Investing emotions at work: exploring emotional labour of women in Indian anti-trafficking NGOs

ABSTRACT

This article studies the experience of emotional labour by women in Indian NGOs. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 11 women across four anti-trafficking organisations in Kolkata, this paper highlights how emotional labour has been rationalised as women’s work. It shares the emotional distress and vulnerability women encounter due to the under-recognition of their labour. Despite the overwhelming nature of their work, women consider it a trade-off for the empowerment they experience due to their memberships with NGOs. Concluding remarks entail the need for NGOs to support the well-being of their workers.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotional labour
• care work
• anti-trafficking
• Indian NGOs
• women’s work

Introduction

In the last four decades, emotional labour has been the subject of several studies across varying industries (hospitality, aviation, nursing, academia, etc.), genders, and locations (Aldridge 1994; Price 2001; Simillidou et al. 2020; Ward and Greene 2018; Whitelegg 2002; Xu, Cao, and Huo 2020). Coined by Arlie Hochschild emerging from her research on service workers (Hochschild 1979; 2003), the study of emotional labour has found prominence in both academic and non-academic settings to the extent that it has entered common parlance through pop culture and media reports, leading to academics debating if emotional labour has become just another buzzword (Hunter and Smith 2007). However, certain sectors have received limited attention in academic research. The complex and nuanced nature of the “client-service worker” relationship in these sectors presents a significant and compelling scope of research. Despite several studies on the role of emotional labour in social work (Moesby-Jensen and Nielsen 2015; Senreich, Straussner, and Steen 2020; Winter et al. 2019), the impact of emotional labour on non-formally trained employees in social work remains an underexplored area of study.

This article investigates the experience of emotional labour by women in Indian NGOs, focusing on those who are not formally trained or educated in social work. These women work at the understudied intersection of care work and social work, where the experience of emotional labour is disproportionate. The paper highlights how gendered expectations and stereotypes shape women’s experience of performing emotional labour with minimal support. It highlights how these women often justify their emotional labour as a trade-off for feeling empowered.

This paper examines the experience of women working on gender rights in the anti-trafficking sector in India. Women significantly dominate anti-trafficking work, and the law mandates part of it. Anti-trafficking work disproportionately represents women – from traffickers to trafficked victims, survivors to activists. Various studies have established that women perform unreasonable emotional labour in the workplace (Johnson 2018; Narlı and Akdemir 2019; Newcomb 2021). Given the sensitive and vulnerable nature of anti-trafficking work and the high representation of women, researching emotional labour in this setting was a suitable choice for this research. A qualitative study involving 11 women was conducted across four organisations to explore the work on emotions in Indian NGOs. This article aims to contribute to the scholarship on gender and development – centring on emotional labour and worker well-being by highlighting the distinctive experiences of the women and emphasising the necessity for further research. The paper aims to generate knowledge that could aid in shaping interventions at an organisational level to enhance the working environment and overall welfare of NGO workers in India, particularly in the anti-trafficking domain.

Literature review

Divided into two parts, the first part aims to provide an overview of emotional labour in a broader research context, covering various conceptual and theoretical frameworks. The second part introduces research on women’s association with Indian NGOs. There has been limited discussion on emotional investments and their impact on women’s well-being in Indian NGOs. This indicates that further research is required to improve worker well-being.

Emotion work and labour

Emotional labour, coined by Arlie Hochschild in 1979, is the effort of service providers to display emotions that their organisations deem desirable for their clients’ experience. This may include inducing, enhancing, or suppressing their real emotions to maintain a specific outward appearance. It is essential to distinguish between emotion work and emotional labour as these terms are often interchangeably used in popular culture. Hochschild classifies emotion work as work – where an actor undertakes an active effort in “trying to change in degree or quality an emotion or feeling” (Hochschild 1979, 561). The act of effort that may or may not be successful in projecting the desired emotion is called emotion work (Hochschild 1979). Whereas, when emotion work is performed in the “public marketplace” where it is sold as “human labour” and behaves like a “commodity”, the commercialisation of emotion management, which is then stretched to fit “standardised social forms” is termed as emotional labour (Hochschild 1979, 562), i.e. emotion work in exchange for a financial transaction is classified as emotional labour.

