Research Design, Reflexivity and Positionality

The initial impetus for this research emanated from a chance meeting with a group of young women employees of a call center, at the University of Delhi. As a lecturer in a Women‘s College at the University of Delhi, and as an active member of its Women‘s Development Center – a group of teachers and students mandated to carry out awareness and outreach work as part of gender sensitization campaign, I had an opportunity of interacting with different groups of women in various workshops, and seminars, organized with the objective of enabling students to develop a fair understanding of the gendered dimensions of work and other social experiences. In one such workshop, a few girls working at a call center had been invited and listening to their experiences generated the initial epistemic interest in me to gain a first-hand understanding of the working of what is also known as the night shift economy (Patel 2010). Interestingly, despite the glamour and the glitz associated with the call centers, I found that the members of the invited group, had positive outlook and expectations from the state. Later, I also got an opportunity to meet some of the women workers employed under MGNREGA –referred to as World‘s largest government led social security initiative (Honorati et al., 2015). The MGNREGA workers appeared to be appreciative but discontented with its operative aspects. I thought that these two-contrasting group of women made an interesting case study as both of them seemed to be looking out for greater state action and intervention in their lives.

19

To a great extent, both the groups of women I met are intrinsically linked to the process of neoliberal globalization. Whilst the mushrooming of the call centers is cited as one of the most evident consequences of the rapid strides made in IT sector along with opening of economy and trade reforms, in India, the launching of MGNREGA has often been seen as an attempt of the Indian state to ward off the growing distress and discontentment arising out of the extreme inequalities in the post reforms period. Incidentally, women as workers are central to both the developments. The prime objective of the field work as such was to develop a first-hand understanding of the ways in which global forces undermine or strengthen the lives of women in India.

The choice of Ajmer in Rajasthan (for interviewing MGNREGA workers) and Gurugram in Haryana (for meeting call center employees) as research sites were primarily guided by the fact that both these states stand abysmally low in gender empowerment and development index. Additionally, the involvement of women in MGNREGA is highest in Rajasthan whilst Gurugram – a suburban part of Delhi, is not only known as the city of call centers but also presents a strange mix of affluence and misery. Moreover, both these places being geographically, nearer to Delhi, where I live and work provided familiarity and access with region.

Feminist researches involving field work by women researchers have an additional dimension in the sense that they are researches, ‗by with and for‘ women. Despite methodological divergences as such, within the broader area of feminist research concerns have been expressed on the necessity of reflexivity not only on the research process but also on the researcher‘s role therein (Ackerly and True 2008). Given the fact that women researchers are more educated and generally urbanized/advanced than the participants of

20

their research, the need of minimizing power equations that may get established between a researcher and the participant is another important factor that needs to be kept in mind. Being analytical and reflexive on the research process, therefore, becomes immensely important for diversified, nuanced and multidimensional grasping of social realities. According to Brooke Ackerly and Jacqui true ‗four commitments that undergird a feminist research ethic: attentiveness to the power of epistemology, boundaries, relationships and the situatedness of the researcher (Ackerly and True 2008: 694). I must submit that having lived in Delhi for more than 25 years, I was well aware of the locations of both the research sites. Since initial contacts with participants at both research sites had been established through personal networks, I did not face any problem in accessing or recording the views of the participants.

The fact that I could converse equally well, in English and Hindi, meant that I could record the interviews in direct speech. The women employees at the call centres seemed to be identifying themselves with me as career women, which was of massive help in establishing rapport and recording their views with ease. Moreover, during my preliminary discussions I had made the confidentiality aspects of the interview very clear to the participants assuring them that none of them would be identified in the research or otherwise. At the MGNREGA site, where the participants were rural women, I could see some initial inhibitions but since I could talk to them directly in their language, the inhibitions soon faded away. Moreover, to ensure that the interviewees speak their heart out without any duress, I spoke to them individually, ensuring that none of the local officials were present around while the interviews were being conducted.

21

Thus, to gain such insights, engaging directly with different groups of women was vital. As such, as part of my fieldwork in Gurugram and Ajmer, I conducted interviews to generate qualitative data through two separate questionnaires. I did this, keeping in mind the social profile and positions of the two different sections (urban-literate and rural-illiterate) that I focus upon in this thesis. The questionnaires were semi-structured and open ended, so as to enable me to analyze and interpret their feedbacks and come to analytically sound conclusions. I interviewed 20 women from each of the two sections mentioned. Since I had already identified the sites of research i.e. the call center in Gurugram and the work sites in Ajmer, I adopted cluster sampling as a method for identifying and categorizing the interviewees (Lavrakas 2008; Jackson 2011).

