International Conference on

Decent Work and Sustainable Development alongRural-Urban Gradients

Abstracts&

Profiles of Authors

Organised byTata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Guwahati Campus

&International Center for Development and Decent Work (ICDD), Germany

February 19-20, 2016

Tata Institute of Social SciencesGuwahati Campus

Abstracts

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Keynote Addresses

Indigenous Peoples in Emerging Labour Markets: A Historical Analysis by Virginius Xaxa

Indian society is marked by enormous diversity-language, religion, caste and tribe being

the key segments among them. Tribes who identify themselves as the indigenous peoples are

numerically one of the smallest social categories and the most marginalized sections of the society.

People living below poverty line and people with poor educational and health status are the

highest among them. Until the advent of the colonial rule they lived as self contained and

autonomous community without much interaction with outside world except those in the vicinity

of the larger Indian society.

Tribes came under a single political authority for the first time under the colonial rule.

They were brought under the same laws, rules and regulations that were at work in other parts of

India. They experienced the introduction of certain policy and administrative measures especially

in respect of land and forest that had adverse bearing on them. Alongside those measures, the

British opened the tribal areas to the larger world through extension of roads, railways and other

means of communication. This led to the movement of people - traders, moneylenders and land

hungry peasants from plains to tribal areas in search of new opportunities. This paved the way for

markets for goods and commodities on the one hand and land and credit on the other. The land

and forest policy of the colonial state in conjunction with the land, credit and commodity market

eventually paved the way for labour market in tribal areas.

Until the advent of the colonial rule, tribal society was marked by features of

homogeneity. There was no occupational differentiation except those based on age and sex. Hence

the address attempts to explore (1) the nature and type of labour market available to tribal

population under the colonial rule, (2) processes and mechanism underlying their entry to the

available labour market, (3) changes in labour market situation for tribal population in post-

independence era and (4) continuities and discontinuities with the past both in respect of nature

and type of labour market and institutional mechanism and processes of their entry.

Intensification of Landuse Systems and New Demands for Ecosystem Services in a Globalised

World by Andreas Buerkert

With the exception of areas with very limited production potential due to (i)

environmental conditions, (ii) poor infrastructure, and (iii) very specific conditions of poverty or

politically motivated rural exodus, agricultural systems undergo rapid expansion and/or

intensification worldwide. This puts the natural resource base under pressure and calls for

enhanced efficiencies in the use of land, water, nutrients, and labour. Negative externalities of

these developments are deforestation, soil erosion, contamination of water bodies, and increased

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emission of greenhouse gases. Some of these phenomena occur at considerable distance fromthe location of the systems which undergo intensification. This is particularly evident for intensiveanimal husbandry for which energy and protein rich feeds are increasingly transported aroundthe globe often leading to soil erosion and a decline of biodiversity in the source regions andwater and air pollution in the sink areas. During recent years awareness, particularly of urbanizedpopulation groups, has been growing that the amenities of complex, modern societies depend onthe provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural ecosystem services of landuse systems. Thisawareness questions the paradigm of an unlimited exploitation of natural resources and theirinternational appropriation by those who can pay for them. Our paper discusses the effects oftransformation and intensification of agro-ecosystems on system resilience, using examples fromEurope, Asia and Africa. We use a concept of feedback “loops” and “traps” to better understanddevelopment paths and the need for effective political action to mediate between conflictinggoals.

The Promises of New Instruments for the Promotion of Decent Work by Christoph Scherrer

The talk will provide an overview of some, not all initiatives to improve workingconditions throughout global production networks. Besides some longer known instruments suchas social chapters in trade agreements, public procurement, Global Framework Agreementsbetween global union federations (GUFs) and transnational corporations (TNCs), the talk will coverthe United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights as well as the GermanGovernment’s recently proposed multi-stakeholder initiative. It will argue that so far none of themany initiatives seem to be particularly effective. It is, therefore, not sufficient to discuss specificinstruments for the promotion of labor rights along value chains; one also needs to address thegeneral governance of international trade and investments.

Session–I: The Rural-Urban Interface in Spatial and Temporal Perspective

Cropping and Enterprise Profile of the Farming Landscape in the Rural –Urban Gradient: Role ofMarketing Opportunities and Opportunity Costs by K. N. Ganeshaiah, V.R. Ramakrishna Parama, B.V.ChinnappaReddy, Andreas Buerkert & Ellen Hoffman

The diversity of crops cultivated and farm enterprises adopted by the farmers along therural-urban interface was studied in the northern part of Bengaluru. We found that in the studyarea, urbanization has increased the number of crops (25 species) compared with those cultivatedin the rural area (16). Only about 41% of crops cultivated were similar between the two farmlandscapes. However, Simpson and Shannon indices of diversity of the crops, computed usingthe cultivated units (rather than the area covered), indicated only a slight increase of cropEWiversity in urban (6.46 and 1.10) compared with rural farming (5.72 and 0.95). Thus despite a50% increase in the crop species cultivated by farmers in the urban areas, their cropping profileappears to be highly dominated by a few species, while those in the rural areas farmers, appear

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to cultivate a more evenly distributed crop profile. Further, farmers in urban areas have 44%

more crops than those cultivated in the rural area and they were all of two categories: high input

demanding perennials like grapes that are linked to industrial market chain, or, crops with

ephemeral marketing opportunities like vegetables. Thus the marketing opportunities and cost

of marketing seem to be the two major drivers shaping the cropping profile of the rural-urban

interface. We found similar patterns in the farm enterprise diversity as well. We discuss theseresults in the background of the spatial map of the rural-urban index developed for the study

area based on the transportation, civil and development activities.

Implications of Urban Expansion for Agricultural & Economic Activities along the Rural- Urban

Interface in Faisalabad by Izhar, A. Khan, Babar Shahbaz & Naveed Farah

The key challenge of the urbanization process in many countries is the rapid conversion

of prime agricultural land to urban land uses, in the urban fringe. The result of this process is the

unavailability of agricultural lands leading to low agricultural productivity, food insecurity andlow standard of living. The impacts of urban expansion on the agricultural and economic activities

of peri-urban farmers were investigated along the rural–urban interface of Faisalabad. Population

growth, high land value and industrial job opportunities were found major drivers of urban

expansion. There was a change in the size of landholding and this change found mainly due the

sale of land to housing schemes and division of land due to inheritance. Despite reduced

landholding size, crop farming continues to be significant source of subsistence both as a majorand supplementary source of income. Livestock farming has increased as a result of increasing

urban demands. Patterns of Crop selection remained almost same but the crop production is less

due to the water shortage and small landholding size. The less crop production restricted the

farmer to subsistence farming and substantial decrease was found in crop sale to market. Quality

of crops was badly affected as majority of farmers use waste water due to unavailability of canalwater. Strong positive correlation was found between urban growth and monthly income was

found as the peri-urban dwellers found non-farm job opportunities as a result of urban expansion.

The establishment of agro-based industries and capacity building of people for industrial jobs can

contribute for the improvement of their livelihoods.

Rural-Urban Linkages in Comparative Perspective: Lessons from the Eastern Cape of South Africa

by Ben Scully

Southern Africa stands out as a region that has produced a wealth of empirical andtheoretical analysis of labour migration. In the 1960s and 1970s a classic literature argued that

rural to urban labour migration was the source of cheap labour for mining and manufacturing

capital in the region. In the same period, a literature on labour history argued in an earlier period

of colonial capitalism in the region, rising rural incomes had strengthened the bargaining power

of migrants, pushing up wages. This paper follows up on these two contrasting accounts of the

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relationships between migration, wages, and labour’s bargaining power. It stems from a project

to compare contemporary and historical rural-urban connections in South Africa and Ghana. In

this paper we will draw from ongoing field work in the rural Eastern Cape province of South

Africa, as well as in the urban center of Gauteng. We question how the rise of precarious work,

growing unemployment, and the advent of new forms of state-provided social welfare have

transformed labour migration. Do the rural areas still subsidise low-wages urban workers? Or has

the direction of subsidy reversed? How do workers combine wage-labour migration with grants,

a significant new source of income, especially for poor and rural households. What theoretical

lessons can be drawn from comparisons both with South Africa’s own past and with experiences

elsewhere?

Session-II: Labour Migration across the Rural-Urban Interface

Informal Structure of Remittances of Migrant Workers: A Study of Orya People in Surat and

Gandhidham by Nandini Ramamurthy

This paper intends to understand two parallel yet intrinsic issues – the migrant

experiences at the destination points through living arrangement and work conditions and the

pattern of formal and informal remittance structure between the destination points of Surat and

Gandhidham to the source places like Kurdha, Nayagad and Puri. Drawing upon 288 interviews

this mixed methods research argues that living in cluster relatively reduces distress in migration

especially among new entrants and jobless migrant. It helped them to decreases the cost on rent

and food. Furthermore, it forced them in not bringing their families to the destination places. In

addition, their work conditions are strenuous and are deprived of basic amenities like toilet, water

and a proper lunch areas. They live in crammed spaces and the toilets are poorly maintained, all

of this had negative impact on their mental, physical, physiological and emotional balance. It

analyzed that migrants who worked for 8 hours remitted more money than those who worked

above 8 hours, and the level of significance was at 0.06. The informal remittance structure studied

Tapawalas, and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) named “Adhikar”. The money was

physically collected, and delivered within a week’s time. The services of NGO were preferred

because it had offices at both the points, and this made them reliable when compared to the

Tapawalas. In order to bring down the cost, migrants sent collective remittance. Despite the

existence of banks, post offices and mobile services, migrants were forced to use informal channels,

and this kind of financial exclusion lead to exploitation in terms of service charges. Finally, this

paper contributes to the existing literature of migration and remittance by analyzing living

arrangement and informal social protection of extended households, moreover, it emphasized

on the degree of remittance informality among the workers. Hence, these aspects will enable to

rethink development policies on the grounds to adopt a more inclusive strategy.

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“From Rural Poverty to Urban Challenges” - Coping Mechanisms of Naga Women Employed in

Beauty Parlours at Chennai by Pavei Kh

Migration has been a global phenomena with the emergence of globalization. Rural to

Urban Migration India holds a unique position with huge poverty and lack of development in the

rural areas. Lack of opportunities in the North Eastern region of India has pushed many young

women to migrate to urban cities in search of livelihood. Despite generating a large number ofwork forces from the region, little is known about the work place and living conditions at the

destination. The demand for work force in the cities is favouring an increasing trend in women

migration from the region. Shifting from village to the urban cities migrant women are often

engaged in unregulated and most poorly paid jobs such as hotel, shopping malls and beauty parlour.

The challenges faced by the migrants in the informal work sector are poorly addressed. Reason

for migration can be many, but financial need and livelihood support for family has motivated themigrant women to cope and work under extreme difficulties. As the number of women migrants

working in semi-skilled jobs like beauty parlour are increasing, it is important to understand how

rural poverty led women to work with urban challenges. This study examined the life and challenges

of Naga Women working particularly in beauty parlour at Chennai. A questionnaires and interviews

were used to collect data from 49 women regarding their background, challenges faced by them

in a metropolis like Chennai and coping mechanism used by the women to face the challenges.The findings of the study show that the migrant’s major challenges are in meeting the daily expense

of the stay in the cities and discrimination both at the work place and outside the work place. This

work helped to increase our understanding on migrant’s life, work pattern in the urban cities and

it directs the attention of policy makers to safe-guard migrant women working in the urban India.

Theoretical Investigation of Rural Labour Mobility by the Tripartite Labour Supply Model under

Labour Surplus Economy by Cheng Li

The concept of labour surplus has featured prominently in the recent literatures oneconomic development of underdeveloped, and overpopulated economies. In analysis, Labour

surplus economy subsequently is considered as a theory/model analyzing an economy, featuring

in mainly a great number of rural labour force in excess of its capacity under a certain level of

development and the reallocation process of the so-called “surplus” labour force within its

economic dualism (rural-urban).Therefore, its development model is often defined in terms of

the transfer of a large proportion of labour force from agricultural to industrial activities, andfrom rural traditional to urban modern sectors.

