Sources of Unpaid Labour in India – A Marxian Perspective
Mahalaya Chatterjee Centre for Urban Economic Studies Calcutta University Main points of discussion
1. Marxian conception of wage and labour.
Marx’s conception about wage predates Capital. In 1849, he published a number of articles on wage-labour and its relation with capital. The capitalists buy labour power with money. In this series of articles, he tried to find out the relationship between wage and profit, wages and the introduction and improvement of machineries etc.
Labour not only produces commodities but also capital – and a noticeable increase in wages presuppose a rapid growth of productive capital.
Marx also brought in the relationship between prices and wages –may be the first one to distinguish between real and nominal wage.
He also referred the relationship between productivity of capital, division of labour and application of machinery.
Much later, he distinguished between ‘factory worker and artisan’ and ‘productive and unproductive labour’. And he also brought in the concept of ‘alienated labour’ – labour without the means of production because of the capitalist system.
2. Labour Market in India
Labour market in India in male-dominated, female work participation rate is too low.
There was a certain leap during the first part of the new century but that decreased in the next few years. The rural FWPR has almost remained constant whereas there is a certain increase in its urban counterpart. Studies from NSS data shows the increase in concentrated in self-employed own account workerswhereas Census 2011 data shows increase in the female marginal workers of almost all occupational categories but in upper age group, mainly the 35-45 category. Introspection and micro-level survey data reveals that most of these women work in family set up, in the midst of their normal household jobs. They have little or no formal training for skill development. It is a midway between artisan and putting out system – as the raw materials are provided from outside. And the menfolk control both the input and output – and earning. The earning is for the family and not for the female worker.
Looking through the lens of Marxian theory – several questions come to mind. In the production structure, how these female workers are placed? They sell their labour power for production of commodities but they do not earn anything. So, the capitalist exploitation is manifested in family through gender differences.
