The Peninsula Foundation

Author: Samyuktha Balachandran

  • Effect of Neo-Liberal Globalisation on Women in Garment Industries: A Third World Perspective

    Effect of Neo-Liberal Globalisation on Women in Garment Industries: A Third World Perspective

    Abstract

    Globalisation is a phenomenon that has brought about an effective change in the nature of the economy of the world nations. An inevitable result of this has been industrialisation, from heavy industries like iron and steel to software industries that house recent developments like artificial intelligence. Garment Industries have been a part of this industrial surge and have significantly contributed to the country’s economic growth, involving significant exports. At the heart of this unprecedented growth, an often unsaid and silenced issue remains the labour and lives of millions of women. Women, especially in the so-called third-world countries like Bangladesh,  Cambodia, and India, constitute more than 50% of the labour force in the garment sector. However,  the gender inequality that persists within these industries exists in the form of a lack of safety standards, wage disparity, stringent maternity benefits and improper compensation packages. World organisations like the International Labour Organisation (ILO) have developed projects to ensure decent working conditions. Still, the resultant effect has been scant due to the lack of gendered understanding of the issues. This research aims to illuminate the consequences of organisational patriarchy in comprehending the issues faced by women in the garment sector and subsequent policy framing. The study is based on the assumption that the inclusion of women andan opportunity to voice their concerns is absent. Therefore, there is a need for a gendered lens in framing policies, their implementation and further monitoring. Thus, this understanding will not only enhance the awareness of the working conditions of women in the garment industry but also be an eye-opener concerning the effect of global policies on the female labour force.

    Keywords: Female labour, Globalisation, Gender inequality

     

    Introduction

    The second five-year plan (1956-1961) in India had rapid industrialisation as one of its focuses and followed the Mahalanobis model of production of capital goods. This saw capitalism take the

    reins of development, which later consolidated with globalisation and took the world economy by storm, making possible the impossible, i.e., connecting the global markets. The transnational phenomenon led to the import of frontier technologies, which are highly capital-intensive (Indira  Hirway, 2012). The consequent effect was an improvement in technology and an increase in productivity accompanied by a decrease in employment intensity. This reduction affected the often underrepresented and discriminated group – women. Women’s growth was curtailed by ensuring that patriarchy was perpetuated in the organisational setup as well. The women in the lower strata of the industrial workforce faced the wrath of wage disparity, and the women in the higher echelons had a glass ceiling that prevented them from occupying managerial positions. They also had to endure the double burden of work and household chores, affecting the female labour force participation rate. Garment industries in developing countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have witnessed large-scale employment of women as formal and informal labour to fulfil the needs of international buyers. In this paper, based on secondary research, I would like to traverse the historical aspects that led to globalisation, subsequent policies and the consequential effect it had on women, primarily focusing on export garment industries, which house the highest percentage of employed women.

    Industrialisation and women 

    The post-independence era in India, from 1947 onwards, witnessed industrial growth. The employment of labour also saw a shift from traditional agriculture. “Gender was the primary axis along  which industrial labour and the labour force were constituted.” Very few women worked in factories, and the support and protection they received were also poor compared to men. The policies that catered to labour protection, like the Factories Act (1948),  The Minimum Wages Act (1948) and The Employees’ State Insurance Act (1948) that paraded gender neutrality were gender blind. The ensuing period of globalisation, which questioned the conservative market nature, also brought about changes in the perception of women’s labour. With the world markets creating an arena for exports, the need for developing countries like India to keep up with the race became necessary, and the viable solution was to employ women from the lower strata of the society, mostly Dalits, in the name of empowering them. They were bait in the corporate hawk culture. The governments also failed to visualise the consequences of liberal markets and the capitalists donning the crown.

    As a part of the capitalist world, women were subject to both economic and emotional labour, which affected the female labour force participation rate, and the percentage of women in the informal sector became higher than women in the formal sector. However, there have been a lot of studies on the women employed in the informal sector, and there have also been time-use surveys conducted in this regard. Women’s labour in the formal sector has been consistently neglected due to the common belief that they enjoy the protection of an organised system. This may hold true to some extent, but in the case of garment or textile industries, which are a focus here, women are also the most penalised according to the reports by the International Labour  Organisation (ILO).

    Ministry of Labour and Employment, India – Statistics on Women Labour

    According to the information provided by the Office of Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India in the 2011 Census, the total number of female workers in India is 149.8 million, of which  121.8 and 28.0 million are from rural and urban areas, respectively. Out of the total 149.8 million female workers, 35.9 million females work as cultivators and another 61.5 million as agricultural labourers. Of the remaining female workers, 8.5 million remain in households, and 43.7 million are classified as other workers.