Since Hochschild’s work, a significant body of scholarship has emerged focusing on various service sector occupations and the corresponding emotional labour required/performed. Scholars have studied emotional labour from multiple angles, including but not limited to its in/ability to meet client expectations leading to emotive dissonance (Ashforth and Humphrey 1993), the consequence of emotional labour on service worker well-being (Morris and Feldman 1997; Wharton 1993), the process of regulating feelings and expressions to match organisational goals (Van Dijk, Smith, and Cooper 2011; Zapf and Holz 2006), and the messaging from organisations that compel care workers to regulate their emotions (Johnson 2015; 2018). These scholarly works have discussed the gendered nature of emotional labour as women predominantly engage in client-facing service and care work (Pandey and Singh 2016). These studies examined employees’ experiences in interactive work involving direct financial transactions between the service provider (organisation) and service recipient (client). The financial exchange of services introduces a greater urge for organisations to prioritise emotion management among their employees. There is limited scholarship on investigating and analysing motivations for performing emotional labour when no direct financial transaction or incentive is involved. NGO work does not involve a direct financial exchange between the program participant (client) and worker (service provider/organisation). Instead, a third party, i.e. a donor, financially supports the NGO to offer services to the communities in need. Studying the nuances of emotional labour becomes interesting when no direct financial transaction is involved.

The discourse on emotion work and emotional labour includes the practices of surface acting, deep acting, and emotions guided by feeling rules. Within organisational contexts, feeling rules serve as guidelines for displaying suitable emotions in appropriate situations (Ward and Greene 2018). Emotional labour is expressed through two strategies: surface acting, where expressions performed by service workers were on the “surface”, i.e. their visible countenance differs from the emotion they experience. Surface acting involves faking outward emotions to suit the organisation’s expectations (Grandey 2003; Hochschild 2003). Whereas deep acting refers to when a worker alters their actual emotion to suit the organisational need (Hochschild 2003). Studies at different points in time have attributed burnout to either deep or surface acting (Pandey and Singh 2016; Studsrød 2013; Zapf and Holz 2006). Whether emotive dissonance or worker burnout results from deep or surface acting remains inconclusive. It is, instead, determined by the job requirements, location, gender, industry, and other variables that impact worker well-being.

Hochschild’s work has been criticised for failing to distinguish between commercially motivated feeling rules and those that are not (Bolton and Boyd 2003). This study aims to focus on the latter, on emotions that are not commercially motivated.

Women in Indian NGOs

In Indian NGOs, women find representation in myriad ways – from benefactors to beneficiaries to drivers of change. A dominant theme in NGO literature reflects on the role of NGOs in bringing empowerment to women’s lives and work – from resisting patriarchy to building self-help groups for income generation (Bryan and Mendaglio 2020; Chaudhuri and Morash 2019; Gupta 2021). Women have gained employment and access to social capital through their work in NGOs, but these experiences of empowerment are frequently shaped by their social class (Govinda 2009; Roy 2011; 2019). Their employment is characterised by low pay, absence of superannuation, and other work benefits usually available in government employment (Roy 2019, 398). Furthermore, the hierarchical structure of the NGOs reflects that of Indian society, where women from lower social classes constitute the margins of the organisations, which are led by middle-class, upper-caste, urban-educated women (Mitra and Van Delinder 2006; Roy 2019). Women from rural, lower-income, and lower social classes are typically restricted to roles such as fieldworkers, which are undervalued due to the perception that these positions do not require any “professional” skills (Handy and Kassam 2006; Roy 2019). These roles lie at the intersection of care work and social work, and often, women workers come from the same demographic groups as the participants they aim to serve (Govinda 2009; Handy and Kassam 2006). Despite their critical contributions in ensuring their programs’ success and continued funding, these workers are underappreciated and often have to operate with minimal resources (Govinda 2009; O’Reilly 2011; Roy 2019). Moreover, women in this field often do not receive the appropriate level of training. This is because such work is often associated with gender stereotypes and expectations. This creates a vicious cycle where women receive inadequate training and compensation, while NGOs perpetuate the problem by undervaluing care work due to gender biases, resulting in a lack of resources and support for these women.