However, the sustainability of such developmental model will be highly questioned by

the remaining “reserve army of labour” mainly from rural area, along with the gradual and

diminishing of the demographic dividend in general, as well as the impact by the improvement of

agricultural productivity, rural livelihood, and rural development. Lewis Model, as the theoretical

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investigation was the first seminal theory; followed with the Ranis-Fei Labour Surplus Model,

Jorgensen Dual Economy Model, Harris-Todaro Dual Economic Model, both in classical and neo-

classical approaches set the main foundation and reference.

Tripartite Labour Supply Model bearing a balanced & developmental idea that based

on the transfer neither in the way to create high urban unemployment nor in the way of keeping

rural labour force underemployment or indifference in the unproductive activities, is initiated asa heterodoxy model by the author, spurned the traditional dualism of labour market by trichotomy.

The innovative idea as to separate the labour market into triple divisions (agricultural producer,

floating migrants and urban labour markets), demonstrated an alternative interpretation over

the so-called “Lewis Turning Point”, and released the essential reasons behind the increasing

wages of migrant workers, as well as the possible solutions to the developmental bottleneck

based on the labour surplus economy.

Session-III: Restructuring Farm Labour

Tea Plantations, Adivasis and Migration: Making of the New Adivasi labours by Joy Prafful Lakra

The history of Indian tea spans more than 150 years. Like most plantation crops in

British colonies, tea has been an export oriented industry right from the start, as it was developed

mainly to meet the UK’s domestic demand or for re – export. The rapid expansion of tea cultivation

in Assam was followed by the establishment of Plantation in Darjeeling (1839), Terai (1862) and

Dooars region (1874) of North Bengal. One of the important reasons for the expansion of the teaindustry here was owed to falling of profits in late 19th century at home and increase foreign

competition and periodically threatened thereafter with the collapse in the wake of severe crisis.

(Xaxa: 1985)

For a very long time, Adivasi in the Eastern India is associated with the tea gardens,

where they had come few generations back as indentured labours. They left their homes and

families and made this new land their own. The changing agrarian relations of the late 17th century

transformed the Adivasis into the plantation labours, and now they are gradually gettingtransformed into cheap labours making them vulnerable and exposed to exploitations. Until

recently the life in the tea plantations looked promising, but situations are no more the same.

Many tea plantations is West Bengal stated closing in the late 1990’s, forcing people to look for

alternative. In some of the tea gardens, managers are in run, tea factories are dilapidated, tea

bushes have grown wild and people do not know what to do. They look for jobs in the nearby

brick kiln, go to other gardens or migrate to the cities in search of livelihood.

Using both qualitative and quantitative research methodology, this research explores

the lives of the Adivasis in Rahimpur Tea Garden in Dooars Region. The Adivasis through various

organizations are struggling to open the closed tea gardens, rise in wages, better health and

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school facilities. They are in the dilemma of making a choice; either to remain or wait for situation

to better or move out for better opportunities.

Special Economic Zones and Making of Farmers in to Labour by Sazzad Parwez

This paper tries to explore and examines the interaction between special economic

zones, economic development and rural population in the context of the country’s experience of

past few decade of economic reform. One of the impactful products of new economic policy of

special economic zone; both theoretically and practically, can be observed in different economic,social, cultural, political, finance, and technological dimensions in the country. This paper is based

on secondary data and empirical analysis of India’s neo-liberal economy, which is backed by experts

at large and its model of development, has indeed enhanced economic development to a certain

extent but it is still far from the desired results of overall economic development. The most

disturbing element is the process of establishment of special economic zones, thriving for economic

development is its relentless drive towards land acquisition, cultural sameness or universalism.Paper raises question on marginalisation for indigenous peoples and farming community. This

policy seems to be a multi-pronged attack on the very foundation of their existence and livelihoods

through establishment of special economic zones. New trade and investment agreements, has

forced indigenous peoples to defend their homelands under an invasion of unprecedented rate

and scale. The new economic regime in the form of special economic zones has led to privatisation

of economy and emerging as powerful threat to the survival of rural India.

The Nature of Employment and the Question of Fair Price in Small Tea Growers (STGs) Gardens

in India by Abdul Hannan

This paper sets out to bridge the gap separating organised tea industry from the STGs

and thereby begins to recover this lost side of the industry in the supply chain. A careful treatment

of this unorganised sector allows small-scale farming in the plantations to exist in the contemporary

scenario. The incorporation of STGs in tea industry involves much more than a simple mappingonto farm terrain, it requires an exploration of distinctive process of industrialization surrounding

farm production. The study of STGs gardens in India discusses the relevant facts and impart to

paradigm shift of geography of plantations. To mention a few, the importance of STGs gardens in

regional development by providing new forms of employment and livelihood opportunities, the

green leaf trade between STGs and BLFs and the role played by middlemen, the process and

distinct form of agro-based industrialization in the backward districts and regions, the existinggovernment policies for accessing market etc. It also talks how traditional enclave economy

character of tea industry has lost its originality and the recent emergence of unorganised sector

has changed the geography of plantations. On the other hand, it puts forward a fundamental

question whether such a development reduces the bargaining strength of burgeoning STGs and

labourers engaged with them by bringing a new model of plantations or is it a neo-liberal strategy

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of development by pushing an agenda of casualisation from entitlement-based (PLA) employmentto scheme-oriented livelihood opportunities in backward regions in India?

Session-IV: Towards Sustainable Waste Management

Sustainable Development and Employment in Wastewater Management: IncreasingEmployment Opportunities and Emerging Challenges by Joesephine Anthony, Shalila Raj&Surinder Jaswal

Sustainable development in the present context of depleting natural resources andincreasing demand on production has been challenging. In developing countries, treatment andmanagement of wastewater provides newer avenues for water security. In the bargain, it createsemployment opportunities located within enviornmental and social concerns. Employmentopportunities in wastewater management sector has increased after recognising the significanceof reclamation and recycling of wastewater. This paper brings out the kind of employmentopportunities available with the wastewater treatment plants in India. This paper is based on aresearch study carried out in 3 states in India in which the emerging concerns as well as promisingemployment opportunities in wastewater treatment plants could be analysed for different aspectsof decent work.

Some of the key aspects of decent work worth notable in the case studies include,social security provisions as lower level workers encounter the brunt of price rise, pollution, healthhazards, and insecurity, issues related to work atmosphere in which wastewater recycling can bearduous in terms of the nature of work, smell, lack of adequate manpower, and technologicalcomplications, and the deterioration of wastewater treatment facilities due to managerialinefficiency. This paper argues that if equipped with appropriate measures of employment securityschemes, there would be improved work morale and engagement with job as well as workers’increased job satisfaction in the work space of waste water treatment plants. Conversely, therewould be lowered engagement and less productivity, while working within constrained andchallenging work environment that are often not well incentivised and recognised. The paperfocuses on potential hazards, social and economic insecurity among the workers in wastewatertreatment facilities and the implications on sustainability. The paper presents the argument basedon casestudies conducted in 8 waste water treatment plants in 3 states namely, Maharashtra,Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. The paper follows cross-section analysis of different waste watertreatment plants and particularly highlights the aspects of decent work.

Towards a Sustainable Utilization of Urban Green Waste by Micheal Wachendorf

Urban green waste, i.e. grass clippings and tree litter, occurs in big amounts in all humansettlements around the globe. This biomass is either left on the ground, frequently mulched, orcollected and moved to the city fringe, where it is burnt or composted. All current managementpractices make no use of the energy contained in this organic material, but are labour and energyconsuming and create atmospheric hazardous trace gases.

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This paper presents data on the green waste potential in some European and Asiancities, characterizes existing energy conversion techniques and shows their limitations.Consequences for energy production, matter flows and greenhouse gas emissions will be discussed.

Session- V: The Urbanisation Challenge to Food Safety and Livelihoods

Urban Transition in West Africa and its Effects on Food Chains and Quality of Supply: Examplesfrom Ghana by Gordana Kranjac-Berisavljevic

Global urbanization level reached 54% in 2014 (UN, 2014). In the period between 2014-2050, about 90% of the urban population is expected to be concentrated in Asia and Africa, withthe highest projected growth rate in Africa.

This paper analyses the emerging middle-class urban consumer preferences for food inGhana and West Africa, based on several recent studies. Study findings show that most of suchconsumers wish to move from large open markets towards supermarkets and online shopping,due to various reasons tied to perception of supermarkets as ‘modern’ outlets, with safer productsand higher quality standards than traditional markets. This change will have a strong effect on theproduction as well as current marketing practices, as well as employment, especially in informalsector. Numerous market women and men across West Africa work at the open markets, andsmall-scale farmers who supply these markets will be also affected by the current trends.

Forthcoming research should thus focus on what will happen to the large segments ofthe market chain participants in the near future. Are they able to change their role alongside theconsumers changing preferences, is the question we need to consider, as it affects large numberof especially, female livelihoods.

Street Food, Food Safety and Sustainable Food Provision in the Emerging Indian Mega City ofHyderabad by Christoph Dittrich

Street food vending is an integral part of the food provision system and food culture ofurban India. The street food sector (food items that are directly prepared and consumed on thestreet) show great potential for fostering sustainable development, not only in the ecological, butalso in the economic and social dimension. This highly decentralized food distribution systemprovides affordable, nutritious, and culturally accepted food items tailored especially to the needsof the poorer urban dwellers. It operates on the basis of resource efficiency, low waste outputand low greenhouse gas emissions. Street food also provides a flexible yet profitable source ofincome, especially for those who do not fit into the formal economy. To unleash its potential forsustainable development and integrate the street food sector in city modernization programs,several problems have to be solved and challenges met. Street food has often been regarded asbackward, out of date, associated with health hazards and traffic obstructions, and as not fit tomeet the ends of urban development. Due to legal constraints, the majority of street vendors

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work without a licence, which often leads to corruption demands, arbitrary displacements, andthe confiscation of their belongings. The paper deals with findings and experiences of an appliedIndo-German research project on street food vending in the emerging South Indian mega city ofHyderabad, with a focus on a pilot project and capacity building measures dealing with streetfood safety and sustainability.

Economic Analysis of Urbanisation Effects on Rural Household Incomes by H.N. Roopa andB.V.Chinnappa Reddy

During the past 25 years, Bengaluru city is rapidly expanding into surrounding ruralareas changing ecological and economic landscapes and offering income generating opportunitiesfor rural people. The present study has analysed pattern of emergence of income generationactivities and concomitant enhanced incomes of rural people as influenced by urbanisation. Thestudy is based on primary data collected from 160 households representing peri-urban (Hosakotetaluk, 80 households) and rural areas (Ramanagara taluk, 80 households) inirrigated and rainfedcontexts. In both rural and peri-urban areas, Bengaluru city provided more income generatingopportunities to households depending on rainfed systems than to irrigated farm householdsUrbanisation also enabled rural irrigated farmers to grow a wide range of commercial crops. Underirrigation about 66% of the household income was generated from farm and allied activities,whereas it was only 5% for rainfed farms. Non-farm income per year (mostly from urban activities)was higher in rainfed households (Rs 105117 and Rs 2,38,677 in rural and peri-urban areas) thanin irrigated ones (Rs 59,701 and Rs. 1,10,415). This formed about 62 and 94 % of the income ofrainfed rural and peri-urban farmers, but only 19 and 34 % for irrigated rural and peri-urbanfarmers, respectively. This could be attributed to the proximity of these areas to Bengaluru cityand the creation of non-farm employment for small farmers and land less households. Urbanisationhas also resulted in diversification of income sources to rural households having only dry lands.While educated people enjoyed formal employment, unqualified people used basic skills for jobssuch as drivers, tailors, carpenters etc, in urban areas thereby increasing their income. In this wayurbanisation enhanced income opportunities rural households surrounding Bengaluru city.

