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Abstract
Globalisation has affected the industrial trajectories of developing countries, producing an increasing disarticulation between the management of production and regimes of labour control. While production regimes have been projected into the global arena, labour regimes have remained apparently anchored to regulatory mechanisms provided by local social structures, and gone through increasing processes of informalisation. Examining the case of the Indian garment sector, this paper argues that the informalisation of labour should not be conceived as necessarily taking place ‘in the shadow of the state’. In fact, in the case presented here, the state was a strong active agency behind the process of informalisation, which it supported through formal policies and through its progressive alignment with the interests of capital.
Notes
1. For a critique of the World Bank view see Wade (1990).
2. See, for instance, Martinez-Novo's (Citation2004) work on agricultural export production in Mexico and Pun's (Citation2005) work on export production from China.
3. This third viewpoint is generally referred to as the ‘structuralist approach’ to informality (see Castells and Portes, 1989).
4. It must be noted that using this definition I do not consider informalisation as a synonym of casualisation, but rather as a particular way to achieve casualisation.
5. See also Portes and Shauffler (Citation1993).
6. See, for instance, Bonacich et al. (Citation1994); Bonacich and Appelbaum (Citation2000); and Rosen (Citation2002).
7. A considerable share of embroidery activities takes place in and around Bareilly, a town in Uttar Pradesh.
8. Outwear, or outerwear, includes jackets, coats and all kinds of outdoor clothing items.
9. For instance, after five years, permanent workers are entitled to ‘gratuity’, that is the payment of 15 days of work for each year of employment.
10. These last paragraphs are informed by interviews held with exporters, subcontractors and other production actors, as well as interviews and discussions held with different trade unions and labour organisations in each of the Indian industrial sites mentioned.
11. Broadly, this was one of the objectives of my PhD dissertation. See Mezzadri (2009).
12. Not to be confused with affirmative action in favour of low-castes.
13. The number of units peaked between 1995 and 1998. It started decreasing after 1999, quite possibly due to the proximity of full liberalisation in 2005 with the MFA expiry. In fact, as liberalisation was approaching, those exporters who felt unable to sustain increasing competitive pressure might have exited the market.
14. In the Southern Region, for instance, merchant exporters’ capital dropped significantly between 2000 and 2003 (from 70% to 63%). It remained higher in the Northern, Eastern and Western Regions (effectively declining in the North, slightly declining in the West and further increasing in the East). This is consistent with the qualitative analysis carried out in the previous section, which highlighted the different industrial and labour solutions corresponding to different regional product specialisations. In fact, data in confirm the process of industrial consolidation which is taking place in the South. They also confirm the process of de-industrialisation which is taking place in Mumbai, as larger manufacturing units leave to relocate elsewhere.
15. Quotes are extracts from Shaktivel's (Citation2005) speech in Tiruppur at the opening of Netaji Park.
16. In many ways, this process could be comparable to the establishment by the state of Export Processing Zones (EPZs) or Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Also in this case, the state openly shows its support to capital, by creating distinct, ‘exceptional’ economic spaces ‘free’ of labour-laws. However, the institutionalisation of informalisation by the state would arguably have even deeper consequences, as it would affect sectoral industrial relations as a whole, not simply those taking place in a limited number of industrial areas.
17. According to Kumar et al. (Citation2009), due to the crisis many contract labourers engaged in export production in Indian main cities left urban areas to return to their villages. On the potential impact of the crisis on the informal economy, see Harriss-White (Citation2010) and Olsen et al. (Citation2010).