On the other hand, the empowerment discourse on women from middle and upper-class families working in NGOs focuses on their experiences in leadership positions, their life choices (family, class privilege, labour opportunities), feminist organising, and empowering (Handy, Kassam, and Renade 2002; Mitra 2011; Mitra and Knottnerus 2008). These scholars noted that the women’s families perceived NGO work as an extension of the traditional gender roles that required women to exercise empathy and care work. Encouraging women's involvement was perceived as a means of enhancing their standing in society and garnering positive reception from their community members. As a result, they derived a sense of satisfaction for “doing good”. These women were often seen as role models in their community, able to take control of their own lives while also helping others do the same. The “empowerment” they experienced was beyond a tangible monetary incentive.

Methods

Research setting

The findings of this paper are based on the experiences of 11 women working with four NGOs based in Kolkata, India. Kolkata is the capital of West Bengal, which shares a porous border with Bangladesh. Home to two densely populated red-light areas – Sonagachi and Kalighat – Kolkata serves as a transit and destination for women trafficked from the northeastern and eastern parts of the country and for cross-border trafficking. Owing to these factors, numerous anti-trafficking organisations are working in the city, focusing on rescuing, repatriating, and rehabilitating survivors of trafficking.

I interviewed women working on rehabilitating survivors of trafficking. In anti-trafficking NGOs, rehabilitation involves performing care work for survivors in shelter homes. Mandated by The Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (1956), the shelter homes or “protective homes’ are:

… an institution, by whatever name called (being an institution established or licenced as such under Section 21), in which persons who are in need of care and protection, may be kept under this Act and where appropriate technically qualified persons, equipment and other facilities have been provided … (The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act 1956)

Under section 17, the law further mentions that the protective homes must provide “proper care, guardianship, education, training and medical and psychiatric treatment of the person … ”. In this context, care work encompasses looking after the rescued women's physical well-being and providing mental and emotional support. The law mandates that the management of the protective home “wherever practicable, be entrusted to women” (section 21). The gendered nature of sex trafficking could be a reason for the law to specify that the management of institutional care is entrusted to women. The organisations worked with adult women for their psychological and socio-economic rehabilitation. One of three organisations had full-time residential support for adult women. The fourth organisation mobilised their fieldworkers to build relationships with the community (i.e. sex workers based in the red-light areas) who, if interested, could associate with their social enterprise wings to be trained into producing different handcrafts, which are later exported. This would enable women to reduce economic dependency on sex work.

The respondents and research design

I conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews of 11 women working with the four organisations between April and May 2019 as part of my master’s thesis research (see Das 2019). They were a mix of fieldworkers, shelter care workers, and program officers. Three women employed as program officers grew up within tiers of middle-class families in India with degrees in social sciences. Their work responsibilities included overseeing the operations of their teams, launching new projects, resolving conflicts among staff and beneficiaries, and establishing robust rehabilitation processes. The remaining eight women occupied the lowest positions in the organisational hierarchy. They were not formally educated; some were recruited from within the communities served by the NGOs, while others were former program participants of the organisations who were subsequently hired as part of rehabilitation. To maintain the confidentiality of my respondents, their names have been changed. The key thematic areas of the interviews were the motivations of women to work with NGOs, their daily work, associated perks and challenges, and their feelings about their work and responsibilities.

My positionality and challenges

As a former anti-trafficking development professional in India, I was able to leverage my professional network to gain access to the organisations. Even though I have yet to work with organisations in Kolkata, I chose this location due to my familiarity with the local language. As a native speaker of Bengali, the regional language, I wanted to communicate with NGO workers without any language barriers, which I might have encountered in other parts of the country. My dual identity as a former development worker but a West-based researcher brought some complexities. My former association with the sector warmed the organisations to allow me access to their employees. My respondents claimed that although their organisations welcomed researchers, there have been multiple cases of breach of conduct where researchers posed insensitive questions to the program participants that triggered trauma. However, the organisations were surprised to be assured that I was interested in speaking to their employees rather than their program participants. Given their poor experience with researchers, I took the initiative to provide reassurance by sharing an indicative set of questions and emphasising that their identities would remain confidential.