Session-VI: Possibilities and Limits of Financial Inclusion Strategies

Fiancial Inclusion and Access to Credit for Farmers: Evidences from NSSO Data by MeenakshiRajeev, B P Vani and Manojit Bhattacharjee

While access to financial resources is critical for the very survival of the self employedpoor in a developing country like India, this paper using the data from farmer households showsthat the poor often needs to depend on informal lenders with unfavourable terms and conditions.It is to be noted that farming, inspite of its low share in GDP, continues to be the most importantemployment generating activity in India. The present analysis utilizes unit level NSSO data fortwo consecutive rounds (59th and 70th round, All India Debt and Investment Survey) to provide a

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comparative scenario and highlight some of the lacunas of current financial services rendered bythe formal banks, which is the is the major purveyor of credit in India. While the NSSO data setprovides substantial information regarding household debt and investment for about 1, 43,285households in India, covering both rural and urban areas, there has been limited number of studiesthat came up with rigorous analysis of this data. In an attempt to fill this gap the current researchpaper also brings to light the challenges to the formal banking sector in India in reaching out tothe poor , socially backward and weaker sections of the society.

Improving Small Framers Access to Finance: Findings from Rural Punjab, Pakistan by KhalidMushtaq, Kabeer Muhammad and Asad Naseer

Access to finance to small farmers remained one of the major challenges for the StateBank of Pakistan (SBP) and Government. Various initiatives in terms of providing enablingenvironment for flow of credit and enhancing rural branch network have been taken whichresultantly increased agri. credit disbursement to Rs. 500 billion in FY 2014-15 from 53 billion inFY 2001-02. Despite these concerted efforts, there is still a huge supply and demand gap of agri.credit as banks are meeting around 40% of the credit requirements of farmers. Experience hasshown that the traditional commercial banking delivery channels are not cost effective andunsustainable to extend financial services to considerable number of farmer. To capitalize uponthe banking sector liquidity and keeping in view the constraints faced by banks, restricted themto service agri. borrowers, it is highly crucial to develop a hybrid credit delivery model based onrural banks franchise by introducing innovative partnership with local NGOs, VDOs, MFIs, andother market actors. One of such franchisers is referred to as “Aarthis/commission agents”operating in the grain markets of Punjab. He remains the largest source of informal credit forsmall farmers. Deeply embedded in the agriculture credit market (in terms of customer knowledge& social relationships, accessibility & flexibility, crop & market knowledge etc); the Aarthi hasrefined his model to avoid adverse selection, control moral hazard, mitigate risk and makesubstantial profits in a market deemed risky and unprofitable by the commercial bankers. SBP’sCommittee on Rural Finance (CRF) strongly advocates for linkages between the Aarthis and thecommercial banks and cites disconnect between the two as “highly damaging”. In order to generatesome outside the box thinking on the issue of linking banks to the small farmer, the present studytakes a close look at the Aarthi system in Punjab to understand the Aarthi’s role in the agriculturesupply chain by mapping his network and linkages, understanding his operations, finances (suchas sources of funds, interest rates, costs and profits) and risk management techniques. We notonly aim to learn why the Aarthi is so successful and continues to thrive but also to gain insightsinto how his modus operandi can be adapted to allow banks and formal financial institutions toreach rural markets efficiently and manage their risks. Lessons from the Aarthi model are used topropose ideas for pilots and research that can break this apparent deadlock with regards tochannelling institutional credit to agriculture in a profitable and sustainable manner.

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Microcredits, Poverty Reduction and Gender The Case of India by Christa Wichterich

India recorded more than 300.000 suicides of male farmers between 1995 and 2014.

The main reasons are overindebtedness and desparation due to lack of access to agricultural

credits. However, in the same period of time the villages got penetrated by commercial micro

finance institutions which offer micro credits to poor women at the front door under the auspices

of poverty reduction and women’s empowerment.

This paper discusses microcredits at the intersection of four power regimes: the

international financial market, development aid, policies of the nation state, and local and

household systems of social reproduction and production. Gender, class/caste, race, and the post-

colonial North-South-relations as social categories of inequality are cross-cutting these power

regimes.

Microcredits are a gendered instrument for the inclusion into the financial market based

on the narrative of a high female repayment morale. Development aid adopted the Grameen

Bank model and linked lending to productive investment and “income generating activities” mainly

in non-agricultural sectors. Thus microcredits facilitate a restructuring of the rural economies

from subsistence to market orientation and imply a financialisation of everyday life and social

reproduction in the villages. However, due to interest rates of 35 percent, mostly consumptive

investment and multiple lending many women got into a spirale of debt. In 2010, after a period of

fast expansion, overheating and oversupply, the microcredit industry crashed in the Indian state

of Andhra Pradesh. Highly indebted women stopped repayment, some even committed suicide.

The paper highlights the paradox and ambivalent effects of microcredits on poverty

reduction and women’s empowerment, and discusses them as vehicles to leave poverty

management in a neoliberal way to the poor themselves and ease responsibilities of the nation

state and development aid.

Impact of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana on Rural Households: A Case study of Border Areas

of Amritsar by Seozy Bhatia & Paramjit Dhindsa

The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is the biggest recent development in

Indian banking sector, launched on 20 August, 2014 with the aim of achieving financial inclusion

by ensuring universal access to banking facilities viz., banking/saving and deposit accounts, credit,

insurance, pension in an affordable manner, where accounts can be opened in any bank branch

with zero balance. Taking into consideration the importance of this scheme, this paper explores

its impact on rural households with special reference to border areas of Amritsar. Further, it

compares the difference in their living after the implementation of this scheme. To accomplish

these objectives questionnaire was framed with a sample of 100 rural households belonging to

three adjoining villages near Attari border of Punjab. The paper further highlights the policy

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implications and suggestions regarding the upliftment of rural households of border areas ofPunjab.

Session-VII: Land Use Starategies and Struggles

Improved Rural-Urban Linkages, Income Diversification and Mountain Land use in the Contextof Ambiguous Tenure: A Case study from Northern Pakistan by Inam ur Rahim, Henri Rueff andMohammad Khursheed

The off-season vegetable production in different high mountain pastures in NorthernPakistan was initiated in the early nineteen eighties (1980s) with support from Pak-Swiss PotatoDevelopment Project, and Pak-German Seed Potato Program. The tenure of these high pasturesis disputed among state, landlords, and herders occupying these areas in summer. The ease ofsupply of agricultural inputs and outputs with the development of road infrastructure to thesemountain valley have accelerated the encroachment of cash crops onto high elevation pasturespreviously used by sheep and goat herders and have diversified their income. We analysed theimpact of improved linkages in Burhawai pastures of Naran valley. After analysing the diversificationof income among the pastoral groups, land use change, socio-economic change, as a consequenceof crop encroachment were statistically analysed. The result shows that In 2010, the previouscattle herders have a highly significant reduction in their herd size (P<0.01) and are now left withonly 20% of their 1985 herd size compared to 50% herd size reduction for sheep and goat herders(P<0.05). In 2010 the previous cattle herders also have a highly significant reduction in familylabour allocation for herding (P<0.01) with only 18.6% of their 1985 family labor allocationcompared to 90.5% for sheep and goat herders (ns p>0.05). Till 2010, cropping has encroachedover 17.87% of the early summer grazing zone in Burhawai valley. Initially the less labour requiringland was selected and now the encroachment is heading toward steep terrain (44%) slope. Animalsare grazing for a longer period of time shorter grass growing period at higher elevation. Theherding communities have increase the livestock concentration on the remaining grazing area.The resulting over-grazing has direct negative impacts on natural vegetation, soil erosion, andhydrology, and it contributes to accelerated degradation of the fragile mountain ecosystem.

Edged out at the Periphery: Changing Map of Landholding Patterns of Koli Women, Mumbaiby Nandita Mondal

Mumbai has named after Mumbadevi, the Koli stone goddess whose temple still standsamid the urbane surrounding of Babulnath market in south Mumbai. The Kolis are the originalinhabitants of Mumbai, when it was an archipelago of seven islands.

Sea has an enormous influence on the lives of Koli men and women since their birth.While Koli boys would grow up learning the nuances of fishing in the sea from their elders, youngKoli girls are introduced as part of the ‘labour’ brigade waiting on the sea shore (read land) to getinitiated into their Koli identity.

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Koli males are destined to be sea fearer to bring the shore the ‘catch’, the Koli womenare stranded on ‘land’ to continue the rest of the activities to plough back the capital in time toenable the males to go on next trip to sea. While on the part of Koli men, masculinity attached indefying the odds on sea is celebrated, Koli women is always need to stand guard to continue thesaga of life - managing business, rearing the children, taking care of elders, managing flow ofcapital etc

Hence, traditionally the assets of the household, land and house – everything was beingcreated in the name of Koli women until recently. Since a decade due to the rapid urbanisationwhich engulfed the periphery of suburbs of Mumbai and invariably expand its boundaries toreach the Koliwadas, the pattern of land holding set out for a change.

Many of the land titles are now being rapidly changed in the names of Koli male membersof the households to make them eligible to take advantage of soaring land price. Since the land isimportant for Koli household as it is being used as workplace to process and store fish, the impactis being felt on the livelihood patterns of the Koli women in addition to their loss of land titles, i.easset owning status.

This paper attempts to explore the impact of such change of land holding patterns onthe livelihood of Koli women of Mumbai. The qualitative methodology is adopted to bring in lightof their precarious conditions where they are almost edged out at the periphery.

Work and Occupation along with Changing Patterns of Land Holding: Study of Rajbansis inSiliguri, West Bengal by Hemantika Basu

This paper intends to show how nature and types of occupations and work have beenchanging along with land holding patterns since last three decades among indigenous people inSiliguri, West Bengal. The city has been witnessing capitalist patterns of rapid urban growthreflected in real estate, infrastructure (physical and social), housing, shopping malls, and hospitalitysectors. An idea on the volume of migration for work and livelihood generated in the newlyemerging sectors can be understood from Census reports which show high population influx inurban peripheries along north-eastern, southern and western areas. Due to rise in land price,indigenous people— Rajbansis (indigenous people of Northern Bengal)— who owned much oflands are seen to be selling off and shifting to urban peripheries. This transformation of ruralhinterland to urban peripheries has been leading to occupational shifts from agricultural work toinformal services. While some of them are surviving on the sale proceeds of sold-out lands, thosewho once owned marginal lands are now choosing these informal means of livelihood, whereincome is low and intermittent. The lower economic strata among Rajbansis are mainly engagedin domestic work, construction work, roadside food retailing, and forest-wood collection. Thestudy primarily has been drawn from 50 households having aforementioned occupations. Resultbased on quantitative as well as qualitative data revealed that increasing commercial use of land

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is posing a threat to their livelihood security in terms stability of work and occupation. Their

occupation is mainly shifting from agricultural work to casual wage labour and petty commodity

production which are also exposed to uncertainty and risk of income fluctuations. Such continuous

infringement of peripheral lands in the process of urbanisation is creating livelihood insecurity

among these indigenous people.

Session-VIII: Rethinking Rural Development

Implication of International Trade Policy for Farming by Christoph Scherrer

Much of the input and output of modern farming crosses borders. Therefore, the rules

for cross border flows of goods, capital, and people have implications for farming. This is also true

for small holders who solely rely on local inputs and local outlets because they will face the

competition of those linked to global production networks. Modern trade agreements are much

more than agreements on lower tariffs. They encompass investment, intellectual property rights

and competition policies. Rules on investment influence who owns the land, who controls

processing, and who decides what will be placed on supermarket shelves. Strengthening intellectual

property rights provides an advantage for first movers, which are usually corporations from the

global North. Competition policies may limit governmental subsidies to the farming communities.

