Neo-liberal urbanization, work participation and women: Comparing the urban and peri-urban contexts of Delhi with Mumbai and Kolkata

Abstract

Urban spaces impacted by liberalization have not provided enough opportunities to work outside home for women. This paper compares the employment patterns of men and women in three cities both in urban cores, peri-urban areas and the residual parts of the respective states in which or adjacent to which three major metropolitan cities are located in. The paper concludes that though the urban locales of the peri-urban areas have been doing better in many respects vis-a-vis the residual states, these benefits are not distributed equally. Women are worse off in terms of work opportunities and unemployment rates in the periurban areas, and such conditions can be explained by the social and demographic changes that have taken place in the peri-urban areas around the large metropolitan cities. With a smaller household size and a lower working age-group sex ratio compared to the interior districts, the possible care burden on the adult women of the households could be a factor explaining their low work participation in these areas.