     

    As per Census 2011, the work participation rate for women is 25.51 per cent compared to 25.63  per cent in 2001. The female labour participation rate decreased marginally in 2011 but has seen an improvement from 22.27 per cent in 1991 and 19.67 per cent in 1981. The work participation rate for women in rural areas is 30.02 per cent compared to 15.44 per cent in urban areas.

    As far as the organised sector is concerned, in March 2011, women workers constituted 20.5 per cent of total employment in the organised sector in the country, which is higher by 0.1 per cent compared to the preceding year. As per the last Employment Review by the Directorate General of  Employment & Training (DGE&T), on 31st March 2011, about 59.54 lakh women workers were employed in the organised sector (public and private). Nearly 32.14 lakh women were employed in the community, social, and personal service sectors.

    Feminist Analysis of Existing Laws

    The labour laws in India have thoroughly focused on the idea of promoting growth along with social justice in tandem with the efforts of labour unions. However, despite the state and the unions’ consistent efforts, the laws’ ability to improve women’s living and working conditions was negligible, as described in the landmark report published in 1971, “Towards Equality”. It was an eye-opener to the dire circumstances in which women were surviving with patriarchy clawing its way into not just the domestic sphere but the workplace as well. While acts like the Maternity Benefit Act of 1961 offer relief to women on some levels,  there is a lack of legal awareness among women workers. This is a contributing factor to their being taken advantage of by employers. An analysis of the allocation of Variable Dearness  Allowance of Minimum Wages with effect from October 2022 has no separate mention of women’s labour. The general labour classification in this regard has been Unskilled, Skilled/Clerical, Semi Skilled and Highly skilled are the most probable categories in which women fall under unskilled due to a plethora of reasons. Despite the assumption that the New Labour Code is a relief to women labour across the country, measures must be taken to understand its effective implementation in both the public and private sector organisations.

    Women in Garment Industries

    The garment industries in South Asian nations like India and Bangladesh have been significant contributors to their economies and increased the employment ratio of women in the labour force. “India’s ready-made garment industry contributes around 16 per cent to total export earnings and is the largest foreign exchange earner in the country” (WTO,2019). Post-1980 saw unprecedented growth of the export industry, and the growth chart statistics show that from $2  million in 1960-61 to $696 million in 1980-81, it then increased sharply to $2,236 million in 1990- 91 and to $4,765 million in 1999-2000. The vast wage disparity was the driving force behind the globalisation of the garment industry. Studies have shown that the hourly wage of Indian

    labour is a meagre Rs.8 per hour, whereas a British worker performing the same work received around Rs.420. Thus, the capitalist tendency of the upper class and lower class is synonymous with the imperialist notion of civilised and barbaric groups pushing for cheap labour and higher production of goods.

    The onus of cheap labour fell on women, mainly from the marginalised communities who were desperate for jobs that promised a stable source of income. The Indian state also firmly believed that this was a way to empower women and ensure financial freedom. However, the challenges were masked by the rosy nature of the benefits put forth by the employers. The actual reasons for the employment of women, which were different from the portrayed norms, were: i) the common notion that women in the developing regions were meek beings who would barely retort against any kind of discomfort and would succumb to the system, ii) women will not question the wage disparity for they are fed the patriarchal notion of the superiority of men iii) the stable source of income will not let them rise in protest despite the atrocities meted out to them.

    Here, I would like to discuss a study conducted in Bangalore, Karnataka, which houses more than  800 garment industries and has the largest workforce of women. The exploitative nature of the employment of women in the garment industry is well documented and needs no elaboration. Briefly, the large majority of women, whether working as skilled tailors or as unskilled helpers, do not get even the legally stipulated minimum wage. Workers are frequently required to work overtime, but since this is set against production targets, they are not paid for overtime work. Insecurity of work is one of the most widely reported problems, as employers frequently terminate a woman’s service just before the completion of five years to avoid payment of gratuity. Harsh production targets, sexual and verbal abuse, lack of maternity and other leave, lack of accident insurance, and absence of toilet and creche facilities are some of the commonly stated and widely known features of female employment in garment manufacture. This misery underpins the production of high fashion garments sold in chic stores in the first world and worn by middle and upper-class women who pay for a single dress at a price that exceeds several times the monthly income of a woman who produces it.

