Politics of Economic Adjustment: The Changing Nature of Women’s Work in Jharkand, India

Abstract

This paper focuses on the ‘gendered’ politics of economic adjustment exemplified in India’s New Economic Policy (NEP) and interrogates NEP’s tacit appropriation of women’s labour (productive and reproductive) to maintain social reproduction during times of economic insecurity. Through a micro­study of an ‘Oraon’ village in the Jharkand region of Bihar, India, I explore the changing nature of women’s work and gender relations in response to the larger socio­economic transformation initiated by the NEP; and how in turn these changes are mediated through the interacting politics of the gendered ideology of the family and the household, class and ethnicity. Through the analysis of changing gender responsibilities within the household, I critique the ‘unitary model’ approach to household behaviour implicit in the NEP and argue for the need to move beyond it, to address the larger issues of gender equity and empowerment.