The structure of my thesis

My thesis is organized into four parts. Part one is designed to explain the main aims of the thesis and to contextualize the work within the extant literature on globalization, gender and globalization and globalization and the state. Part one comprises the present chapter and chapter 2. The underlying concern of this thesis is that social and welfare rights that

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have benefited women in India are threatened by neoliberal globalization. Therefore, measures are needed to avoid further erosion of rights and to ameliorate, if not wholly rectify, gender inequalities. It is important to stress here that I do not see ‗women‘ as a homogenous group. I will further elaborate and comment on the status of women disaggregated according to class and location (urban or rural) in the main body of the thesis.

A vast amount of literature exists on different dimensions of neoliberal globalization and hence in my literature review in chapter 2, I have been selective, focusing on key themes and texts most relevant to this thesis. After a brief survey of the literature on neoliberal globalization, I hone in on three core strands. First, I review the literature on globalization and the state. Second, I survey the literature on gender and globalization/global restructuring. Third, I review the literature on globalization in the India. This literature review is necessary to contextualize and situate my thesis within a set of debates within the social sciences and International Political Economy and International Relations particularly.

In part two of this thesis, I advance my argument on the interventionist role played by the Indian state in furthering gender equality and realizing gender justice in the period preceding the adoption of neoliberal economic reforms. It is pertinent here to say that the major normative concern driving my thesis is to explicate the role of the Indian state particularly in the context of the operation of neoliberal economic reforms however, I have included two chapters on rights and welfare in the pre-reforms period with two main objectives: (a) to document how important the state has been; (b) to show that the historical, political, cultural factors and issues of state agency matter in advancing gender equality and gender justice. In order to substantiate the claim that the state has played a positive role,

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thus it is necessary to document what gains were made by Indian women prior to the period of neoliberal reforms.

I assess advances for women in the realm of citizenship, which I take to encompass both the extension of political and legal rights favourable to women and social policies and welfare measures. Thus, chapters (3 and 4) on ‗citizenship rights and welfare measures‘ cover both formal legal rights embedded in the Indian constitutions and further elaborated through judicial processes and judgements. I also look into what are commonly termed social and economic rights, the provision of which might, and often does, fall within the remit of the state, specifically a range of social policy and welfare measures. The Indian state invariably was central to all these measures.

In Part three of this thesis (chapters 5, 6 and 7) I substantiate my claims about the status of women in the post-neoliberal reform period by the help of quantitative and qualitative data. In chapter 5, I interrogate the changing position and status of women from independence up to the introduction of neoliberal reforms in India in the early 1990s through the help of data sourced from governmental ministries and departments. Chapter 5 of this thesis draws on secondary literature and data generated by the Indian government and international development agencies. Since one of my central aims is to demonstrate how neoliberal globalization has impacted specific groups of women in India, it is first necessary to provide a picture of the status of women in India prior and after the 1990s (when the neoliberal reforms were rolled in). I must say that even though this data does not substantiate a causative linkage between the adoption of neoliberal economic reforms and the declining position of women, nonetheless, it is suggestive of similar trends over time.

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In chapters 6 and 7, I substantiate my claims with primary data generated in my fieldwork. I chose to do fieldwork in these two locations, with the belief that qualitative research would help me in elucidating the everyday lived experiences of both urban, educated, middle class women and unskilled, poor, rural women in contemporary India. The first case study (chapter 6) focuses on women employed in two major call centers located in Gurugram. This study is pertinent to my argument about globalization, neoliberalism and the role of the state too. Globalization in India has resulted in the creation of a huge service sector contributing around 57% of its GDP. The outsourcing businesses, and call centers specifically, are believed to be a major contributor to the burgeoning service sector in India. What makes them important for the purpose of my study is the fact that, despite a consistent decline in the percentage of women employed in the call center business in the last five years or so, women still account for 40 percent of its workforce (NASSCOM 2010). Additionally, the fact that the call centers (registered under the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) scheme) get exemptions not only in income tax and custom duty but most significantly, they also lie outside of the purview of many labour laws that regulate the wage structures and employment conditions in India2_{. Therefore, it is interesting to see how}

global trade practices strengthen or undermine the lives of women.

My second case study (chapter 7) is based in Rajasthan and focuses on poor, rural women employed under the MGNREGA scheme. About 90% of the MGNREGA workers are women, ranging from the age group - 18 to 80. This scheme is operative in all states across India. The MGNREGA scheme is particularly pertinent to my argument about the

2 _{Under the Software Technology Park of India regulations, a Call Centers can register by declaring itself as a} hundred percent export oriented company. The regulations are executed by the State (provincial) governments and a company registered under STPI is entitled to benefits in the form of exemptions from labour laws, customs duty, cess, and even income tax. Details of the scheme can be found at: https://www.stpi.in/11011

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role of the state. It is funded by the government of India and managed and implemented through the grassroots institutions of participatory democracy (Panchayat Institutions). Under the scheme, there is a guarantee of 100 days, supported in law, for each financial year to every adult in all rural household who is willing to work for a statutory minimum wage doing skilled and unskilled work.

Part four is the concluding section of the thesis. In chapter 8, I first pull together the strands of my arguments about the impacts of globalization on Indian women. Second, I further elaborate on the need for an interventionist state in the interests of realizing gender justice. In a sense, this concludes my thesis. However, while it is beyond the scope of my thesis to engage in the wider debates on globalization and the architecture of global governance, I recognize that in a globalized world, the state must be viewed as an important, interventionist actor, mediating between ‗global‘ forces and the ‗local‘ impacts. Therefore, I take the opportunity afforded in this space to develop some provisional thoughts on how the realization of gender equality and gender justice in India might not only require interventionist policies by the Indian state, but also institutional reforms at the global level.

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Chapter 2: Neoliberal Globalization and