Findings and analysis

Drawing on the stories of 11 women, this section explores the impact of emotional labour on women working in Indian NGOs. The findings indicate that gendered stereotypes have led to the rationalisation of emotional labour, resulting in women being assigned to specific roles despite their professional training. This gendered association renders their work “invisible”, leading to lower pay and minimal support services. The women are entrusted with managing the emotions of their program participants, often at the expense of their own emotions. It is essential to recognise and value emotional labour to challenge gendered stereotypes and inequalities in the workplace. Furthermore, understanding workers’ experiences in fields that require emotional labour can inform policy and organisational practices to ensure fair and just working conditions for all.

Normalising and rationalising emotional labour and care work

Despite being trained in various vocational skills that aligned with their interests, such as sewing and block printing, the former beneficiaries of the NGOs were hired as caregivers for minors and young adults instead. Amita, a former program participant, is a “House Mother” to 80 minors in one of the organisations. The NGO she works at has ongoing vocational training programs, after which trainees are placed with partner organisations to explore gainful employment. However, Amita was recruited by her organisation as a caregiver for young children, where she was responsible for physical, mental, and emotional well-being, which included activities like cooking, cleaning, feeding, delegating tasks, and sometimes staying up the night to help younger children fall asleep. Now, as a House Mother, along with a team of four staff, she performs all these responsibilities, including administrative work. Amita’s job title, “House Mother”, reinforces the gendered stereotype that caregiving is equivalent to a mother’s responsibility and, therefore, a woman’s work. Upon asking Amita about her association,

 … aunty enrolled us in the shelter home. I was 15. But three years later, I started working here. I did not really leave – it does not feel like I’ve left at all. Before, it was residential, now it’s just that I live outside. I don’t feel like I’ve left. The only difference is that now I have responsibilities to fulfil as a staff. I had a guardian before, now I’ve become a guardian here. (Interview 2019, 38).

None of the skills acquired by Amita as a trainee were used by the organisation to offer her employment. She could have been recruited as a trainer or assistant trainer in the skill training program – which is still operational at the NGO. Instead, the organisation gave her responsibilities based on care work – part of which was influenced by her previous membership to the organisation’s home as a program participant. When asked if she received any training for the job, Amita said her work did not require any particular skills – the care work she did at home for her in-laws and young daughter was being replicated here at a larger scale with compensation. She did not feel she needed any training because she believed her tasks were similar to those women typically do at home. Amita’s words echo the findings of other scholars who have argued that the attribution of care-related work to “natural” feminine qualities, such as nurturing and empathy, has led to a disregard for the skill required in such labour, resulting in its poor remuneration and ultimate erasure of the work (Ehrenreich and Hochschild 2002; Johnson 2015). Additionally, two program officers confirmed that employing former program participants was cost-effective because they were already familiar with the setup and responsibilities and, therefore, would not require additional training.

My respondents, who were fieldworkers and shelter caregivers, shared that the women were never given any definite job descriptions upon joining the organisation. The broader responsibilities of the job were shared verbally, and they were encouraged to improvise as and when required. Fieldworkers, serving as primary liaisons between organisations and the community, shoulder the responsibility to engage with the community, understand the needs of the program participants, and occasionally implement programs in the field. They were tasked with building rapport to enable a safe space where program participants could feel comfortable seeking support from the workers and the organisations.

Fieldworkers are required to manage their emotions daily; their work is centred on that ability – to manage theirs’ and others. One of my respondents, Heena, said:

It takes a while to facilitate a safe space. Sometimes, I have to work and speak in a way that makes them safe, [and I] take out time to listen to them even if I am busy. Even if I am frustrated, I still must control my emotions and work. They [the beneficiaries] want [a] quick fix. If they have an issue, you need to go and fix it now. There is a lot of pressure because I usually cannot take sides. (Interview 2019, 42)

Adding onto Heena’s point, Rama said:

Little things impact. I heard them [the women] because nobody would … I give them respect, I value them, and this connects me with them. For example, if I have a personal problem, I know you cannot do anything. But if you hear me out, it will unburden me. I might find some resolution while having the conversation with you. The key is to listen to them, us. To allow them to speak. (Interview 2019, 43)

