Briefing Paper Strengthening the humanity and dignity of people in crisis through knowledge and practice From Subjects to Citizens? Labor, Mobility and Social Transformation in Rural Nepal By Jeevan Raj Sharma and Antonio Donini March 2012 Poshan Dahal The Feinstein International Center develops and promotes operational and policy responses to protect and strengthen the lives and livelihoods of people living in crisis-affected and marginalized communities. The Center works globally in partnership with national and international organizations to bring about institutional changes that enhance effective policy reform and promote best practice. This report is available online at fi c.tufts.edu Abstract This report is a follow-up to our previous study on Maoist insurgency and local perceptions of social transformation in Nepal. It presents and analyses the fi ndings of a two-month long fi eld research on the nature of changes on labor relations and mobility in western Nepal. The fi eld-research was guided by these key questions: what is the nature of change in labor relations in rural Nepal? Has labor shifted from ‘semi-feudal’ and ‘peasant’ modes of production in agricultural settings to ‘wage labor’ in urban and non-agricultural settings? Has this process benefi tted laboring households in rural Nepal? Findings from our fi eld research suggest that labor relations in rural Nepal have undergone major changes in recent decades accompanied by livelihood diversifi cation and multi-locale livelihoods in Nepal. Not only has rural to urban migration emerged as an important part of livelihoods, rural laboring households are drawing income both from wage labor in agriculture and other wage labor opportunities that have emerged locally. Attached forms of patron-client caste based relations have signifi cantly weakened. Although traditional forms of semi-feudal labor relations have not disappeared completely and some poorer households are still engaged in semi-feudal and caste-based labor arrangements in agriculture, there is clear evidence of increasing numbers of laboring households involved in wage labor within or outside the village. Many are commuting to work in construction and informal sectors in nearby villages or roadside markets and cities. In our attempt to understand the political economy of rural livelihoods and labor, we have identifi ed four themes to characterize the changing nature of labor in Nepal: a) diversifi cation of rural livelihoods from land and agriculture-based to non-agricultural and non- land based; b) gradual weakening of traditional systems of labor arrangements including caste-based division of labor; c) commodifi ed labor; and d) widespread mobility of labor both within and outside of the country. Overall, we argue that these changes indicate a clear shift in the social and economic position of the laboring population from subjects to citizens. This change has increased economic and political agency of the laborers and laboring households but is not free from vulnerabilities and risks. Despite the weakening of semi-feudal labor relations, laboring households have not been able to enhance their economic status on a signifi cant or a sustainable basis. Compared to the past, wages have increased and laboring households have access to cash, but income is not enough to meet subsistence needs as the sources of expenses have also increased and so has their dependence on the market. Jeevan Raj Sharma Antonio Donini 19 February 2012 2 “From Subjects to Citizens? Labor, Mobility and Social Transformation in Rural Nepal” By Jeevan Raj Sharma and Antonio Donini Table of Contents Abstract . 2 Acknowledgments . 4 Introduction . 5 Organization of the Study and Methodology . 6 A Review of the Political Economy of Livelihoods and Labor in Nepal . 8 The Nature of Changes in Labor and Livelihoods . 13 1. Diversifi cation of work: shift from agricultural to non-agricultural labor . 13 2. Weakening of semi-feudal labor arrangements . .15 3. Commodifi ed labor . .18 4. Widespread mobility of labor . .19 From Subjects to Citizens? . 21 Risks and Vulnerability . 23 References . 25 About the Authors . 26 Annex 1 (Fieldwork site details) . 27 Annex 2 (Fieldwork site details) . 28 Annex 3 (Labor Practices) . 30 “From Subjects to Citizens? Labor, Mobility and Social Transformation in Rural Nepal” By Jeevan Raj Sharma and Antonio Donini 3 Acknowledgments This research was made possible by a generous grant from the Humanity United Foundation. Many local contacts and friends facilitated our work on the ground in Nepal. The authors would like to thank in particular the following researchers for their hard work: Avash Piya, Sadixya Bista, Bijay Chettri and Ramakanta Tiwari. Avash Piya coordinated the fi eld-research and also provided assistance in the quick survey of the literature. Sadixya Bista, Ramakanta Tiwari, and Bijay Chettri traveled to western Nepal, carried out the fi eldwork and prepared the fi eld-notes and interview transcripts. Above all, we wish to thank the women and men in rural Nepal who gave