Artisan labour in the Agra footwear industry: Continued informality and changing threats

Abstract

Informal artisanal employment conditions effectively pass on overall instability in the Agra footwear industry to the Jatav community. Although in recent decades both mar ket channels and the production structure have become more complex, Jatav artisans are incorporated in basically two ways. Since the 1980s, artisans either run or work in home-based units that manufacture cheap footwear for local upper-caste merchants, or they work as hired labourers in larger workshops and small-scale factories. Arti sanal employment in the 1990s is decreasing because of the increased availability of plastic footwear, the collapse of some export markets and the caste-based antagonism between the dominant Punjabi trader-entrepreneurs and Jatav artisans. This has resulted in an increasingly overcrowded home-based sector of last resort, and more precarious employment conditions. Only a small group of artisans, who are employed in small-scale export-oriented factories run by non-Agra entrepreneurs, enjoy relatively better employment conditions.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

International Labour Organisation. 1992. Employment and working conditions and competitiveness in the leather and footwear industry. Fourth Tripartite Technical Meeting for the Leather and Footwear Industry, Report II. Geneva: International Labour Office.

Kashyap, S.P. 1992. Recent developments in the small enterprises sector in India: Economic and social aspects. International Institute for Labour Studies, Discussion Paper, DP/48. Geneva: International Labour Office.

Khare, R.S. 1984. The untouchable as himself: Ideology, identity, and pragmatism among the Lucknow Chamars. New York: Oxford University Press.

Knorringa, P. 1996. Economics of collaboration: Indian shoemakers between market and hierarchy. New Delhi: Sage Publications.

Leest, G.A. 1984. The trade, (sub)contracting, and employment relations in the small scale footwear industry of Agra, India. Unpublished Master's thesis Rotterdam: Erasmus University , Centre for Development Planning.

Lynch, O.M. 1969. The politics of untouchability. New York: Columbia University Press.

Marglin, S.A. 1974. What dobosses do? The origin and functions of hierarchy in capitalist production. Review of radical political economics 6, 2: 60-112.

Misra, S. 1980. Living and working conditions of labourers in leather industry in Agra. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. Agra: Institute of Social Studies, Agra University.

Nadvi, K. 1994. Industrial district experiences in developing countries . In UNCTAD, Technological dynamism in industrial districts: An alternative approach to industrialization in developing countries?, pp. 191-255. New York and Geneva: UNCTAD .

10.

Rao, K.S. 1993. Development in the Indian leather and leather-products industry. In I.S.A. Baud and G.A. de Bruijne , eds., Gender, small-scale industry and development policy, pp. 151-69. London: Intermediate Technology Publications.

11.

Rao, R. and S. Husain. 1987. Invisible hands: Women in home-based production in the garment export industry in Delhi. In A.M. Singh and A. Kelles-Viitanen , eds., Invisible hands: Women in home based production, pp. 51-67. New Delhi: Sage Publications.

12.

Sahasranaman, A. 1993. National Leather Development Programme (A UNDP Assisted Government of India Programme). Paper presented at a seminar on 'Women's employment in industry: The case of indian footwear' , August 16 and 17, Central Leather Research Institute , Madras, India.

13.

Sharma, S.K. 1986. The Chamar artisans: Industrialisation, skills and social mobility. New Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation.

14.

Sundaram, S. and K. Seshagiri Rao . 1993. Changes and continuity in women's employment in the footwear industry. Paper presented at a seminar on 'Women's employment in industry: The case of Indian footwear', August 16 and 17, Central Leather Research Institute , Madras, India.

15.

Waardenburg, J.G. 1993. Small-scale units in the Agra leather footwear industry . In I.S.A. Baud and G.A. de Bruijne , eds., Gender, small-scale industry and development policy, pp. 47-75. London: Intermediate Technology Publications.