activities, but compensate by increasing their time allocation to agriculture in comparison to residents of
state-controlled protected forests. However, wealthy residents of the wildlife sanctuary expend a higher proportion
of their time in managing livestock and extracting forest resources in comparison to its less affluent
residents. Thus wealth enables circumvention of access restrictions despite legalization of exclusion. Findings
of this study have implications for design of biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration policies.
democratic oversight. The issues in applied economic research in this case can be seen as symptomatic of structural problems in neo-liberal policymaking.