The talk will highlight some of the contentious issues in the recently concluded Trans Pacific

Partnership (TPP) for small-holder farms in the Global South.

The Strengths and Weaknesses of Developmental Schemes: A Case Study of MGNREGA by

Santosh Kumar Mahapatra

India, a country with diverse religion, caste, creed, tradition and customs is gaining its

stand in the world both economically and politically. More than 70% of the population resides in

the villages and majority of them are poor. The problem of poverty is in a sorry state of affair and

poses a serious hurdle to economic growth the country. The Government of India had launched

various developmental programmes and anti-poverty schemes to reduce the disparity between

the rich and poor. But the efficacy of these schemes is under cloud. The present work will focus

on this issue by making case study of a popular scheme of the Government under the Mahatma

Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The study proposes to cover all the states

with a special reference to the North Eastern States of the country and use secondary data available

from the official sources. A review of literature shall be made to investigate the success or failure

of the scheme in the various parts of the country and find out causes of poor implementation (if

any). Accordingly a model will be developed to study relevant issues in the north eastern region

of India. The study aims at finding the strength and weaknesses of the scheme as well as finding

out causes of its poor implementation and make suggestions which may have implications for

policy formulation by government and non-government agencies.

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Rural Livelihoods, Public Employment Programs and Social Protection: a View from SouthernAfrica by Ruth Castel-Branco

In Southern Africa rural areas have been historically sites informal social protection forAfrican workers. While the colonial regimes of the region institutionalized a complex web ofregulations to drive the proletarinization of African peasants the reproductive costs of colonialaccumulation were born by their subjects, in particular African wome in rural areas. In the absenceof access to formal citizenship rights during the colonial period, or a functioning social welfaresystem post-independence, rural areas provided a safety-net for the young, old, ill and unemployed.Remittances from wage labor, on the other hand constituted an important source of income forpeasant households, triggering a process of differentiation in rural areas. Drawing on evidenceon rural livelihoods and labor markets in Mozambique, this paper argues that the linkages betweenrural and urban have shifted, as the sources of remittances—formal sector jobs in mines andindustry in South Africa—have dried up. The perception that rural households are primarily self-sufficient is pervasive in the public policy debate. However, there has been a sustained decline inagricultural production in Mozambique and an increased reliance not only on markets, but alsoon food imports from other countries. Previously considered unnecessary, social welfare hasbecome a critical source of income in rural areas. Until recently, the majority of social welfareprograms focused on categories of vulnerable citizens, such as the elderly, people with disabilities,malnourished children. However, in recent years there has been a drive to extend social welfareto able-bodied adults. The paper compares two different mechanisms for such inclusion—a BasicIncome Grant and Public Employment Programs.

Session-IX: Social Conditions for Decent Work in Rural and Urban Settings

Factors Influencing Smallholder Dairy Farmers Participation in Voluntary Compliance of DecentWork Practices: Case Study in Nakuru County, Kenya by T D O Ogola, J Lagat & I S Kosgey

Decent work concept is based on four pillars namely employment, employment rights,social dialogue, social security. The uptake of decent work practices in smallholder dairy farms ispoorly understood. This paper explores the linkage between socioeconomic status of smallholderfarmer and compliance to decent work standards. The study involved 123 farmers. Three indexscales were constructed to measure decent work. These were based on a composite index basedon the four pillars of social security, social dialogue, and employment rights. Ordinal logisticregression analysis revealed that there was a significant relationship between decent work level,dairy breed, and education. Therefore policies that would address inadequate genetic capacity ofanimals and ensure improved literacy levels for the general populace can enhance decent workinterventions. For education this can be support of adult literacy institutions. But along with theseinterventions, a general awareness campaign should still be carried out.

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Organizing for Decent Work for Home-based Workers: The Case of SEWA in Ahmedabad by

Shivani Chauhan Barooah

Since 1999, the concept of decent work has been the focus of all the programmes and

policies of the International Labour Organization (ILO). It is the converging focus of four strategic

objectives: work and employment, rights at work, social protection and social dialogue. However,

there exists a global decent work deficit in terms of absence of sufficient employment

opportunities, inadequate social protection, the denial of rights at work and shortcomings in

social dialogue. The decent work deficit is more pronounced for workers in the informal economy.

Home-based workers constitute an important and significant part of the informal

economy. Although invisible, home-based workers produce for both domestic and global value

chains across various industries. Moreover, home-based work represents a significant share of

total employment in some countries, especially in Asia. In particular home-based work attracts

more women than men. Due to the social and cultural constraints, women choose this as a viable

option for work.

The Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) is a national labour union that organizes

women workers in the informal economy across India. The home- based workers comprise nearly

30 per cent of SEWA’s members in Ahmedabad. SEWA, over the years, has developed a

multipronged and multi-layered strategy to holistically address the needs of home-based workers.

Organizing home-based workers has given them not only voice at the national and international

level but also highlighted their large numbers and contribution to the economy. With its relentless

efforts SEWA has brought visibility to the workers and their work and thereby ensuring that they

are included in the government schemes and policies.

This paper, with the help of primary and secondary data, highlights the efforts of SEWA

vis-à-vis the quest for decent work for home-based workers in Ahmedabad.

Reflexivity in Tackling Development Cooperation: Contributions from an Integrated Lifeworld-

Livelihoods-Assets Perspective by Claudia Levy

Critics to development cooperation projects often mention that these are not

sustainable, either because not properly contextualized, or not owned by the end users. Based

on a livelihood analysis in two villages in Mozambique, my contribution aims to reflect on how - in

similar settings - development cooperation projects could better grasp complex social realities. I

show how I used a situated multi-method approach that drew on a set of interview categories for

an integrated lifeworld-livelihoods-assets perspective. This comprehends livelihoods in terms of

income activities and the assets required for these and for symbolic reproduction. The approach

adopted could encompass the social processes around shifting livelihood conditions through time,

even if base-line studies were not available.

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In the villages studied it was unveiled, for example, that the reorganization of the socialspace, as households moved from scattered homesteads to form settlements, further exertspressure on the already scarce natural resource-based livelihoods. Moreover, this process disrupteda normative base substantiating the way that the use of resources is governed. Hence, actuallivelihood strategies and response mechanisms turn to diversification through income-generatingactivities. Since invested without a long-term perspective, these further increase pressure on theresource-base, reducing future opportunities in a downward spiral of continuously decreasingassets. Thus, by indicating the failure of institutions in the mediation of smallholders’ adaptivecapabilities, the livelihood assessment in Mabomo and Mungaze sheds light on the complexunderlying structure of present day social vulnerability, linking the macro-context to the actualsituation. From here, development cooperation projects can better be designed to assist in breakingthis state of “subordination”, shaped by historical processes, weak institutions and food insecurity.

Thus, an actor-oriented assessment can facilitate the unveiling of the intricateenvironmental and socio-political conditions underlying local livelihoods. From the co-constructionof a mutually shared definition of the situation, such an approach can better foster the conditionsthat prompt agency, as essential to the co-construction of more resilient livelihoods.

Session-X: New Extractivism : New Development Traps?

Ghana’s Gold Boom, Multinational Corporations, Host Communities and Social Movements:Resource Nationalism or a Countervailing Force? A Study of Selected Mining Enclaves in Ghanaby Patrick Agbesinyale

Ghana is the second largest producer of gold in Africa after South Africa. Gold mining inGhana dates back several centuries. However, the early 1970s saw the near collapse of the miningindustry with mineral output and revenue dipping considerably with severe consequences forthe national economy. By early 1980s, Ghana had opted for a World Bank/IMF inspired StructuralAdjustment Programme (SAP) which prescribed neo-liberal free market reforms leading to amongothers, the enactment of far reaching mining policy reforms that were to re-position the miningsub-sector strategically for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in-flows. Several giant multinationalcompanies including AngloGold-Ashanti of South Africa, Newmont of USA, Goldfields of SouthAfrica and several juniors from Australia, Canada and the USA have over the last three decadespoured substantial investments into the gold sub-sector of Ghana. It was estimated that FDI flowsinto the gold sub-sector alone may have amounted to at least 10 billion US dollars between 1990and 2010 (Agbesinyale and Inkoom, 2012). This development has since ushered Ghana into anew multinational corporate-driven gold rush.

FDI flows and the multinationals involvement in the mining sector without doubt, havebrought some palpable good; including a boost to economic growth; as mining’s contribution toGDP rose from almost negative percent by early 1980s to average 5 percent over the period, with

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gold becoming a major foreign exchange earner for the country after cocoa. Mining has createdseveral formal sector jobs both direct and indirect – at the peak of the boom in the mid-1990s,industrial gold mining had employed an estimated 30,000 people before slumping to about 10,000in recent time. Other gains include the provision of mining infrastructure, taxes, rents and utilitypayments to government by the mines and enhancement in the investor confidence in Ghana asa specific spin off effect. In spite of these gains, there have been major downsides and challenges.Several studies (Acquah, 1993; Agbesinyale, 2007; Akabzaa 2000; Aryee, 2001; Aubynn, 1997;Dzigbodi-Adjimah, 1996; Kennedy, 1997; Songsore et al, 1994 etc.) have pointed out the ills ofthe new wave of multinational corporate-led gold mining in Ghana. Apart from the burgeoningenvironmental degradation and pollution it has occasioned through extensive surface mining,mining companies have also been accused of massive land alienation and the disruption oftraditional rural livelihoods among their host communities leading in some cases to the deepeningof poverty, social and economic marginalization as well as exclusion. Mining’s host communitiesin are mired in different development paradoxes including the gold-poverty paradox and the foodparadox leading to different levels and forms of resource-related conflicts.

Ghana’s mining laws and policies formulated largely within the ambit of neoliberal ethosare seen to have overly granted concessions and in some cases, carte blanche to the foreignmining companies to the detriment of local host communities who are natural competitors to theresources. Rural host communities have had to surrender their rights over land and other landbased resources which constitute the veritable building blocks and asset base of their livelihoodswith little or no compensation. Again, government’s complicity or at best indifference is seen inits continuous attempt to water down the mining law, remove restrictions, lower regulatorystandards and grant more concessions to the mining companies in a bid to retain their investmentsin the country, while attracting new mining investments in a race-to-the-bottom fashion. This hasplaced rural host communities at the receiving end with deepening poverty, marginalization,exclusion and increased vulnerability.

Today, however, many mining host communities in Ghana are re-discovering their voicesalbeit faint. Rising up and out from the ashes of marginalization and exclusion, and with the aid ofhuman rights, resource governance and environmental watch related civil society organisationsand non-governmental organisations (CSOs/NGOs), and of course bolstered by the rise in socialmedia, many host communities are developing and building themselves into a countervailingforce that compel mining companies to make policy shifts and sometimes draw compromises nomatter how little. This is in stark contrast to the situation some two decades ago where miningcompany-host community relations have been nothing other than adversarial and belligerentdue to the unbending positions taken by most of the companies. These little victories in spite,multinational corporations remain what they are, unwavering in their profit seeking objectivesand motives. In this regard, host communities may have been learning better, joining forces and

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forging close partnerships and alliances with CSOs/NGOs in their quest for what they perceive asresource equity and resource justice. This may have culminated into social movements that demandchange and stand up for resource nationalism i.e. a tendency of asserting control over naturalresources located on their territories – a tendency innate and incipient among local illegal small-scale/artisanal miners known locally as “galamsey” operators for example.