Following the idea of situated knowledge which is integral to feminist epistemology, I selected the respondents keeping in mind the social and economic realities I was seeking to understand. I took care to ensure that the sample was reflective of them. Whilst the first case study (Gurugram in Haryana) is based on the interviews with young and middle-aged women (married and unmarried) both from higher as well as lower castes, the second case study (Ajmer in Rajasthan) builds on the interviews with women from both higher and lower castes, young and old, married, unmarried and widows.

The data in chapter 6 was collected during my field trip in the months of January and February 2017 to Gurugram –a satellite town within the National Capital Territory of New Delhi where a sizeable number of call centers are situated. In order to gain a broader understanding of the work involved I visited both 'process based/captive types ' and 'client based/third party types‘ call centers and ascertained the views of women employees through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with twenty-five women employees in the age group of

22

20-40. I have elaborated on the differences between the process/captive and client/third party call centers in chapter 6. In order to understand the mind-set of higher executives, (in most cases males) I attempted to record their perceptions about women employees as well. The interviews were taped/recorded and fully transcribed (see appendix 1 and 2). Most of the interviewees were unmarried and had been employed for more than a year. Some of them lived with their family members whilst the others (mostly those who did not belong to the Delhi- NCR region) had been living in rented accommodations - all by themselves. In order to understand the changing attitudes and preferences of working women across societal and geographical divides, I attempted to include women from tier II cities and from amongst different social hierarchies (caste and religion) in my sample as well.

In general terms, the focus of my empirical research is to gain an understanding of the various impacts that call center jobs have on female workers. The interviews with women working in the call center were conducted with this end in mind. The idea was to generate data that would in turn, result in a genuine understanding and appreciation of the varied experiences of women involved in what are also called the ‗second shift‘ jobs of the global economy. In so doing, I have attempted to understand the physical, cultural, economic, social and psychological dimensions and impacts of call center employment on women and the ways and extent to which the state as an agency can be utilized to further strengthen and empower them.

The interview questions were primarily framed with the objective of getting the opinion of women employees on the benefits and difficulties they perceived in working in call centers and the kind of things they expected from the state given the fact that neoliberal globalization favours a roll back of state‘s welfare functions. I present the findings in

23

chapter 6. The first part entails a general description of the job profile of women and their own perceptions of their work and work roles. It also accounts for their aspirations and expectations. The second part then highlights their views on the role of the state and possibly other international agencies in removing the social stigmas and specific vulnerabilities associated with their jobs.

The data in chapter 7 was collected during my field trip in the months of May and June 2017 to Ajmer–a district in the state of Rajasthan - about 135 km from the state capital Jaipur and 391 km from the national capital New Delhi. For a broader assessment of what the work involved, I visited two tehsils (the bottommost administrative unit of a district) and four villages under its jurisdiction, and interacted with 20 women workers, both married and widowed, in the 25-55 age group employed as daily wagers under MGNREGA. In order to make the sample fairly representative and reflective of the social cultural realities of rural life I included women from both the higher and lower social hierarchies (castes) within it. I also interviewed the local officials and the elected representatives of the Panchayats (village councils) entrusted with supervisory roles. Higher officials at the district level were also interviewed to get statistical and other quantitative details. I also procured additional information from the websites of the coordinating agencies and other governmental departments entrusted with the responsibilities of executing and monitoring the project.

The questions for this study were primarily designed to understand both the nature and extent of empowerment of the rural poor women as well as their own perception of benefits accruing to them from the operation of MGNREGA. The inherent objective of my interaction was to gain a first-hand account of the changed orientations and attitudes of rural women involved in the project as well as the resultant elevation (if any) of their social

24

status or the ways in which the community looked to them in the changed circumstances. The interview questions were thus framed with the objective of getting the opinion of women on the benefits and difficulties they perceived in working under the project and the kind of things they expected from the state. The interviews were done in Hindi language which being my first language meant that I did not have to rely on interpreters/translators for help.

I tend to agree with the argument that feminist research methods should rather be intersectional, contextual and participatory to allow a genuine assessment of the issues that confront different groups of women in different locations. An understanding of the lived experiences of the global poor is either ways ‗necessary for the critical theories of international political economy to develop their normative potentials‘ (Davies 2006: 220). Given the fact, that gender issues in Postcolonial societies are marred by the intersectionalities - which I take as an analytical construct for understanding and responding to ways in which gender identities intersect with and are reinforced by other social markers such as caste, class ethnicity, religion etc., - a first-hand understanding of the insights and social realities become imperative from the point of view of social action generating research.