University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Open Access Dissertations 2-2012 Knowledge, Gender, and Production Relations in India's Informal Economy Amit Basole University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations Part of the Economics Commons Recommended Citation Basole, Amit, "Knowledge, Gender, and Production Relations in India's Informal Economy" (2012). Open Access Dissertations. 531. https://doi.org/10.7275/pzd2-e937 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations/531 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. KNOWLEDGE, GENDER, AND PRODUCTION RELATIONS IN INDIA'S INFORMAL ECONOMY A Dissertation Presented by AMIT BASOLE Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY February 2012 Economics c Copyright by AMIT BASOLE 2012 All Rights Reserved KNOWLEDGE, GENDER, AND PRODUCTION RELATIONS IN INDIA'S INFORMAL ECONOMY A Dissertation Presented by AMIT BASOLE Approved as to style and content by: J. Mohan Rao, Co-chair James K. Boyce, Co-chair Mwangi wa Githinji, Member Ananya Vajpeyi, Member Michael Ash, Department Chair Economics To, Sunil and Chitra Sahasrabudhey, for inspiration and guidance. And Ehsan Ali Ansari, for leading the way. And for, Shilpi Suneja ACKNOWLEDGMENTS During the time that this work has come to fruition, I have been blessed with an extraordinary number of good friends, mentors, and colleagues. Debts of friend- ship, too numerous to mention, have piled high. Here, I can mention but a few. First and foremost, I thank my dissertation committee members, Mohan Rao, Jim Boyce, Mwangi wa Githinji and Ananya Vajpeyi, for their interest in my work, and for continued guidance and feedback. Jim and Mohan were my co-advisors and I have benefited greatly from numerous conversations with them. Sunil and Chitra Sahasrabudhey were also co-advisors, though not officially, and have been a continual source of inspiration and guidance since before I made the decision to turn to Eco- nomics. In their work we find the rare combination of committed political activism and fundamental social thought. Their honesty, simplicity, and selflessness, I can only hope to emulate. The concept of lokavidya used here originates in their work and my stay at Vidya Ashram, in Varanasi, was made possible by them. Heterodox and radical economists, at UMass and elsewhere, have contributed tremendously to my education. I would like to thank Jim Crotty and David Kotz for taking a personal interest in me and my work, and Nancy Folbre, Michael Ash, and James Heintz for valuable comments on the chapters on women's work. Dipankar Basu has been a great friend and collaborator, and has also commented on parts of the work. Rajani Kanth, has been a constant source of support and friendship since my decision to switch fields from Neuroscience to Economics seven years ago. I have also enjoyed working with and learned a lot from Emily Kawano of the Center for Popular Economics at Amherst. The staff in the Economics Department, Judy Deitel, v Chris Evans, Eileen Atallah, Nicole Herdina, Nicole Dunham, and Connie Milne were always there to assist. Connie provided crucial help in the job search process. The folks at Vidya Ashram in Sarnath, Varanasi, went out of their way to make my stay productive, educational, and pleasant. Mohammad Aleem Hashmi, Pradeep Kumar Gond, Santosh Kumar Samvigya, Laxman Prasad Maurya, Dilip Singh \Dili," Firoz Khan, Aarti, Geeta, Sarita, and Babalu, all gave their time and knowledge. Mr. Rajnikant, of the Human Welfare Association, not only gave his own time but also arranged for me to speak with weavers who work with his self-help groups. Several other individuals, too many to mention, shared their knowledge and experience with me during the course of nine months in the field. Some of them are identified in the pages to come, many more remain anonymous. I would also like to thank Profs. Kiran Barman and Rakesh Raman of the Economics Department at Banaras Hindu University. In Delhi, Avinash Jha at CSDS gave his valuable insights on science and lokavidya, and Vasanthi Raman at CWDS helped with access to official data. In Hyderabad, Vamsi Vakulabharnam got me started with National Sample Survey data. A special word of gratitude is due to Ehsan Ali Ansari who introduced me to the world of the Ansari weavers of Banaras and who held my hand throughout. His friendship alone makes this work worth its while. Mohammad Ahmad Ansari also gave his time and indulged my persistent questioning as did many others. Generosity of spirit in the face of adversity is truly abundant among the Ansaris. Among the graduate students of the UMass Economics Department, instead of competition and rivalries, one finds community and affection. Friends, too numerous to mention, have made my time at UMass unforgettable. Arjun Jayadev and Michael Carr helped at various stages of the analysis of National Sample Survey