Using a case study/qualitative approach and drawing cases from selected mining enclavesin Ghana, the aim of this paper is to establish the extent to which mining host communities andtheir partner CSOs/NGOs have developed as countervailing force to the might of these giantmultinational mining companies; the potency of the countervailing force and the role of specificCSOs/NGOs in building this force. Other key research questions addressed by the paper relate towhether social movements around issues like resource equity and resource justice are eminentin the mining areas, and are we moving towards resource nationalism or not?

Towards a Political Ecology of Extractive Activities: An Analysis of the Conflicts over Fracking inArgentina by Joaquín Bernáldez

To a great extent the recent economic growth of Latin America has relied upon the highprices of raw materials in international markets and the investments of foreign capital on a varietyof activities devoted to the extraction of natural resources. It is usually asserted that throughsuch economic growth most Latin American countries have achieved significant progress in termsof income distribution and the improvement of living conditions. However, social conflicts rootedin the adverse social and environmental effects produced by extractive activities are lessacknowledged.

This paper addresses social conflicts in the case of oil and gas extraction in the region ofNorth Patagonia in Argentina through the lenses of a political ecology approach. Despite its multipledisciplinary origins and broad range of analytical categories and methodologies, political ecologycan be defined as a distinctive approach to the analysis of society-nature relationships. Thisapproach emphasizes the role that power has in determining the access, control and transformationof nature. It also addresses the way in which power relations are questioned and affected by theintensification of conflicts and the public deliberations that emerge from them.

The analysis reveals the recent intensification of environmental conflicts in an area thathistorically depends on the extractive activity but only since very recently faces the introductionof leading technology such as hydraulic fracking. The situation has brought social antagonism intopublic contention revealing disputes over the appropriation and distribution of nature. In particular,the paper provides a first approximation to the dynamics of the conflicts over fracking by identifyingthe actors involved, their interests and strategies. It relies on the analysis of newspaper articles aswell as governmental and non-governmental documents and reports.

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Agrarian Changes and Growth of Non-Farm Activities: A Study of Artisanal Small ScaleMining in Rivers of Sub-Himalayan West Bengal by Govinda Choudhury & Diwas Dukpa

Growth of urban settlements during last two decades in the Sub-Himalayan West Bengalhas led to rapid increase of non-farm activities in the region. With increase in urban populationthere has been increase in demand for construction aggregates, leading to proliferation of artisanalsmall scale mining activities in the river beds of the Himalayan Rivers. This has resulted in in-migration of landless people who not easily find work but also land to settle along the rivers.There are also people who take up this activity seasonally, mainly to supplement their income inlean periods.

The focus of the paper will be on, (a) how artisanal small scale mining activities hasevolved in the region; (b) how population growth, migration and landlessness resulted inproliferation of the workers engaged in extraction activities in absence of other employmentalternatives; (c) what are the demand and supply factors that has led to the growth of this activityin this region; and (d) what is the relationship between different stages of the extraction activityand wage rates, and what is the corresponding value chain. Using secondary data and collaboratingwith case study the paper makes an attempt to study the above questions and makerecommendations.

Session-XI: Organizing Informal Labour

The State, Trade Unions and the Grey Economy in Zimbabwe 1980-2015 by Crispen Chinguno

In the past four decades the informal economy in Zimbabwe has experienced anexponential rise. More people are now working in the informal economy characterised byprecariousness and poor job quality. The state and trade unions are some of the institutions thatcan either act as catalysts in improving or undermining the quality of work in the informal economy.The collapse and fragmentation of the Zimbabwean economy because of a systemic crisis andrise in neoliberal globalisation has increased the value of the informal economy which now accountsfor over 90 percent of all the work in the country. Yet both the state and trade unions have ahistory of resisting this form of informalisation of the economy. This paper reviews the values,principles and strategies of the state and trade unions overtime and how this enhances orundermines the quality of work in the informal economy.

Formalizing Informal Employment in an Age of Deregulation by David Bensman

Our tri-national research project on The Grey Zone in Global Work and Employmentindicates that Brazil has made progress in bringing many informal workers into the protection ofthe nation’s labor law” at the same time that the national government has been deregulating thestandard employment relationship in the formal sector. This trend towards deregulation hasproceeded throughout the globe, and has been moved forward by trade agreements, regional

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and global institutions, and employers intent on fissuring workplaces and escaping employmentresponsibilities. Under these circumstances, neither formal nor informal workers are likely tosucceed on their own to create stable employment relations and achieve decent work. We havefound instances all over the world where informal and formal workers have succeeded in workingtogether to create organizations that enable them to strengthen labor law enforcement, improvelabor standards, increase security, and gain access to social insurance. Port truckers, who havebeen excluded from labor protections by employers who classify them as independent contractors,have organized in Korea and southern Caofiornia in the United States, with the aid of formalsector unions that have been suffering from decreasing membership and bargainingpower. Domestic workers who were similarly excluded from the protections of the formal laborsector have also gained bargaining rights, legal protections, and social insurance in many nations. Inthe U.S., the National Domestic Workers Alliance gained federal labor rights for home care workersin October, 2015, following years of organizing and policy formation with support from unions,women’s groups, immigrant rights organization, and worker centers. Our research on The GreyZone in Global Work and Employment was funded by the French national research agency, ANR. The research team is composed of scholars from France, Brazil, the United States and Canada.

Organizing Work and Labour by Thomas Greven

Only recently have unions in countries with high levels of informal and unprotectedemployment begun to address issues of informal workers such as earnings; working hours,conditions and environment; the lack of social protection; harassment by, and corruption of, thepolice and government representatives; the impact of infrastructure development; and sexualharassment, violence and discrimination. A key problem for unions has been the lack of traditionalcounterparts for the core labor union activity, collective bargaining. As informal workers havebegun to organize themselves in a myriad of ways and have identified counterparts beyondemployers, unions have started to realize the potential, and not just the cost, of organizing informalworkers.

In Senegal, where informal employment makes up more than 60% of non-agriculturalemployment (i.a. an estimated 90-95% of all employement) and is estimated to contribute 55%to the GDP, a coalition of unions and informal workers’ organizations (i.a. Association desFormateurs des Artisans du Sénégal, Coopérative Fédérative des Acteurs de l’Horticulture duSénégal, Collectif National des Pêcheurs Artisanaux, Fédération des Professionnels del’Agroalimentaire, Professionnels de l’Automobile, de la Métallurgie et de la Mécanique Générale,Syndicat Unique Démocratique des Mareyeurs du Sénégal, Union pour l’Amélioration de laCondition des Marchands et Etalagistes, Union des Femmes Chefs d’Entreprise, Union Nationaledes GIE Mareyeurs du Sénégal) is currently being formed to strategize about feasible ways toaddress informal workers’ issues vis-à-vis various counterparts such as local government, businessowners, and neighborhood associations.

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I will present a case study on how this coalition of unions and informal workers’organizations has been able to overcome the traditional weakness of organization and lack ofunity among informal workers and on its first steps concerning lobbying and organizing, based onparticipant observation and interviews.

Session-XII: Improving Rural Income Opportunitues

Perfume Production of Solar Distilled Citrus (reticulata) Peel Essential Oil for Income Generationof Rural Community by Arslan Afzal, Anjum Munir, Oliver Hensel, Abdul Ghafoor, Asif Hanif

Processing of different herbs by distillation technique was one of the agro-basedindustries which lies in medium temperature range (60-280 oC). This study has been carried outfor essential oils extraction using solar distillation system as well as to perform the quality analysisof citrus (reticulata) peels essential oils using GC-MS analysis for income generation of ruralcommunity. The solar distillation system consists of a primary reflector (10 m2 Schefflerconcentrator), a secondary reflector, a distillation still, condenser and Florentine flasks. Resultshave shown that the essential oils from 10 kg fresh citrus peels for different experiments wereextracted to be 15.7, 17, 16.2, 16.7 and 16.2 ml. The heat energy consumed during distillationexperiments was calculated to be 2.998, 2.745, 2.888, 2.816 and 2.418 kWh. GC-MS analysisshows that limonene was identified as the most dominant compound of citrus (reticulata) peelessential oil (85.58%), which can effectively be used for making different medicines and perfumeproduction etc. The solar distilled essential oils (5 ml) were mixed with one liter of a compoundhaving (40 % Methanol + 60% distilled water) resulting non-alcoholic and fragrant perfume. Theresearch has concluded that solar distilled citrus peel (reticulate) can be successfully for medicinaland perfume purposes. This is the great opportunity of small scale farmer to on-farm solar industryfor income generation of rural community. The promotion of on-farm processing and value additionof farm produce will enhance income of rural community thus reducing rural to urban migration.

Does Tourism Have any Impact on Communities Living near Tourist Attraction Sites? The Caseof Agro-Pastoralists in Laikipia County-Kenya by Owuor G, Knerr B, Ochieng J , Wambua T andMagero C

This paper presents survey findings from 231 Agro-Pastoral households living near touristattraction sites undertaking both agro-pastoral activities, conservation, community tourismenterprises among others enterprises in Laikipia Kenya. Laikipia is a major wildlife migration route,popular with private conservancies and ranches attracting large numbers of tourists. Governmentof Kenya through Northern Rangeland Trust, encourage diversification into tourism to overcomeimpact of frequent drought on food security. Using Heckman’s two-step switching regressionmethod, the study evaluates determinants of participation in community tourism and effect ofsuch participation on household incomes, with results showing that off-farm employment,ownership to land titles, communication and security are key determinants of participation. Further

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analysis point at education, membership to community groups, security, communication andpastoral activities as tourism income enhancers for the participants. Roads and othercommunication infrastructure, security and collective action should be addressed besidesencouraging continued diversification into tourism for sustainability.

Social-Ecological Systems in the Indian Rural-Urban Interface: Functions, Scales, and Dynamicsof Transition by Andreas Buerkert, Stephan von Cramon-Taubadel, Ellen Hoffmann, ChinnappaB.V. Reddy & K.N. Ganeshaiah

Agriculture is one of the oldest examples of a coupled Social-Ecological System (SES) ofmutually interdependent environmental and societal components. In a new, long-termcollaborative research project between India and Germany we will address agricultural transitionprocesses in the rural-urban interface, exemplified by the emerging megacity Bangalore. Wethereby hypothesize that competition, diversity, and conflicts present major challenges for a largenumber of individual and institutional actors in the rural-urban interface and expect that theirresponses to these challenges will ultimately lead to increased efficiency and complexity of landuse systems along transition pathways at different scales. We will analyse changes in the demandsplaced on ecosystems services and in the distribution of socio-economic household structuresand value chains as spatio-temporal processes and investigate whether transition processes arereflected in changes of regional land-use patterns and food consumption practices. To this endwe will employ interdisciplinary factorial experiments on-station and on-farm, a nested samplingarchitecture along a common research transect, remote sensing technologies, and modellingapproaches linking different analytical scales. The synthesis of results and development of newhypotheses will be guided by the use and comparison of different SES concepts applicable in theIndian context and hopefully beyond.

Session-XIII: Gender Division in Production and Reproduction

Women Reproducing Labour in Platinum Mines in South Africa by Asanda Benya

The links between work and home, and urban and rural are often downplayed. In factcapital seeks to reinforce an artificial boundary between these. In South Africa during apartheidthis was certainly the case, mines (usually in urban areas) and the household (usually in ruralareas) were seen as disconnected spheres. Consequently, rural households’ contributions to thereproduction of wage workers, their labour power and labour were undermined or hidden.

In the post-apartheid dispensation, the thick of neo-liberalism, an era characterised byplummeting wages and threats to job security, not only have the connections between rural andurban areas become prominent, but the rural households have been the lifeline of many workerswho are constantly faced with retrenchments and subjected to slave wages. It is women in theserural households who have provided unpaid care work, who engage in unpaid reproduction work.Their unpaid housework, which is mainly in their rural homestead, produces not only use value

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but surplus value. It has contributed directly to the accumulation of capital by extending theworking day of women, taking away not only resources from the household, but also women’sfreedom and autonomy in order to sustain capital. Women have served as pillar of the market,cushions and shock absorbers in times of crises.

