The economies of love: love marriage, kin support and aspiration in a south Indian garment city

The paper considers narratives and experiences of love marriage in the garment city of Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu, south India. As a booming centre of garment production, Tiruppur attracts a diverse migrant workforce of young men and women who have plenty of opportunity to fall in love and enter marriages of their own making. Based on long-term ethnographic research, the paper explores what love marriages mean to those involved, how they are experienced and talked about, and how they shape post-marital lives. Case studies reveal that a discourse of loss of post-marital kin support is central to evaluations of love marriages by members of Tiruppur’s labouring classes. Such marriages not only flout parental authority and often cross caste and religious boundaries, but they also jeopardise the much needed kin support that youngsters need to fulfil aspirations of mobility, entrepreneurship and success in a post-liberalisation environment. It is argued that critical evaluations of love marriages not only disrupt modernist assumptions of linear transformations in marital practices, but they also constitute a broader critique of the neoliberal celebration of the ‘individual’ while reaffirming the continued importance of caste endogamy, parental involvement and kin support to success in India’s post-reform economy

The sociology of labour in India

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Tamil Nadu election Report, India, 2009

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Effect of radiation dose on the prevalence of apical periodontitis : a dosimetric analysis

Objectives : The objective of this study is to analyse the effect of the radiation dose of oral radiotherapy for cancer on the presence of apical periodontitis in patients without dental pre-screening or specific preventive measures. Materials and methods : All selected patients had been diagnosed with cancer in the head and neck region and presented in the dental clinic post radiotherapy with side effects (mainly radiation caries). The panoramic radiographs of these patients were examined for several parameters, including tooth decay and apical periodontitis. The total radiation dose per tooth was determined. Results : A total of 36 patient files were included, which accounted for 628 teeth to be scored. Tooth decay was present in 88.2% of teeth. Radiographic signs of apical periodontitis were found in 9.1% of the teeth. Teeth with apical periodontitis had significantly more caries present. The radiation dose was significantly higher for teeth with apical periodontitis (37.2 vs. 24.9 Gy). Binary logistic regression found the radiation dose to be the only explanatory variable in the presence of apical periodontitis. Conclusions : This study found that in zones with higher radiation dose, inflammation of the jawbone due to bacterial infection of the root canal is more likely to develop. This is probably due to bone changes post radiotherapy. Clinical relevance : An increase of this prevalance of apical periodontitis in irradiated bone found in this study needs to be taken into account in the dental evaluation before the start of radiotherapy

Dimensions of wellbeing and recognitional justice of migrant workers during the COVID-19 lockdown in Kerala, India

The lockdown of March 2020 in India witnessed one of the largest movements of migrants in the country. The state of Kerala was quick and efficient in responding to the challenges posed by the lockdown on its migrant population and in supporting its ‘guest workers’. While many studies have researched the material resources of migrants during the pandemic, such as income and food, few have investigated the subjective measures and emphasised the lived experiences of migrant workers. Drawing on the Wellbeing in Developing Countries (WeD) approach which examines three dimensions of wellbeing, namely, (a) material, (b) relational and (c) subjective wellbeing, this article focuses on the mental health and wellbeing experiences of migrant workers during the first lockdown in Kerala. By deploying these wellbeing dimensions, the study looks at how migrant workers perceived and experienced the various interventions put in place by state and local governments, as well as voluntary initiatives aimed at supporting them. The study elaborates around migrants’ relations of love, care, and trust, and their reasons to remain in Kerala or return home during the lockdown. The study found that a paradigm shift, where ‘migrant workers’ are becoming ‘guest workers’, was at the forefront of the captured narratives. The key findings in this way contribute to the understanding of migrants’ lived experiences, wellbeing, and perceptions of the different lockdown interventions. We argue that an increased attention to subjective factors helps us understand migrant needs at times of crisis through their lived experiences and thereby enhances policy planning for disaster preparedness

Training for employment or skilling up from employment? Jobs and skills acquisition in the Tiruppur textile region, India

This paper explores how skills for garment work are acquired in the rural hinterland of Tiruppur, one of India’s largest garment manufacturing clusters. Drawing on a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews with garment workers in Tiruppur’s hinterland, we document the informal pathways of skill acquisition for garment work and advocate a demand-driven approach to vocational training. Such an approach, first, unsettles linear policy assumptions about direct linkages between training, skills acquisition and access to decent and rewarding employment. We show how rather than being formally trained for employment, villagers gained skills from employment and upskilled themselves on the job. Such upskilling took the form of self-directed learning rather than formal training, and involved spatial and job mobility between companies and sectors. Second, a demand-driven perspective reveals how access to more advanced skills and more desirable jobs is shaped by the structural inequalities of gender, age and caste, which curtail the opportunities of women and the elderly in particular. Finally, policy and research would benefit from a demand-driven approach to training and recruitment that prioritises the skill development needs of local populations and that supports those whose participation in training and labour markets remains constrained by gender, age or caste

Health and safety in garment workers’ lives: setting a new research agenda

Amidst new global initiatives to promote garment workers’ health and safety following a spate of deadly factory disasters across the Global South, this critical review calls for an expanded research agenda that looks beyond the workplace to examine the complex politics, spatialities, and temporalities of garment workers’ health and wellbeing. Drawing on ethnographic research on garment workers across South Asia, we argue against a narrow, technocratic, and depoliticised emphasis on physical infrastructures and building safety, and advocate instead a more holistic and politically-engaged research approach to the everyday health and wellbeing of workers. A conceptual focus on health and wellbeing offers a window onto workers’ employment experiences and reveals how routine work pressures, exhaustion and ill health are shaped by the dynamics of global supply chains, even well after workers have disengaged from these global circuits. Understanding how garment work affects workers’ wellbeing and their prospects for a fulfilling life requires research that moves beyond the workplace and covers the entire life course