Abstract
This chapter elaborates the different dimensions of the gendered nature of semi-proletarianization and proletarianization of the adivasi social groups after the period of neo-liberal reforms. It shows that the integration of the adivasis in general, and adivasi women in particular, has been a result of agrarian distress and macro-economic trends that have structured the patterns of dispossession, displacement and urbanization in the last two decades. In doing so, the article contradicts the view which holds that communitarian structures have been playing an important part in the division of labour within adivasi communities. This chapter also contests the view that there is an autonomous sphere of existence of the subsistence economy of the adivasis and that the role of the adivasi women is largely confined to unpaid labour within the sphere of subsistence. As the analysis here shows, the blurred boundaries between subsistence and commercial activities have ensured that there is hardly autonomous space for the adivasi households to carry out their activities, which has several implications for the life of adivasi women. Lastly, the chapter counters the oft-repeated proposition that communities and communitarian structures can stand in opposition to the labour market and protect the interests of the adivasi women if they are democratized. It is shown here that both matrilineal and patrilineal communities have similar degrees of semi-proletarianization and proletarianization of adivasi women, although such a process is influenced by regional trends and landholding patterns. Thus, the thesis that communitarian production and distribution systems guide the class formation process does not, in fact, hold in the case of most adivasi regions. Rather, the labour market is guided by macro-economic processes that often neutralize the influence of these structures.
Originally published in Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 5 No. 1 Copyright 2016 © Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South (CARES), New Delhi. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holders and the publishers, SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
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Notes
- 1.
The Constitution of India defines ‘Scheduled Tribes’ under Article 342 as people with ‘indications of primitive traits; a distinctive culture; shyness in contact with community at large; geographically isolated and backward’. This definition has been critiqued by activists and scholars and the term ‘adivasi’ is instead used as a form of self-expression and a positive political identity.
- 2.
Both these terms are much debated in the literature, but this debate is beyond the scope of this chapter. The term ‘proletarianization’ here refers to processes of dispossession and accumulation which force people to forgo their control over all means of production and enter the labour market as wage labourers in either urban or rural areas. The term semi-proletarianization refers to processes of accumulation and displacement of livelihoods that force small-scale producers to depend on wage labour or disguised wage labour for a large part of their livelihoods, even though they may control some means of production, such as land.
- 3.
This trend and argument has been mainly present in the work of anthropologists and the advocates of the perspective that communitarian management is the best alternative to neo-liberalism. Agarwal (2010), for example, argues that a mere reformation in communitarian rules and structures can bring about substantial changes in gender equations and women’s empowerment.
- 4.
Colonial and post-colonial anthropological perspectives and monographs provide enough evidence of this. For example, see Elwin (1939) and Singh (1988). For a survey of literature and debates on gender issues in adivasi societies, see Xaxa (2004). For a critique of anthropological perspectives, see Prasad (2011).
- 5.
‘Work participation rate’ is defined as the percentage of total workers in the total population. ‘Workers’ are defined as persons who are engaged in any economic activity or who, despite their attachment to economic activity, abstained themselves from work for reasons of illness, injury or other physical disability, bad weather, festivals, social or religious functions or other contingencies necessitating temporary absence from work. Unpaid helpers who assist in the operation of an economic activity in the household farm or non-farm activities are also considered as workers.
- 6.
‘Labour force participation’ refers to the population which supplies or offers to supply labour for pursuing economic activities for the production of goods and services and, therefore, includes both ‘employed’ and ‘unemployed’ persons/person-days. ‘Labour force participation rate’ (LFPR) is defined as the proportion of persons/person-days in the labour force to the total persons/person-days. These ratios are given in per 1000 of persons/person-days.
- 7.
Calculated from Census of India (2001, 2011, Table B-1).
- 8.
Calculated by Thiagu Rangarajan from unit-level data from NSSO ( 2015).
- 9.
All state-level trends are calculated from Census of India, Primary Census Abstracts, Schedule Tribes (2001, 2011).
- 10.
All data analysis in this section uses the individual tribe data of Census of India (2001, 2011).
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Prasad, A. (2021). Adivasi Women, Agrarian Change and Forms of Labour in Neo-liberal India. In: Jha, P., Chambati, W., Ossome, L. (eds) Labour Questions in the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4635-2_20
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