My paper, using narratives of women in Marikana, a mining town in South Africa, seeksto re-centre women and the rural household’s contribution to the sustenance and reproductionof labour power. I will focus on the ways women in these households support the urbanmineworkers and the mines (and their role during and after the 2012 Marikana massacre).

My main argument is that women and the rural households do not play an appendagerole in social reproduction but are the very heartbeat of it. When we think of social protection oreven representation, we need to consider the invisible women ‘mineworkers’ in the ruralhouseholds who reproduce labour power and labour. To effectively represent and protect theinterests of this group we need to be more imaginative and think beyond unions, beyond urbanproduction spaces, and seriously engage rural social reproduction spaces. To do that meanscreatively addressing the question of who is a ‘worker’? Excluding rural women who doreproduction work in our definitions of a worker only serves to render their work invisible andadds to their exploitation and lack of social protection by the state and by capital.

Gender Equality and Women’s Rights in Rural Livelihoods in Pakistan by Saira Akhtar, AbdulGhafoor, Akua O Britwum and Angela Akorsu

Women are important component of social and economic make up of Pakistan. Thoughhaving dominant share in population, current role and status of women in livelihood rights is oneof the least explored research areas. This study was conducted as pilot project funded byInternational Center for Development and Decent Work (ICDD) to explore status of gender equalityand women’s rights in rural livelihood in Pakistan. Data were collected from three focus groupsconsisting of fifteen participants each from the females involved in vegetables production syytemfrom the Faisalabad district (from two tehsils of Faisalabad namely Tandiawala and Chak Jhumra).Key issues for focus group discussion included rural livelihood, women empowerment, access toresources, control over resources and role in decision making. Findings suggested a very interestingsituation characterized with a significant role performed by women in rural livelihood setup ofthe country. They are involved in production and mainly in harvesting/picking of vegetables andalso post-harvest handling like washing, sorting, packaging etc. Females often work in an informalway without any legal contracts, also paid differentially less than their male counterparts andworked without social safety nets. Women are least involved in marketing of vegetables whichaffects their livelihood. They are generally granted access to resources in social and economicperspectives but their control over said resources is questionable. Regarding role in decisionmaking, they somehow have weak position in economic decision making whereas enjoy reasonableposition in social decision making. For more effective contribution, women need to be trained inmarketing of their produce supported with strong and realistic legislative framework.

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Time use in Economic and Non-Economic Activities by Men and Women in a Few Villagers inSemi-Arid Tropics of India by A Amarender Reddy & Anugula N Reddy

Recognising various activities (economic and non-economic) are very difficult in ruralsettings, where individuals work in multiple occupations with no regularity and certainty. How iswork being reorganised and with what implications for working conditions, work intensity andemployee well-being for specific occupational groups less explored. The widely used NationalSample Survey employment data do not provide this important data for India. Only way out is gofor detailed intensive field survey. The paper examined labor market behavior in the 18 selectedvillages of India to assess the structure of work status among sample individuals. Taking advantageof high frequency of the data, we test the variation in hours worked per week and wage rates bygender, educational, social and economic status of households. The data used in this paper wereobtained from a project entitled Village Dynamic Studies in South Asia from households of 18selected villages of India for the year 2010. The total sample comprises of 948 male membersand 631 female members from the 18 villages. We have collected the data for each day in theyear; hence we have record for all 52 weeks whether a person worked for wages or not, if heworked how many hours worked and at what wage rate? The details include hours spent on paid-work, own-livestock rearing, own-non-farm work, hours with seriously ill and unemployed-hours.Overall, men reported 36.2 hours per week compared to only 23.1 hours per week in economicactivities. If we consider both economic and non-economic activities, participation of womenincreased to 51.2 hours compared to only 45.0 for men as women spent more hours in attendingdomestic duties. The gap in income earned from monetary activities between men and women ismuch higher. But, if we impute the value of the domestic duties of both men and women equally,the gap in incomes between men and women drastically reduced from 241% to just 29%. It isinteresting to see that the hours worked in economic activities increases with ownership of landand assets rather than education in rural India. Level of education and experience have littleinfluence on choice of occupation and quality of employment of individuals both men and women.However, the quality of work improves significantly for only few higher educated men and womenin service sector employment like teachers, nurses, record keeper, health workers; most of theeducated youth remain unemployed.

Session-XIV: Promoting Decent Work along Community Chains

The Social Dimension of Coordinative Arrangements and Work Organization in the Export Chainof Grapes and Mangoes from the São Francisco Valley, Brazil to Europe by Gustavo H.S. Dias &Josefa Salete Barbosa Cavalcanti

Since the mid-1980’s the São Francisco Valley region in the Northeast of Brazil has beengoing through a period of accelerated shifts. The structural transformations based on publicinvestments in large-scale irrigation infrastructure boosted with the singular results in exports.

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This way a semi-arid area earlier dominated by extensive live-stock ranching and small-scale riverside agriculture and fishing was turned into a pocket of production of value-added agriculturalcommodities such as mangoes and table grapes. Phenomena related to these shifts include themigration of individuals from a variety of social backgrounds, levels of instruction and technicalcapabilities inserted in a complex array of productive functions from rural wage labor tosophisticated logistic systems. Drawn by their perspectives on local potentialities these socialactors are since then entangled in the region’s routes of development. All such routes involvecoordinates and priorities accruing simultaneously from local and global determinants. Centralfor reflecting this context is the conceptualization of particular institutional arrangements foundin global chains of fresh fruits. These arrangements are understood to constitute coordinativemechanisms organizing what, how, how much, when and the means of transport of given products.This work aims to investigate how social actors involved in this export chain experience and tackledilemmas of coordination with consequences for the configuration of production and labor. Theresearch is based on the collection of qualitative data. This data set chiefly consists of in-depthinterviews with professionals operating in the phases of production, exports and distribution offresh fruits. Generated insights illuminate on an array of rationales of evaluation on issues suchas, product quality, the legitimacy of contractual arrangements, labor relations and work routines,among others. These rationales, as observed, were employed by actors in export-import chainlinks for grounding their engagement in concrete business relationships.

Improving the Livelihood of Small Holder Mango Growers: A Decent Work Approach AlongThe Mango Value Chain System in Pakistan by Mubashir Mehdi, Burhan Ahmad, NosheenSayyed & Arshad Hashmi

Pakistan is a country of over 190 million people and two-thirds of whom reside in ruralareas. The agricultural sector is one of the mainstays of Pakistan’s economy, contributing 21 percent of GDP, employing 45 per cent of the country’s workforce, and being a major source offoreign exchange earnings. Horticultural crops alone contribute USD 1.91 billion, which is 26 percent of the total value of all crops and 81.8 per cent of the total value of minor crops. Mango(Mangifera Indica), commonly called ‘king of fruits’ have a prominent position among thecommercial fruits grown in Pakistan. The local horticulture industry in general and mango industryin particular has been going a transformational process from the last one decade under the variousdevelopment projects using value chain approach. Possibly the single most significantadvancement made in the mango industry has been the setting up of modern infrastructure forgrading, packing and cool chain logistics, along with quality and food safety management systems,to meet global SPS requirements under various international projects. The effect of thesedevelopment projects has been realized in improved supply chain management and especially onimproved value flow system for the large growers. However, there is little evidence of impact ofthese developments on small growers who are mainly involved in the domestic mango value

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chain system. A pilot study was conducted to understand the bottlenecks of improving thelivelihood of small mango growers. A representative sample of growers, contractors and extensionagents were organized in focus group discussions. Two focus group discussion were conducted inthe main mango growing areas of Punjab Province. The data was analyzed using content analysistechniques. The study delineate that one of the obvious reasons of poor livelihood of small farmersis the existence of poor production and marketing system dominated by the middle men thatcreate social and political obstacle to motivate the growers for more value oriented approach.These social and political bottlenecks guides to devise an effective value chain framework thatcan improve the performance of small mango enterprises all along the chain.

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Profiles of Authors

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Arslan Afzal is a PhD student in University of Agriculture Faisalabad Pakistan. Arslan Afzal receieved

agricultural prize of Pakistan from Development Minister of Pakistan, Ahsan Iqbal. Agronomist

Arslan Afzal was awarded the Pakistani agricultural prize for his thesis titled “Development of an

indigenized solar distillery for value addition of medicinal plants”. The award, offered by the

Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF), provides funding of approximately 5,000 Euro. His thesis

was developed in collaboration with the International Center for Development and Decent Work

(ICDD) at the University of Kassel (Germany). His thesis is supervised by Dr. Anjum Munir from

the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF), Pakistan and co-supervised by Prof. Dr. Oliver Hensel

from the Department of Agriculture, University of Kassel, Witzenhausen (Germany).

Burhan Ahmad was born in Faisalabad, Pakistan in 1979. He completed B.Sc. (Hons.) in Agriultural

Economics in 2001 and M.Sc (Hons.) in Agricultural Economics in 2003 from the University of

Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF), Pakistan. He obtained PhD in Economics from the Norwegian

University of Life Sciences, Norway in 2014. He is currently working as asassistant professor at

the Institute of Business Management Sciences,University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan. He

has published scientific research articles in the field of agricultural marketing and international

economics and finance. Dr. Ahmad has also serves as scientific officer in the Pakistan Agricultural

Research Council.

Josephine Anthony is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Equity and Justice for Children and

Families, School of Social Work, TISS, Mumbai. She is teaching at this Centre for the past 5 years.

Her PhD is in the area of ‘Digital Divide and Equity in Education’ from the Department of Humanities

and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras. As a social work practitioner, Dr.

Josephine has worked in various capacities, including a stint as a research consultant for UN

sponsored projects, particularly on education and disability. For nearly a decade, she has worked

with the less privileged sections in both the rural and urban areas in different parts of Tamil Nadu

and as an autism therapist in USA for three years. Dr. Josephine has published articles in reputed

international and national journals and chapters in edited volumes.Currently, she is involved in

projects sponsoredby the Unicef and DST-EU.

Ruth Castel-Branco is a PhD candidate with the University of Witwatersrand (WITS) and fellow of

the International Centre for Development and Decent Work (ICDD), Germany. She holds an MA in

Development Studies from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal and a BA in Geography and African

Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Previously she was the project coordinator

for social protection in Mozambique at the International Labour Office (ILO). Her research interests

include labour process, workers organizing and social welfare.

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Shivani Chauhan Barooah is currently working as Assistant Professor at Tata Institute of SocialSciences, Guwahati campus. She has done her MA, MPhil and PhD in Social work from Universityof Delhi. Her academic research’s focus has been on various subjects such as construction workersengaged in ADB funded projects, women home-based workers of Ahmedabd, elderly and thecaregivers relations. Her work has been published and presented in various seminars and socialwork congress. Her areas of interest include decent work, informal economy, women and work,geriatric and child care. She is teaching various courses in the B.A and M.A. programmes and Co-ordinating the Bachelors of Vocational Education Programme (B.Voc) at the Campus.

Hemantika Basu is doctoral scholar at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati Campusandfellow of the International Centre for Development and Decent Work (ICDD), Germany. Sheobtained MA and MPhil in Economics from University of North Bengal. Her research interestsinclude work and employment, informal economy, development economics and urbanisation.

Asanda Benya is a lecturer in the department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town, and aPhD candidate and an research Associate at SWOP of University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.Her research looks at women mineworkers in the platinum belt in South Africa.

Gordana Kranjac-Berisavljevic is a Professor of Agricultural Engineering. She has about 30 yearsof working experience, out of which 27 years in Ghana. She works at University for DevelopmentStudies (UDS), Tamale, Ghana since 1995. Her main areas of interest include water and ecosystemmanagement, irrigation, climate change and new approaches to education in developing countries.She has also collaborated on several projects, funded by DFiD, FAO, World Bank, WHO, GEF, etc.with local and international partners. She is currently serving as Director of Office for Linkagesand International Relationships of the UDS (UDSInternational). She has published about 95professional papers in books, journals and made numerous conference presentations.