data. Mike Carr, in particular, cheerfully answered my endless questions on all matters econo- metric. I have had the privilege of working with Rajesh Bhattacharya who offered his theoretical insights whenever I asked for them. Ian Seda, Harry Konstantinidis, vi Andy Barenberg, Jen Cohen, Helen Scharber, Ann Werboff, Hasan Comert, have all been wonderful colleagues. I have benefitted from many conversations, especially on gender and economics, with Smita Ramnarain (to whom I owe the title phrase from Chapter Five), Swati Birla and Avanti Mukherjee. Sirisha Naidu commented on the women's work chapters. I would also like to thank the participants of the UMass-New School Graduate Student Conference, as well as of the various URPE sessions at the Eastern Economic Association meetings, and of the \Market as Commons" workshop at the UNC-Chapel Hill Anthropology Department. In New York, Snehashish Bhat- tacharya and Lopa Banerjee extended their hospitality as well as commented on my work. At Bucknell University, Erdogan Bakir, did not waste any time in making me feel welcome. My parents did not bat an eyelid as I worked my way through twelve years of two back-to-back PhD programs. Without their support I would never have had the strength to carry on. Away from my parents, here in the US, Neena Wahi has treated me as a son. During my first PhD at Duke, my grandfather passed away in India and I could not be with him during his last days. In June 2010, when my grandmother passed away in Banaras, I am thankful that I was there and was able to spend several months with her. This work simply would not have been possible without Shilpi Suneja. She has supported me in ways small and large, suffered me through the writing process, and assisted me in the field. Chapter Five on women's work in Banaras would not have come into being without her insights and assistance. Finally, a word about institutional support. My field-work year in Banaras was supported by the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) and I would like to thank all the wonderful folks at the AIIS Delhi office, as well as the other junior fellows who commented on my work. The Political Economy Research Institute provided me with a dissertation writing grant. vii ABSTRACT KNOWLEDGE, GENDER, AND PRODUCTION RELATIONS IN INDIA'S INFORMAL ECONOMY FEBRUARY 2012 AMIT BASOLE B.Sc., UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI M.Sc., UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI Ph.D., DUKE UNIVERSITY Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor J. Mohan Rao and Professor James K. Boyce In this study I explore two understudied aspects of India's informal economy, viz. the institutions that sustain informal knowledge, and gender disparities among self-employed workers using a combination of primary survey and interview methods as well as econometric estimation. The data used in the study come from the Indian National Sample Survey (NSS) as well as from fieldwork conducted in the city of Banaras (Varanasi) in North India. The vast majority of the Indian work-force is \uneducated" from a conventional point of view. Even when they have received some schooling, formal education rarely prepares individuals for employment. Rather, various forms of apprenticeships and on-the-job training are the dominant modes of knowledge acquisition. The institu- tions that enable creation and transfer of knowledge in the informal economy are viii poorly understood because informal knowledge itself is understudied. However, the rise of the so-called \Knowledge Society" has created a large literature on traditional and indigenous knowledge and has brought some visibility to the informal knowl- edge possessed by peasants, artisans, and other workers in the informal economy. The present study extends this strand of research. In Chapter Three, taking the weaving industry as a case-study, work is introduced into the study of knowledge. Thus informal knowledge is studied in the context of the production relations that create and sustain it. Further, the family mode of production and apprenticeships are foregrounded as important institutions that achieve inter-generational transfer of knowledge at a low cost. Clustering of weaving firms ensures fast dissemination of new fabric designs and patterns which holds down monopoly rents. In Chapter Four taking advantage of a recently issued Geographical Indication (GI), an intellec- tual property right (IPR) that attempts to standardize the Banaras Sari to protect its niche in the face of powerloom-made imitation products, I investigate the likely effects of such an attempt to create craft authenticity. Through field observations and via interviews with weavers, merchants, State officials and NGO workers, I find that the criteria of authenticity have largely been developed without consulting artisans and as a result tend to be overly restrictive.