Unrolling Inequalities: Gender, Labour Law, and Collective Action in India’s Beedi Industry

Speaker: Madhuri Kamtam, Postgraduate Researcher, School of Global Development, University of East Anglia.

Abstract: Global trends of informalisation and feminisation of labour have intensified concerns about a “race to the bottom,” particularly with respect to compliance with regulations on decent work. Beedi production—hand-rolled country cigars that constitute a major source of employment for women in rural India—reflects these dynamics. Despite the existence of key legislation, including the Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966, and the Beedi Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1976, implementation on the ground remains uneven, shaped by decentralised production systems, administrative inefficiencies, and socio-economic inequalities tied to gender, caste, and class. While micro-level studies have examined beedi labour conditions, less attention has been paid to how these laws function in practice, how regional disparities shape welfare outcomes, and how collective action influences implementation. This study evaluates the impact of beedi legislation on workers’ welfare, the factors driving its uneven implementation, and the role of women-led collective action in securing entitlements.

Theoretically, it extends Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach—traditionally applied in developed labour market contexts—to the governance of informal employment in India. By conceptualising beedi legislation as a mechanism for expanding substantive freedoms, and integrating the concept of “collective capabilities,” the study highlights the critical role of women’s organising as a demand-side factor in realising legal protections. Fieldwork was conducted in Sirikonda and Thandriyal, two villages in northern Telangana, India’s third-largest beedi-producing state. Guided by an intersectional feminist lens and a generative approach to causality, the study centres women workers’ voices to reveal enforcement gaps, structural barriers to welfare access, and the exclusionary dynamics of caste and gender in collective representation. Findings show that while women-led unions secure welfare benefits, they remain constrained by a “pyramid of exclusion,” which limits leadership opportunities for the most marginalised. The study concludes that without centring women’s voices and strengthening inclusive collective capabilities, labour laws risk reproducing, rather than remedying, inequalities.

Bio: Madhuri Kamtam is a doctoral researcher in the School of Global Development at the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom. Her research examines labour economics, gender, caste, and the political economy of development, with a particular focus on labour laws, welfare, and collective action in home-based occupations. Her PhD explores the beedi industry in India, drawing on extensive fieldwork in Telangana to investigate how legislation and women-led organising shape welfare outcomes. Madhuri holds a BA (Hons) in Economics from Azim Premji University, Bangalore, and an MSc in Development Economics from SOAS, University of London. She also teaches at UEA as an Assistant Tutor on courses including Academic Skills, Global Challenges, South Asian Development, and Geographies of an unequal world.

Chair: Dr Sameen Ali