ABSTRACT
Therefore, it may not be surprising that private agents find little value in accumulation
strategies that are designed to enable structural transformation. Indeed, such transforma-
tion may even be to the detriment of their short-term interests, if it reduces their bargain-
ing power. The low tolerance levels of capitalists in India to anything that can even
slightly improve the bargaining power of workers is evident in the growing impossibility
of even forming workers unions in most activities controlled by the private sector. It is
clearly indicated by the ferocious and orchestrated backlash against something as limited
as the MNREGA, only because it has provided some relief to rural workers who could at
last begin to demand wages closer to the legal minimum from employers.