generously of their time to answer our questions on the changes that were taking place in their environment and their livelihoods. As always, we value comments and feedback from our readers. These should be sent to <[email protected]> and <[email protected]> 4 “From Subjects to Citizens? Labor, Mobility and Social Transformation in Rural Nepal” By Jeevan Raj Sharma and Antonio Donini Introduction This report aims to understand the forms and nature of labor, that the political economy of livelihoods in rural Nepal had including bonded, semi-feudal and other forms of modern not changed dramatically. The ‘revolution’ brought about by ‘unfree’ labor in various sectors of work and employment, and the Maoist insurgency had not made a serious dent in the how they are shaped by the ongoing social transformations structural violence that continues to characterize life in rural in Nepali society. Based on a two-month long fi eld research, Nepal. We concluded that if transformation in rural Nepal this study looks at the nature of labor from the perspective of was more about the symbolic and the “awareness” aspects of individuals and communities at the lower end of the socio- social relationships and less about the structural dimensions economic scale and of the decisions they make to improve their of the human condition, the perceived disconnect between human condition. In this study, we focus on the livelihoods of aspirations and reality was bound to escalate with potentially manual laborers in the unorganized or informal sectors such as serious consequences. In this study, we explore the nature of the agricultural, informal service or construction sectors. The changes in labor relations and livelihoods in western Nepal and fi eldwork focused on the political economy of livelihoods and whether the changes in labor relations have benefi tted laboring labor, and how changes are affecting the survival and livelihoods households in rural Nepal. of the laboring population. In this research, we make a distinction between forms of At the very outset it is useful to set a few parameters for this labor as existed in the past in the agricultural sector in rural report. First, this report is based on a short two-month long Nepal and contemporary forms of labor in various branches qualitative fi eldwork carried out in selected areas of western of the economy including agriculture but not limited to it Nepal. While the research project is organized around a (e.g. informal/service sector, construction sector, etc). Our perspective of class-based analysis, it concentrates on the labor proposed approach is not to treat bonded and semi-feudal labor side of class-based relations with an exclusive focus on the separate from a broader analysis related to the whole landscape livelihoods of laborers and does not provide a full class analysis, of forms of labor. Following from our previous study, we assume let alone an analysis of capital. Second, it is neither meant to that changes in labor conditions are strongly connected to the offer a full or comprehensive understanding of changes in labor intensifi cation of occupational mobility and labor migration, relations in Nepal. Third, it is not the purpose of this report and to the increased monetization of commodity exchanges to offer a detailed theoretical discussion on the subject of class and of social relationships. or labor relations although we have framed the research project around these concepts. The study was guided by the following questions: Our starting assumption, based on review of the literature, and • What is the nature of change in labor conditions in including our own recent work on perceptions of change, is Nepal? How have the practices of traditional labor that (rural) Nepal is on the cusp of a major “transformation” in rural Nepal evolved? How might we explain the from a relatively stable condition of reproduction of social changes in labor practices, meanings and relations and economic relations based on feudal and caste strictures in contemporary Nepal? to a more fl uid and open condition where the old “order” is changing if not collapsing and a new order - or disorder • Has labor shifted from ‘feudal relations’ in rural - is emerging (Sharma and Donini 2010). Individuals and and agricultural settings (including bonded and their livelihoods are increasingly affected by variables such other traditional forms of labor) into wage labor as circulation of labor, incorporation of the rural economy in rural on-farm and off-farm settings in addition into globalized fl ows and the commodifi cation of labor and to towns and cities where there are increasing land, to name but a few. Based on the perceptions of these opportunities for work in construction, service, and changes by those involved, and the meanings ascribed to these other informal sectors, and has this process been changes, our fi eld research aims to provide a view from below benefi cial to the rural poor? that allows for a better understanding and conceptualization of ongoing transformations in Nepali society.