Joaquín Bernáldez holds a degree in Social Anthropology (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina),an MA in Global Political Economy (University of Kassel, Germany). He is currently a PhD candidateat the International Center for Development and Decent Work (ICDD), University of Kassel(Germany). His research focuses on the political ecology of extractive activities, particularly onsocio-ecological conflicts over oil extraction and fracking in Argentina.

Sharit Bhowmik was professor of Labour Studies at Tata Institute of Social Sciences till he retiredin 2013. Earlier he was Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology, University of Mumbai.He was selected as National Fellow of ICSSR from 2013. At present Adjunct Faculty, Rajiv GandhiCentre for Comtemporary Studies, University of Mumbai.

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Andreas Buerkert is Professor of Organic Plant Production and Agroecosystems in the Tropics and

Subtropics at University of Kassel (Germany). He obtained his MSc in International Agricultural

Development from UC Davis (USA). Afterwards he did nine years of doctoral and post-doc research

on semi-arid cropping systems of West Africa. His research interests include soil fertility, nutrient

management, measurement of C, N and P fluxes in agroecosystems and use of remote sensing for

ecosystem analysis. He has completed several interdisciplinary research projects in Africa and

Asia. Prof. Buerkert’s recent research address transformation processes and socio-ecological

sustainability of rural-urban landuse systems. He has participated in several books and film project

and (co-) authored more than 175 articles in peer-reviewed journals. His contributions to the

projects are accessible at

www.uni-kassel.de/fb11agrar/en/sections/home/for2432.html

www.urbanfoodplus.org

www.sulama.de

www.watercope.org

www.oases-of-oman.org

Seozy Bhatia obtained PhD and currently working as Assistant Professor at Khalsa College, Amritsar,

Punjab, India. She has about five years teaching experience and four years research experience.

Her main areas are Development economics, Health economics, and education related approaches.

She has attended and presented various articles in various conferences and seminars. She has

various publications in National and International Journals. She is lifetime member of Indian

Economics Association enrolled from June, 2009, life time member of Indian Society of Agricultural

Economics enrolled from April, 2009 Associate Fellow of World Business Institute enrolled from

4th April, 2011, life time Member of Health Economics Association of India.

Manojit Bhattacharjee is presently working as Assistant Professor of economics at St. Joseph’s

College (Autonomous), Bangalore. He completed his PhD from the Institute for Social and Economic

Change (ISEC), Bangalore. He has a number of publications to his credit both in national and

international journals. His areas of interest include credit market and farm and rural non-farm

sector.

Crispen Chinguno obtained PhD in Sociology University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (South

Africa) and was fellow of the International Centre for Decent Work and Development (ICDD) in

Germany. Currently, Dr. Chinguno is a Ford Foundation post-doctoral fellow at SWOP Institute,

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He is an alumnus of the Global

Labour University Scholarship programmes. He has worked for trade unions in Zimbabwe affiliated

to Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). His interests focus on work, labour studies, work

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restructuring, labour and development, trade unions, gender, social movements and violence.

His PhD research explored the shifting dynamics of institutionalisation of industrial relations and

strike violence. Part of his work is published in the Review of the African Political Economy, British

Journal of Industrial Relations, Global Labour Journal, Journal of Workplace Rights, Peripherie,

Juridikum, South African Labour Bulletin (SALB), and New South African Review.

Govinda Choudhury obtained PhD in Economics and currently working as an Assistant Professor

in Economics at the University of North Bengal. He teaches economic theory and natural resource

economics. His research interest is primarily on tenure and institutions which govern and manage

ecosystem services of natural resources (land, water and forest). He has worked on common

property resources and community adaptation in Eastern Himalayan region. He has also worked

on natural resources in different agro-climatic region of North Bengal under UGC funded project.

At present he is working in a NWO funded project on climate change and hydropower, and also in

a CGIAR-WLE funded project on gender, agriculture and ecosystem with other institutional

partners. Dr. Choudhury is also working on UGC funded project on Wetlands Ecosystems in Indo-

Gangetic Plains of West Bengal, India.

Gustavo Henrique De S. Dias holds a Master degree in Sociology (2006, UFPE, Brazil) and a PhD

(2013) from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He has been a member of the research group on

Globalization and Agriculture under Prof. Dr. Cavalcanti since 2000. His research concerns have

often focused topics such as globalization of agri-food systems; social dilemmas involved in food

quality management, safety and security; environmental and social sustainability. He is currently

a Brazil’s CNPq ‘Ciências sem Fronteiras’ Post-doc Scholarship holder at the Albrecht Daniel Thaer-

Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences based on the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Christoph Dittrich is professor and head of the Department of Human Geography at the University

of Göttingen/Germany. His research focuses on agri-food systems and livelihood security in urban-

rural India (Bangalore, Hyderabad) and conflict-ridden land-use transformation in rural South

East Asia (Sumatra/Indonesia). He is an advisory board member for Indo-German Cooperation

(Indo-German Consultative Group).

Errol D’Souza is a Professor of Economics and the Dean of Faculty at the Indian Institute of

Management, Ahmedabad. He has been a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University, New York, the

India Chair Professor at the University Sciences Po in Paris, Senior Fellow of the National University

of Singapore, and Visiting Professor at the Turin School of Development of the ILO. He is on the

editorial board of the Journal of Quantitative Economics (Springer), the Indian Journal of Labour

Economics (Springer), and Macroeconomics and Finance in Emerging Market Economies (Taylor

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& Francis). He is currently a Member, Technical Advisory Committee on Monetary Policy, of the

Reserve Bank of India.

Diwas Dukpa has received a Masters in Economics from University of North Bengal and has

completed his MPhil on infrastructure bottlenecks in the Darjeeling Himalaya. He has received a

UGC fellowship to work along with Dr. Govinda Choudhury on sand mining and stone quarrying

activities in the Eastern Himalaya. At present he is an Assistant Professor of Economics at A.P.C

Roy Government College, Siliguri.

Mrinal Gohain is presently the regional manager of an international NGO ActionAid. He has been

actively involved in analyzing socio-economic forces driving out- migration from Assam and

evaluating the role of other natural disasters that contribute to loss of lives and livelihood in the

region.

Thomas Greven is Associated Professor (Privatdozent) of political science at Freie Universität

Berlin, Senior Research Fellow of the German Institute for International Relations, Berlin, associated

researcher at the Institute for Development and Decent Work (University of Kassel), and an

independent political consultant. He teaches at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American

Studies at FU Berlin. Dr. Greven has been visiting scholar and researcher at the University of

British-Columbia, the Economic Policy Institute, the University of California, Berkeley, York

University, Johns Hopkins University, and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.

Abdul Hannan is working as Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Sikkim University and

holds PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and trained in regional development

with special focus on plantations at Centre for the Study of Regional Development. Before joining

the Sikkim University, he was associated as Programme Officer (Research and Monitoring) with

DFID, UK funded project titled Sustainable Livelihood for Small Tea Growers in India based at

Centre for Education and Communication, New Delhi. He has recently published a policy paper

[2013] and status report of Small Tea Growers (STGs) in India titled Organizational Innovations

and Small Tea Growers (STGs) in India by National Research Programme on Plantation Development

(NRPPD) based at Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum, Kerala supported by Ministry of

Commerce, Government of India. His areas of interests are plantation economy and regional

revelopment; co-operative farming and micro-finance; fair trade, livelihood studies and sustainable

development.

Arshad Hashmi is an Agribusiness specialist by profession. He obtained his Mater’s degree and

Doctorate from University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF). He has vast experience in teaching,

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research and served leading national and international organizations such as SMEDA, USAID, ADP,PBIT etc. on the top level cadres. Currently, he is attached with Microfinance Bank.

Ellen Hoffmann is a senior scientist in the section Organic Plant Production and AgroecosystemsResearch in the Tropics and Subtropics (OPATS) at the University of Kassel. A biologist by training,she has subsequently worked in the field of agricultural sciences, both as a researcher and ascience manager. Her current interests are in land use changes triggered by climate change andurbanization with a regional focus in West Africa and India. She coordinates Research Unit FOR2432that investigates agricultural land use in the wider context of social and ecological systems.

Surinder Jaswal obtained MA from TISS and PhD from LSHTM, London University and has taughtat the TISS since 1988. Prior to her current appointment as Deputy Director (Research), she wasDean, Research and Development, Dean, School of Social Work, and earlier to that Professor atthe Jamsetji Tata Centre for Disaster Management. She is also the Associate Editor of the IndianJournal of Social Work – an international indexed journal, established in 1940. She has initiatedand led several field action projects and has been the Principal Investigator of over 25 researchstudies. She has also published widely on issues ranging from Adolescent Health, Reproductiveand Sexual Health, Women’s Health, Mental Health and Development, Disasters and Psycho-socialCare and Support, Sustainable Rural Livelihoods, Migration and Development, and Conflict andPeace. She is on several national and international research scientific and ethic committees and iscurrently a steering committee member of two European networks –‘Go India’, a collaborationbetween University of Gothenberg, Sweden and 6 Indian universities and SIGN (Sweden IndiaGender Network), the convenor of a collaborative dual degree project with the University ofLeuven and Brothers of Charity, Belgium, member of a committee to work on a collaborativecurriculum on public health and social work with University College London, as well as on thescientific and ethics committees of national bodies such as the Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR), Bhaba Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, the Aga Khan Foundation, Mumbai, Sangath,Goa, Banyan, Bangalore and several other organizations working on issues of social justice. Shehas been awarded the Commonwealth Scholarship in 1992 for doctoral studies, the InternationalRotary Teachers Fellowship in 2005.

Praveen K Jha is Professor of Economics and Chairperson of the Centre for Economic Studies andPlanning (CESP) and Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies (CISLS),School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. Currently he is also avisiting professor at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa and African Institute of Agrar-ian Studies, Harare, Zimbabwe. He has been associated with several research studies with the UNinstitutions such as the ILO, the UNICEF, the UNDP, the FAO etc. He is one of the Editors of a tri-continental journal, Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy. His major areas of research and

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teaching include: Political Economy of Development, with particular reference to Labour, Agri-culture, Natural Resources, Public Finance, Education, and History of Economic Thought.

KP Kannan, a development economist, is a former Director and currently an Honorary Fellow ofthe Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. Among his many academicassignments, the most recent one is the membership of the International Panel on Social Progressas a Lead Author. He was a Member of the erstwhile National Commission for the UnorganisedSector during 2005-09. Currently he is also the Chairman of the Laurie Baker Centre for HabitatStudies and the Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development in Kerala. His two recentbooks are: The Long Road to Social Security (jointly edited with Jan Breman), Oxford UniversityPress, New Delhi, 2013 and Interrogating Inclusive Growth: Poverty and Inequality in India,Routledge, New Delhi, 2014.

Pavei Kh. is currently an MPhil scholar at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati. He holds amaster degree in Social Work (Community Development) from Madras School of Social Work,Chennai. He has publication including books to his credits, has conducted numbers of communityorganisation programme addressing various social problems at Manipur and Tamil Nadu, India.His areas of interest are community development, women empowerment, contemporary politicsand minority rights advocacy.

Ganeshaiah, KN. is Professor at the School of Ecology and Conservation, UAS GKVK, Bengaluru.He has been working on evolutionary ecology of Plant reproductive strategies, measuring, mappingand conservation of biodiversity. He is also involved in setting up the largest database on bio-resources of the country that is now made available in a set of 10 CDs (Jeeva Sampada). He wasinstrumental in establishing the Indian Bio-resource Information Network (IBIN) that providesinformation on the country’s bio-resources through the web-portal (www.ibin.gov.in).

