ABSTRACT
This chapter explores women's contemporary experiences of work and care and the pressures for change, through an evaluation of demographic, economic, political and historical trends. It argues that for Indian women to win their constitutional right to equality the work/care regime requires radical transformation. Feature of India's demography is the very low sex ratio. Gender disparity has been a defining feature of independent India with men consistently outnumbering women. The new economic policy of the 1990s and its liberalisation, privatisation, globalisation agenda has encouraged widespread informalisation of the labour market, with ongoing negative consequences for the economic and social security of the majority of working women. Analysis of the contemporary work/care regime highlights the dependent relationship between the majority of women who are employed informally and the new economic prosperity of the middle classes. In thinking about the future of work and care in India it is necessary to untangle the politics of rhetoric from the politics of funding.
