Sangam: A Confluence of Knowledge Streams

Tired and Trapped: Life Stories from Cotton Millworkers in Tamil Nadu

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dc.creator Cannon, Mariah
dc.creator Oosterhoff, Pauline
dc.date 2021-03-26T09:36:59Z
dc.date 2021-03-26T09:36:59Z
dc.date 2021-03-26
dc.date.accessioned 2022-05-26T08:44:41Z
dc.date.available 2022-05-26T08:44:41Z
dc.identifier Cannon, M. and Oosterhoff, P. (2021) Tired and Trapped: Life Stories from Cotton Millworkers in Tamil Nadu, CLARISSA Working Paper 5, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies, DOI: 10.19088/CLARISSA.2021.002
dc.identifier 978-1-78118-776-0
dc.identifier https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/16520
dc.identifier Participation Power and Social Change
dc.identifier 10.19088/CLARISSA.2021.002
dc.identifier.uri http://localhost:8080/xmlui/handle/CUHPOERS/198354
dc.description Labour abuse in the garment industry has been widely reported. This qualitative research explores the lived experiences in communities with bonded labour in Tamil Nadu, India. We conducted a qualitative expert-led analysis of 301 life stories of mostly women and girls. We also explore the differences and similarities between qualitative expert-led and participatory narrative analyses of life stories of people living near to and working in the spinning mills. Our findings show that the young female workforce, many of whom entered the workforce as children, are seen and treated as belonging – body, mind and soul – to others. Their stories confirm the need for a feminist approach to gender, race, caste and work that recognises the complexity of power. Oppression and domination have material, psychological and emotional forms that go far beyond the mill. Almost all the girls reported physical and psychological exhaustion from gendered unpaid domestic work, underpaid hazardous labour, little sleep, poor nutrition and being in unhealthy environments.
dc.description Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
dc.language en
dc.publisher Institute of Development Studies
dc.relation CLARISSA Working Paper;5
dc.rights This is an Open Access paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited and any modifications or adaptations are indicated.
dc.rights http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.rights Institute of Development Studies
dc.subject Children and Youth
dc.subject Gender
dc.subject Work and Labour
dc.title Tired and Trapped: Life Stories from Cotton Millworkers in Tamil Nadu
dc.type Series paper (non-IDS)
dc.coverage India


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