From Rama’s point of view, empathy appears to be a prerequisite to performing emotional labour patiently. This is consistent with the findings from studies on nurses in nursing homes who are expected to be empathetic and patient, especially towards uncooperative patients (Dodson and Zincavage 2007; Johnson 2018). Empathy as a prerequisite stems from the organisation's need to operate like a “family”. This suggests that workers engage in deep acting, altering their feelings to align with organisational expectations, which can become internalised over time. For example, in institutional settings for elderly care, the emotional labour of care work is often positioned within a “family model of care” (Dodson and Zincavage 2007, 912). This model reflects the way of bonding, treating, and providing for residents as one would do for their family members. However, Dodson and Zincavage argue that such a culture is designed to extract more work from the lowest-paid members of the organisation. As noted earlier, Amita views her work through the lens of family, describing it as something that women typically do in and for their families, demonstrating how this model/culture can become internalised. My respondents also noted that managing emotions and being emotionally available for their beneficiaries is part of their work but cannot be classified as billable work because it is natural for humans to listen to and support each other.

The women’s experience aligns with Grossman’s (2012) findings that gendered identity associated with (service) work involving emotion management and care work renders it invisible to both the organisation and the women, leading to justifying low remuneration levels. The idea of care work is deemed to be associated with feminine qualities like nurturing and empathy – causing such work to be underappreciated and poorly rewarded (Ehrenreich and Hochschild 2002). Oftentimes, the labour of these activities is effectively erased – which is possibly why the workers could not view their emotional labour or care work as actual work that requires compensation. The average monthly pay of the interviewed fieldworkers and shelter care workers ranged between Rs. 7,000–10,000 ($90–$130). Quoting the only program officer who recognised the lower rates of compensation and the mismatch of values in compensating women workers:

If it is an organisation that is working for women’s right to a decent standard of living, at least pay a decent amount to your employees so they afford the decent standard of living you promote through your work. Those who stick around in the NGO space, especially women, I’m sorry to say but [you] have to marry proper – which was what people in my organisation did. (Interview 2019, 41).

Additionally, the former program participants were assigned caregiving jobs without being consulted about their interest in other positions. When asked about training, one of the program officers shared:

We are encouraged to learn about their difficulties and how we can support them. These are the primary expectations, whatever maybe the role. If you are practising social work, you need to be careful and caring, [and] be a caregiver – it’s a presupposition. (Interview 2019, 46)

A gendered aspect of controlling emotions emerged from a conversation with Kavita (a program officer), who has a diploma in counselling that she pursued in her early 50s. When I asked her about emotion management, she shared:

I am already emotionally very much controlled. I was a de facto boy. A tomboy my father thought of me, even now when I’m walking and subconsciously, I assume a masculine gait, I correct myself. Therefore, I have emotions, but they are very controlled and measured. If my children share their problems with me, I assure them that everything will be okay. I was very brash as a kid; I try to apply emotion management in all aspects of my life. (Interview 2019, 46–47)

Kavita attributed her ability to manage emotions to her “masculine traits’ but not to her training as a counsellor. Her thoughts reflect the stereotypical and detrimental assumption that women cannot control or manage emotions; instead, it’s a masculine characteristic. This notion could possibly explain why women’s performance of emotional labour is rendered invisible.

Worker vulnerability and emotional distress

Hochschild’s study shared how air attendants would support each other and form kinships during their performance of emotional labour. In the absence of mental health services in their workplace, my respondents seek, forge, and sustain their mental well-being through kinships with their peers. These kinships were forged outside of the proposed family model. Kinships that were organically built through shared struggles but often dictated by organisational hierarchies. Fieldworkers and shelter care workers preferred to seek support among themselves, and they did not reach out to the management (program officers) about their issues arising out of overwhelming emotional labour.

