Transnational solidarity and micro-enterprises : Home-based workers in Ahmedabad, India

Abstract

Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat located in western India, was previously known as “the Manchester of India” and for its militant working class. 1 With the decline of the textile industry from the 1970s and onwards, around 125,000 workers lost their employment and were forced to earn their livelihood in the informal economy (Breman 2004, pp 1-2), which led to a situation where workers had no protection in case of job loss or wages below the poverty line. Shahpur, the garment center of the city, is situated in the old eastern part of Ahmedabad. With the decline of the mills, many garment ateliers and shops were established in this part of the town. Characteristic for the area are the pols, neighborhoods, crossed by narrow streets faced by houses with girls’ dresses, cotton shirts and other clothing hanging outside the entrances. These are the homes of the garment contractors and subcontractors. They hand out the cloth to the women, mainly Muslim, who in their homes sew garments from the pre-cut fabric. The contractors then collect the finished product and distribute it to the traders in the market. As opposed to clothes from the garment workshops and factories, the products of the home-based workers are seldom exported but instead sold inside India. The women are paid per piece, and their income is very low and irregular. Moreover, they rarely know their employers due to the sub-contracting system.

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