Joy Prafful Lakra is a doctoral student in the School of Social Sciences of the Tata Institute ofSocial Sciences, Mumbai. His present research project focuses on the ‘Religious Movements amongthe Oraons of Chotanagpur in Eastern India’. He has also worked among the Adivasis in the teaplantations of West Bengal, and presented papers in the national and international conferenceson Adivasi identity, polity, tribal movements etc. He has spent a semester (October 2015- January2016) at the department of Social Anthropology, University of Munster, Germany as an exchangestudent under DAAD Fellowship. His research interests include tribe, ethnicity and identity, tribalreligion, development and displacement, marginality and social exclusion of Dalits and Adivasis.

Claudia Levy has a Master in Human Geography from the São Paulo State University of Campinas- UNICAMP, Brazil; and a Joint International MSc on Regional Development Planning and

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Management under the SPRING Program from the University of Dortmund, Germany and theKwame Nkrumah University of Kumasi, Ghana. Her focus has been on society-nature relationsstudying fringe communities and management of Conservation Areas. From 2009-2013, Claudiaworked under ICDD, collaborating in a Development Cooperation Project from BMZ and led byDITSL/ILRI, studying rural livelihoods and farmer groups in Mozambique.

Cheng Li is PhD student and ICDD Fellow at University of Campinas, Institute of Economy/CESIT,majoring in Economic development; with two masters’ studies under the programme of GlobalLabour University; worked as HRM & Labour Specialist Coordinator at China ElectronicsCorporation; and Research Writer in UNI Global Union Asia & Pacific Regional Office.

Mubashir Mehdi earned his PhD in Agribusiness from University of Queensland, Australia andcurrently working as Assistant Professor in the Institute of Business Management Sciences,University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan. University of Agriculture is top ranking university inthe country and most multi-culture University. Lauded as an expert in agribusiness value chain,DrMehdi making the most of his years of experience by participating in tertiary education teachingagribusiness, and has consulted for various organization in the Development project like ACIAR,ICDD, USAID and Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) Canada.Based on over a decade workexperience in agribusiness and marketing, Dr Mehdi strives for excellence in his endeavor.

Kabeer Muhammad obtained PhD and had more than 20 years of working experience (research,training and administration) with State Bank of Pakistan. He has published his work both in nationaland international journals. He also has the opportunity to participate in various internationalconferences. Currently, he has is working in Economics Department, School of Business, KwantlenPolytechnic University, Surrey, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Nandita Mondal is an Assistant Professor at Centre for Labour Studies, Tata Institute of SocialSciences, Mumbai. She obtained PhD from University of Mumbai. Her reserach interest coversthe issues of Women’s work and dignity in informal sector, sustainable development, coporatesocial reponsibility and industry in India and Labour History in India. She has more than 20 yearsof Industry experiences and is on Board of many grassroot orgnaisations working on Child labourand youth in India

Khalid Mushtaq obtained PhD and have more than fifteen years of research & teaching experienceand published extensively in reputed national and internationals journals. Previously he servedas Chief Economist with Planning & Development, Govt. of the Punjab, Pakistan. Dr. Khalid alsoserved at National Institute of Banking and Finance, State Bank of Pakistan as Agriculture Economistwhere he was looking at rural financial markets in Punjab, Pakistan. He also worked as consultant

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with World Bank and USAID. Currently, he is working as Associate Professor in the Institute ofAgricultural & Resource Economics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan.

Asad Naseer is a PhD Scholar at Institute of Agricultural & Resource Economics, University ofAgriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan. Earlier, he was working with Habib Bank of Pakistan as Agri.Finance Officer. He has also undertaken few studies and is also engaged in consultancy work withlocal and international organisations.

George Owuor is the Head of Department and Associate Professor at the Department ofAgricultural Economics and Business Mgt, Egerton University. He has worked as a ProgrammeManager for the Collaborative Masters in Agricultural and Applied Economics programme at theAfrican Economic Research Consortium (AERC) between 2011-2014, a capacity building andresearch programme that covers 17 universities in 13 countries in Eastern, Central and South. Hisresearch interest includes in participatory impact assessment (IA) covering crop and livestockvalue chains including nutrition, rural agricultural finance and enterprise development as well asland use management. He has been active in collaborative research projects and consultancyprojects with CIMMYT, CIAT, IFPRI, ILRI, Syngenta Foundation and International Centre forDevelopment and Decent Work- in Germany.

Sazzad Parwez is Senior Research Fellow at Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar. He hascompleted M.Phil and PhD in Economics from Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar andMBA (Agribusiness) from Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi. He has published 12 research papersin national and international journal and books of repute. He has presented research papers inmore than 15 national and international conferences. His area of interest is social entrepreneurship,agriculture, labour studies, rural marketing, microfinance and corporate social responsibility.

Shalila Raj is working as a Research Associate in Project SARASWATI – a joint venture of DST,Government of India and EU on Wastewater Treatment Techonology at Tata Institute of SocialSciences (TISS) for the more than a year. She has done her Ph.D. in Social Work from TISS. She hasworked as psychiatric social worker in a rehabilitation facility and her Ph.D. was on ‘Quality of Lifein People Living with Schizophrenia.

Meenakshi Rajeev is the Reserve Bank of India Chair Professor in the Institute for Social andEconomic Change (ISEC), Bangalore, India. She graduated from IIT Kanpur and received PhD degreefrom Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. She has published on a variety of research topics fromboth theoretical as well as empirical perspectives in national and international journals. Her recentpublications include her book titled Emerging issues in economic development from OxfordUniversity Press. She has also visited and taught in many universities in Asia, Europe and USA. Her

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areas of interest include game theoretic modelling of development issues, banking and credit,industrial economics.

Nandini Ramamurthy is a research scholar pursuing Integrated Mphil-PhD from Tata Institute ofSocial Sciences (TISS), Guwahati. She completed her post graduation from International Instituteof Social Studies (ISS), The Netherlands. Her study area comprises economics of development,business economics and commerce (accounts and finance). During her master’s program at ISSshe specifically worked on Oriya migrants situated in the cities of Surat and Gandhidham. Herwork specialization is in the field of Micro-finance, and also has experience in working withscheduled private bank and commercial lending institution. Her areas of research interest includeMigration and Remittance, Informal Labour markets and Micro-finance.

A Amarender Reddy obtained PhD and is currently working as principal scientist (AgriculturalEconomics), Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI/New Delhi). Prior to this he worked withCGIAR as special project scientist looking after IFPRI funded Dynamics of Rural Labour Marketsproject. He also worked as Associate Professor (Public Policy) with ASCI, Hyderabad; BIRD, Lucknow;and IIPA, New Delhi. He was consultant to JBIC, Planning Commission, TEHRI HYDRO project,KVIC, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Government of India. He is Award Winner from SANEI, Pakistan.Dr. Reddy is editorial board member of a few journals and author of more than 70 journal articlesincluding EPW and food policy.

D. Narasimha Reddy was formerly Professor of Economics at the University of Hyderabad, andlate Sankaran Chair Professor, National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad. Presently, heis ICSSR National Fellow, CSD, Hyderabad, and Hon. Visiting Professor, Institute for HumanDevelopment, New Delhi. His areas of specialization include labour economics, agrarian studiesand political economy of development. He supervised a large number of students for their MPhiland PhD theses. His publications include Towards Understanding WTO Doha Development Round(2005); Labour Regulation, Industrial Growth and Employment: A Study of Recent Trends in AndhraPradesh (2008); Agrarian Crisis in India (2009) (co-edited with Srijit Mishra), and “Political Economyof Microfinance and Marginalised Groups” in Barbara Harriss-White and Judith Heyer (Eds.) IndianCapitalism in Development (2015).

H. S. Roopa holds Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics (2007) and PhD (2015) from Universityof Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. Her research focuses on the impact ofurbanisation on cropping pattern and agro ecosystem services across rural and peri-urban areas.Detailed study on rainfed and irrigated farm households were analysed for change in the incomepattern, formal institution such as family, household, marriage and tradition as influenced byurbanisation.

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Christoph Scherrer is economist and political scientist. Dr. Scherrer is at present professor ofGlobalization and Politics and Executive Director of the International Center for Developmentand Decent Work (ICDD) at the University of Kassel and a member of Steering Committee of theGlobal Labour University. He has received the Excellency in Teaching Award of the State of Hessiaand the Excellence in Development Cooperation Award from the DAAD. Dr. Scherrer’s recentEnglish language publications include: Combating Inequality: The Global North and South, London:Routledge (2015, co-ed. with A. Gallas, H. Herr, and F. Hoffer), The Transatlantic Trade andInvestment Partnership: Implications for Labor, Hampp Verlag (2014, ed.), Financial Cultures andCrisis Dynamics, Routledge (2014, co-ed. with B. Jessop and B. Young).

Benjamin Thomas Scully is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of theWitwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa and an editor of the Global Labour Journal. Hisresearch focuses on labour, livelihoods, social protection and development policy, with a focus onsouthern Africa.

Partha Sen was a Professor of economics at the Delhi School of Economics (DSE) for over 20years, prior to his retirement in 2011. He also served as the Director of the School. Before joiningthe DSE, he held academic appointments at the University of Illinois, Bristol University and theLondon School of Economics. His fields of specialisation are macroeconomics (especially exchangerates and current accounts), environmental economics (climate change) and developmenteconomics (capital flows, financial crises and poverty reduction). Prof. Sen did his PhD from theUniversity of London (London School of Economics) in 1984.

Nausheen Syed has been completed her PhD in Corporate Management from Beijing JiaotongUniversity, Beijing, China in September, 2013. She is currently working in GC Women University,Faisalabad as Assistant Professor and incharge of department of business administration andcommerce. She has four years teaching experience in different universities of Pakistan. She haspublished eleven papers. Among them five papers are journal papers, published in internationaljournals which are indexed by EI and ISI. Six papers are conference papers which are indexed byISTP. The areas of interest include human resource management, marketing management,knowledge management and leadership.

B P Vani is currently Assistant Professor in the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore,India. She is an accomplished statistician and published extensively in national and internationaljournals. She has worked in many important projects for national and international organizations.Her areas of interest include poverty and inequality, human development index and credit market.

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Michael Wachendorf is professor and head of the department of grassland science and renewableplant resources at the University of Kassel/Germany. His research deals cropping systems forfood and energy production and focuses on the use of various remote sensing techniques toanalyse spatio-temporal dynamics in the development of crops yield and quality.

Christa Wichterich holds a PhD in sociology and is presently teaching at the Centre of GenderStudies of Basel University. Prior to this, she worked as a guest professor for gender politics at theUniversity of Kassel, and as lecturer at various German and Austrian universities, at JNU in NewDelhi, India, and at Gilan University in Rasht, Iran. Her focus of research is globalization anddevelopment, political economy and women’s work, women’s movements and internationalwomen’s policies. She also worked as journalist, as foreign correspondent in Kenya and asconsultant to German donor agencies and political foundations regarding their genderprogrammes.

Virginius Xaxa obtained M.A. in sociology from Pune University and PhD from Indian Institute ofTechnology (IIT), Kanpur. He is at present Professor and Deputy Director at Tata Institute of SocialSciences, Guwahati Campus. He taught Sociology at Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhifrom 1990 to 2011 and North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong from 1978-1990. He is the authorof Economic Dualism and Structure of Class: A Study in Plantation and Peasant settings in NorthBengal (1997) and State, Society and Tribes: Issues in Post- Colonial India (2008). He is also co-author of Plantation Labour in India (1996) and co-editor of Social Exclusion and Adverse Inclusion:Adivasis in India (2012). He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Asian Ethnicity, Historyand Sociology of South Asia, Social Change and Contribution to Indian Sociology.

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