A House Mother shared an incident when, one morning, 14 adolescents deliberately cut their forearms and sprinkled salt on their wounds. The adolescents were anguished but continued with self-harm. They were hostile towards the staff’s interventions aimed at preventing further harm. The incident occurred early in the morning, prompting the residential staff to intervene as an emergency measure. None of them were prepared to deal with 14 self-harming adolescents. Later, the adolescents received medical help, but the staff were left to support each other in coping with the trauma. The staff are required to navigate through similar overwhelming crises periodically. It is significant to note that they are not professionally trained in crisis management. Within their ambit of work, there is barely any scope for my respondents to express any negative or distressful emotion at moments of such crisis.

One of my respondents added:

The work is very challenging since it involves dealing with the mood swings of the girls. Like in the morning, she is absolutely fine [but] when I’m about to go home, she is furious, [and] breaking glasses. I used to wonder why is she behaving like this? This is the manifestation of her frustration. Manifestations are different. Someone gets pleasure from beating up their sister; someone is showing their anger by breaking glasses, throwing things, etc. (Interview 2019, 44)

The workers must balance their empathetic demeanour while being a crisis manager, with minimal scope for displaying confusion, disappointment, or fear. This leads to experiencing emotional dissonance – a conflict between experiencing a particular set of emotions while displaying another to conform to the organisational expectations at work (Hochschild 2003; Hofmann and Stokburger-Sauer 2017). Additionally, it blurs professional and personal boundaries. Due to the lack of mental health support or training, NGO workers carry their emotional distress back home. One of my respondents noted:

There are days when we experience sadness or happiness from [events happening] outside [the workplace], and that [feeling] stays. When we come to the office, we cannot express these. We always have to remember that [whatever happens at] home cannot interfere at work or the other way around. Sometimes, work interferes at home, but then I tell myself this is my work, and I cannot let it consume my domestic life and peace. (Interview 2019, 44)

My respondents can be better prepared to handle crises, perform daily tasks proficiently, and uphold their mental well-being with adequate training. Without it, the likelihood of burnout increases potentially. Interference of work in personal life can add to disengagement and burnout, hindering the NGO workers’ ability to engage with their beneficiaries effectively.

Identity and empowerment

Similar to findings on upper and middle-class women (Mitra and Van Delinder 2006; Mitra and Knottnerus 2008), my respondents, especially those from marginalised social classes, derived their sense of empowerment from their identity as NGO workers. The former program participants expressed a sense of empowerment, viewing their association with the NGOs as an opportunity to “give back”. Amita and Ganga, survivors of trafficking and forced sex work, attributed their association with NGOs as an opportunity to re-write their life stories – from ostracisation in society to celebration amongst their community members. Ganga and Amita are now equipped with self-confidence and self-esteem to move around the city and the country, which was unthinkable earlier. Ganga stated:

Before, I had no confidence. I was afraid of stepping out [and] being recognised. I don’t worry anymore. I have learnt a lot of things here [that] I did not know. Working here has also allowed me to travel. I went to Delhi for the first time in my life, sitting on a train. We had a lot of fun. (Interview 2019, 48)

In a profoundly hierarchical social structure, Amita and Ganga’s membership in their organisations is a medium to assert their self and identities. The lower compensation and overwhelming nature of their work serve as a trade-off for their newer-found identities. Sex work is not legally recognised as work in India. The stigmatisation attached to sex work and legal non-recognition takes away the dignity of labour. Rani, a fieldworker in Sonagachi, shared how she was perceived to be working in the sex trade because her office was in a red-light area. Earlier, she was hesitant to disclose the location of her work but gradually embraced it. She no longer feels she has to justify to anybody about her work, rather:

After coming to the NGO, I feel I have got power. I don’t know about my future, but I can see myself becoming stronger, “shoktishaali”. I want to be in this field only … (interview 2019, 50)

Rani’s empowerment lies in her ability to exercise her agency in making decisions for herself. This mirrors Roy’s study on empowerment workers, where women refer to their work as a “good deed” that has generated new aspirations tied to specific class and gendered futures, extending beyond pay (Roy 2019, 394). Instead of succumbing to societal pressure, Rani feels confident to counter the virtuosity imposed on women. Rani and her co-workers admitted that despite their low earnings and emotional demands, the humanitarian angle of the sector appeals as a status-enhancing opportunity that creates the possibility of a better future. This motivates them to stay.

