At Work in the Informal Economy of India: A Perspective from the Bottom Up

Informal labour means waged work that is not regulated. Labour informally employed is casual, insecure, and unprotected. At Work in the Informal Economy of India brings to light the plight of the rural and urban workforce at the bottom of the informal economy in India. While discussing labour being pushed out of agriculture, Jan Breman analyses why, when, and how this massive shift in production and employment came about. The book results from his anthropological fieldwork conducted in Gujarat—on record as the state with the highest rate of economic growth—spanning over five decades. Although centred on one Indian state, the issues highlighted have much wider resonance, as South Asia is at the epicentre of the informal economy.

The book is divided into two parts. The fi rst part discusses the past and present path of capitalism, and dwells on the abominable condition of the unorganized workforce and the commodifi cation of labour. The second part comprises of the authors 10 previously published studies based on his long grounded research focused on the informal economy, and elaborates on themes and issues introduced in the first part of the book. This part also familiarizes the reader with the concept of informality and its ramifi cations. The book examines the labour regime that, in the past decades, has become dominant in the world at large, and is framed in the concept of the informal economy.