Paper short abstract:

This research explores how the Kashmir's Hanji Community face a threat to their fishing and cultural traditions. it also explores how urbanization, pollution, and modernization threaten their livelihood, prompting resilient resistance to change and migration.

Paper long abstract:

The Hanjis or Heanz are the boatmen of community of Kashmir. They live in the areas around the Dal lake, Wular lake, Manasbal lake and along the banks of river Jhelum. They are a unique homogenous group that have distinct cultures and traditions, with many sub groups, categorised according to the work they do. This research focuses on the Ga’ad-Haenz community in Kashmir, investigating the imminent loss of their enduring fishing traditions. Employing ethnographic methods, including on-site participant observations, it explores multifaceted factors contributing to the decline of traditional fishing practices linked to livelihoods and cultural identity.

The results highlight a concerning trend where youth, grappling with uncertainties, abandon generational occupations. The community's forced migration from water-based ancestral homes to crowded urban spaces has led to a sense of detachment from cultural roots. Simultaneously, declining fish count due to pollution and habitat destruction from unplanned development contribute to reduced revenues. Consequently, they resort to low-income jobs like manual labor, exacerbating their vulnerabilities.

The study highlights the obstacles encountered by female fishers who confront problems in accessing markets lacking infrastructure. Poorly executed modernization plans displace communities, disrupting water-centric communal structures.

In the face of existential challenges, the Hanji community, demonstrate courage by steadfastly holding to their traditional fishing methods. The Hanji culture faces significant challenges due to discriminatory legislation and practices in the midst of rising urbanization.

Paper short abstract:

Our paper brings a sub-Saharan perspective to the dialogue on gendered work in public space in the global south. We discuss access and use legitimacies of public spaces and the conflicting debate that arises from ongoing neoliberal redevelopment projects in these public spaces.

Paper long abstract:

Women workers have been using public spaces in Ghanaian cities as workplaces for several decades. A recent redevelopment of public spaces in Ghana has resulted in the relocation, displacement, and eviction of informal workers majority of whom are women from these public spaces. This study seeks to explore how women in informal cities contribute to the overall growth and development of cities in Ghana to understand women’s productive and reproductive work. We explore the diverse paid and unpaid work these informal workers conduct and their motivations through a multitude of qualitative methods. Through the social reproduction theory, we explain the complexity of women’s productive and reproductive work towards the growth of cities and highlight the differential categories that affect diverse women working in public spaces in Ghanaian cities. The study findings revealed that informal work in Ghanaian cities is regarded as predominantly women’s work, rooted in customary belief systems and that the women raise women to perpetuate gendered work and different women use and access public spaces differently. We conclude that efforts to attain gender equality and decent work should encompass an understanding and incorporation of informal women’s work into urban planning policies.

Paper short abstract:

Investigating Mongolia's Child Money Program, this paper finds a significant reduction in mothers' working hours, especially for those under 35 or with young children. No notable impact on fathers' labor outcomes is found. Policymakers should tailor CMP design for diverse maternal ages.

Paper long abstract:

This study examines the impact of the Child Money Program (CMP) on labor market outcomes in Mongolia, specifically focusing on fathers' and mothers’ labor participation, employment, and working hours per week. A Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Design is used to assess the causal impact of the CMP, integrating three sources of nationally representative datasets. The CMP, a conditional cash transfer program, targets households with welfare scores below specific cutoff points and covers 76.8% of children in total, accounting for 0.7% of GDP in 2018. The findings reveal that the CMP significantly reduces mothers' weekly working hours, but it does not have a significant effect on labor force participation and employment status compared to non-beneficiary mothers. However, heterogeneity analysis highlights that the CMP significantly reduces labor force participation and employment status for mothers below 35 years of age or mothers with only preschool or secondary school-aged children. Among fathers, there is no impact on their labor outcomes. The study suggests that the CMP primarily negatively impacts mothers, while no conclusive evidence supports a significant impact on fathers' employment. Policymakers should carefully consider the CMP's design and implementation, especially in different age groups of mothers and children.

Paper short abstract:

Female labor force participation has fallen in India after 2005. We argue that districts with inegalitarian gender ideology of men have lower workforce participation rates of women. Additionally, in states with greater proportion of male breadwinner families, women allocate less time to employment.

Paper long abstract:

Utilizing logit and tobit variations of multilevel modeling, we investigate the relationship among individual, household, and community-level factors influencing workforce participation and time allocated to employment for Indian married women. We employ individual-level data from India’s National Family Health Survey-IV (NFHS 2015-16) and Time Use Survey (TUS 2019), supplemented by district and state-level data from Census 2011, RBI, and the National Health Mission.

In our analysis, using NFHS (2015-16), we assess the impact of covariates on women’s workforce participation at the extensive margin, while TUS (2019) allows us to measure the effect at the intensive margin. Individual-level covariates include spousal bargaining measures, life-course variables, and household-level factors. At the district level, factors such as men’s gender ideology, infrastructure, patrilocal exogamy, consanguinity, literacy rates, and workforce participation are considered for NFHS. For TUS, state-level variables include infrastructure, family welfare expenditure, proportion of male breadwinner families, and proportion of graduates.

Results show that women with higher education than their spouses, at least one male child, husbands employed in agriculture, from less affluent households, and residing in rural areas are more likely to be employed. Women with older daughters (15-17 years) allocate more time to employment at the intensive margin. At the extensive margin, in districts where men believe that they should be the primary decision-makers in a marriage or justify violence against women, women have a lower likelihood of being employed. At the intensive margin, women living in states with a greater proportion of male breadwinner families allocate less time to employment.

Paper short abstract:

The paper looks at the impact of the provision of pre schooling services by Anganwadi Centres (AWC) under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme on mother's employment status. In the absence of affordable child care creches, do AWC enable women to participate in the labour market?

Paper long abstract:

The literature identifies care burden as one of the key factors inhibiting participation of women in the labour market. Adult women spend 130 minutes/day on childcare activities which includes feeding, bathing, childcare instruction, minding etc. (Indian Time Use Survey, 2019). This is particularly true for young children below 6 years of age. In the absence of affordable and well functioning day care creches, women are reliant on extended family members to substitute these services. The Anganwadi Centres (AWC) under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme provide 3 hours of pre school service to children aged 3-6 years. Over the years, AWC have been expanded across the country and the utilisation rate of it's services has increased. In this context, the paper looks at the impact this service has on women's work participation. Does this enable them to participate in the labour market? Using logit and propensity score matching , the paper finds a significant positive impact of pre school services on women's work participation rate. At the policy level, this implies that if childcare services can be provided for extended hours , it might further augment women's participation in labour market. Recently, in 2022 Government of India has launched the Palna scheme which aims to provide day care services for children from 6 months to 6 years for seven hours a day. The paper also looks at the administrative data on the uptake of this scheme by women across different socio-economic groups and occupational categories up till now.