ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the findings of a small pilot research project that I carried out in February 2008 in Chennai are used to explore key issues in the literature on contemporary urban India. Crucially, my micro level evidence appears to confirm what economists are finding at the macro level about the detrimental effects of liberalisation policies on the poorest sections of the population (Bhalla 2007; Chandrasekhar and Ghosh 2008, 2007a; Ghosh 2008a; Sen and Himanshu 2007; Srivastava 2007). My field data also raise important questions about trends in the employment of women workers and about the significance of women’s work in India’s low-wage urban informal economy.