One of the program officers shared how working with NGOs made them receive recognition from strangers, providing them a sense of satisfaction and motivation. Sapna, a program officer, shared how a local family hosting her in a tribal village in northeast India was impressed with her for working with vulnerable people and wanted the daughters in their family to follow in her footsteps. Sapna recalled her satisfaction in being perceived as a role model and mentioned how the overwhelming nature of her work made it “worth it”.

Conclusion

The development sector in India is too diverse to generalise. Focusing on the anti-trafficking sector, this study delves into the distinctive challenges faced by a group of NGO workers. It aims to enhance the understanding of the intricate emotional labour involved in the role of NGO workers belonging to two distinct groups – individuals who have transitioned from the sex work industry to NGO work, and those who entered NGO work without receiving formal training in social work. Their experiences exist at the intersection of various circumstances, significantly influencing how they perform emotional labour. The study, therefore, highlights the importance of recognising the often overlooked and under-compensated emotional labour in NGO work.

Former sex workers transitioning into the NGO sector face a peculiar set of challenges and emotional complexities. They must navigate the emotional demands of their current roles while enduring emotional weight and societal stigma associated with their prior involvement in the sex work industry. This convergence of past and present significantly shapes their interactions, perceptions, and self-identity within the NGO environment. Their journey of emotional labour requires them to reconcile their past experiences and societal perceptions with their present commitment to support marginalised women. They employ a repertoire of strategies, including deep acting and surface acting, to skilfully manage their emotions and meet the expectations of their new roles. Crucially, their emotional labour extends beyond immediate responsibilities – it includes a commitment to challenging stereotypes, and biases, as well as advocating for marginalised women’s rights.

Simultaneously, this study explores the encounters of women working in the anti-trafficking sector without formal social work training. It highlights the impact of gendered assumptions and biases on these women, who are frequently expected to provide emotional support without adequate assistance. A common thread among both groups of women emerges – they often rationalise their emotional labour as a trade-off for empowerment, interweaving their emotional investments with their sense of purpose.

The insights gained from the interviews offer valuable knowledge for potential interventions at an organisational level. Organisations could implement formalised peer support groups, provide counselling services, and offer training opportunities for personal development to foster better worker well-being and support. Workshops focusing on emotional regulation and communication skills can better equip workers to handle the emotional demands of their jobs. These interventions could enhance the work environment and overall well-being of NGO workers in India, especially those engaged in anti-trafficking efforts. An organisational culture that recognises and profoundly values emotional labour is crucial in achieving development goals and promoting a more inclusive and equitable work environment that would benefit both their staff and the program participants.

This study demonstrates the intricate interplay between personal history, emotional labour, and the pursuit of social change within the NGO sector. It showcases the resilience and dedication of individuals who transform their past experiences into catalysts for personal growth and societal progress. By recognising the multifaceted nature of emotional labour, organisations can cultivate a compassionate discourse that translates into meaningful change, amplifying the impact of diverse backgrounds and histories in social development. Through these collective efforts, this study advocates for a more equitable and supportive work environment, enriching the lives of NGO workers and the communities they engage with.

In conclusion, this study emphasises the urgent need to recognise emotional labour as legitimate and indispensable work, particularly within the anti-trafficking sector. It also underscores the profound intertwining of emotional labour with gender dynamics. The focus on non-formally trained social work professionals operating within the Indian context provides a foundation for future research endeavours. These forthcoming investigations hold great potential to guide comprehensive theories, innovative policies, and precisely targeted interventions – all carefully designed to alleviate the far-reaching consequences of emotional labour. In doing so, they aim to elevate not only the well-being but also the holistic welfare of NGO workers. Moving forward, further research and policy interventions are necessary to recognise and support the emotional labour performed by women in Indian NGOs. By addressing the challenges these workers face and acknowledging their contributions, NGOs can actively create a work environment characterised by equity and robust support systems.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Central European University Budapest Foundation’s Short Research Grant for master’s students.

Notes on contributors

Pranjali Das

Pranjali Das is a PhD candidate at the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University. Her research interests encompass gender in development, migration, labour, and philanthropy.