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The Dynamics of Work and Survival for the Urban Poor: A Gender Analysis of Panel Data from Madras

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  • Helzi Noponen

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines the functioning of the household economy and family labour supply over a five‐year period among a panel sample of poor households in Madras using an event history methodology. The research focused on the key role women play in sustaining poor households despite constrained labour market choices. Women's earnings from daily self‐employed work activities provided a substantial and steady component to total household income which tended to fluctuate with the earnings and family pool contribution of casually employed males. As economic stress events hit the family over time, women helped by increasing earnings, adding on secondary jobs, utilizing their earning status to obtain loans from a variety of sources, sacrificing their subsidized business loan for family debt repayment, and foregoing personal expenditures and leisure. At the same time women also managed the increasingly more difficult tasks of fulfilling basic needs of the household such as food, fuel and water collection, sanitation and childcare with less resources of time. Development policies must reflect the fact that women are central to individual family survival and as a whole they are key actors in the adjustment process to the crises in employment occurring in the local and national economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Helzi Noponen, 1991. "The Dynamics of Work and Survival for the Urban Poor: A Gender Analysis of Panel Data from Madras," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 22(2), pages 233-260, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:22:y:1991:i:2:p:233-260
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7660.1991.tb00410.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Bina Agarwal, "undated". "The Hidden Side Of Group Behaviour: A Gender Analysis Of Community Forestry Groups," QEH Working Papers qehwps76, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    2. Graham Tipple, 2006. "Employment and work conditions in home-based enterprises in four developing countries: do they constitute ‘decent work’?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 20(1), pages 167-179, March.
    3. Philip Amis, 2001. "Attacking Poverty : but what happened to urban poverty and development?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(3), pages 353-360.
    4. Julia Behrman & Sara Duvisac, 2017. "The relationship between women's paid employment and women's stated son preference in India," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 36(52), pages 1601-1636.
    5. Périlleux, Anaïs & Szafarz, Ariane, 2015. "Women Leaders and Social Performance: Evidence from Financial Cooperatives in Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 437-452.
    6. Helzi Noponen & Paula Kantor, 2004. "Crises, setbacks and chronic problems-the determinants of economic stress events among poor households in India," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(4), pages 529-545.
    7. Madeleine Leonard, 2000. "Coping strategies in developed and developing societies: the workings of the informal economy," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(8), pages 1069-1085.
    8. Haddad, Lawrence James & Peña, Christine & Nishida, Chizuru & Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Slack, Alison T., 1996. "Food security and nutrition implications of intrahousehold bias," FCND discussion papers 19, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    9. Nidhiya Menon & Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, 2011. "How Access to Credit Affects Self-employment: Differences by Gender during India's Rural Banking Reform," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(1), pages 48-69.

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