    Challenges to women in the garment labour force due to Globalisation

    The post-1991 era in India saw a massive difference in the treatment of women as the labour force in industries, especially the textile sector. Female workers typically migrate from rural areas to work in the garment industry to meet their financial needs. Women labour in the garment industry mostly come from households below the poverty line. Therefore, the proposition for the ’empowerment of women’ through employment in these capitalist industries was thought to pave the road for the emancipation of this vulnerable group. However, with the fast fashion industry booming and the convergence of interests among global consumers, there was and still exists a constant need to satiate consumer behaviour consistently. The mass production of goods became inevitable. This had adverse effects in that it created a hostile working  environment, and reports suggest that it took a toll on the physical and mental health of women:

    i) Impact on physical well-being: The study “Sewing shirts with injured fingers and tears: exploring the experience of female garment workers’ health problems in Bangladesh” found that physical health problems included headaches, eye pain, musculoskeletal pains and fatigue. It further revealed that garment work is also so physically demanding that women cannot work for more than ten years. These findings are consistent with other research, which found that the highest proportion of female workers quit factory work before they reach 40. The workers reported that getting sick and injured was an everyday phenomenon. The doctors thought that women in factories could not work for more than ten years owing to the stressful conditions. This study also described that since the manufacturing units have men as supervisors, it becomes difficult for women to voice their concerns, particularly those related to their menstrual health. Further, this gendered division of labour extends to their home life, where their husbands expect them to fulfil their domestic obligations despite long, physically demanding hours at work.

    ii) Impact on mental well-being: The article “Mental Health Status of Female Workers in Private Apparel Manufacturing Industry in Bangalore City, Karnataka, India” steers the discussion in the direction of the importance of mental health awareness and the need for a safe work environment for women in garment factories. Mental health problems, including depression, have become a global health priority, and socially disadvantaged people are more vulnerable to suffering from mental health problems. There is evidence that scarcity of human resources, limited access to, and cost of mental health services are critical issues in most low- and middle-income countries. Separation from their children is an important issue for them. Most had left their children in their home villages, citing lack of time to care for them due to their long work hours and difficulties in paying for their children’s living costs in the city. They work from morning to night and during weekends, with nobody at home to look after their children. They get to leave only a few times a  year, and the distance to their villages can be up to 10 hours of travel time. As such, they have no option but to leave their children in their village to live with their grandparents. However, avoiding long working hours is impossible, as they need money to provide for their impoverished families.

    To improve the health and well-being of female garment workers, steps should be taken to develop health interventions to meet the needs of this important group of workers who contribute significantly to the country’s economic development.

    Way Forward

    Although women are at a disadvantage, the involvement of women in decision-making becomes indispensable. A developmental perspective based on male priorities and the male concept of the role of women in a patriarchal society such as ours cannot alleviate the lot of women already inhibited by traditional gender-role expectations. Stakeholder theory advocates that firms bear responsibility for the implications of their actions, and based on this, women come under the category of normative stakeholders to whom the industry has a moral obligation: an obligation of stakeholder fairness. Also, stress has to be placed on including women in the policy-making process, thereby increasing accountability of the framed policies. Illiteracy is a global problem and one of the reasons for the deterioration in the status of women and the feminisation of poverty. Ignorance of their rights- political, social, and economic- leads to the exploitation of women and their inability to converge to form a pressure group. The interface between the grassroots women and the activists must be used to build awareness and sensitise people, both men and women. Involving men who are sensitive to women’s issues is a healthy practice. It would benefit the cause of women if their struggle is seen as a fight for human rights,  which it is, and not merely as a gender-based movement.

     

    References

    • Ahmed, F. (2004). The rise of the Bangladesh garment industry: globalisation, women workers, and voice. NWSA Journal, 16(2), 34–45. https://doi.org/10.2979/nws.2004.16.2.34
    • Unni, J., Bali, N., & Vyas, J. H. (1999). Subcontracted women workers in the global economy: the case of the garment industry in India. http://www.sewaresearch.org/pdf/researches/subcontracted.pdf
    • Saha, T. K., Dasgupta, A., Butt, A., & Chattopadhyay, O. (2010). Health status of workers engaged in the small-scale garment industry: How healthy are they? Indian Journal of Community Medicine, 35(1), 179. https://doi.org/10.4103/0970-0218.62584
    • Baud, I., & De Bruijne, G. (1993). Gender, small-scale industry, and development policy. https://doi.org/10.3362/9781780442280
    • Oonk, G., Overeem, P., Peepercamp, M., & Theuws, M. (2012). Maid in India: Young Dalit women continue to suffer exploitative conditions in India’s garment industry. Social Science Research Network. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2119816
    • Carr, M. (2001). GLOBALISATION AND THE INFORMAL ECONOMY: HOW GLOBAL TRADE AND INVESTMENT IMPACT ON THE WORKING POOR. RePEc: Research Papers in Economics. http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/76309/dc2002/proceedings/pdfpaper/module6mcmc.pdf
    • Hale, A., & Shaw, L. M. (2001). Women workers and the promise of ethical trade in the globalised garment industry: a serious beginning? Antipode, 33(3), 510–530 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8330.00196
    • Mezzadri, A. (2014). Indian Garment clusters and CSR norms: incompatible agendas at the bottom of the garment commodity chain. Oxford Development Studies, 42(2), 238–258. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600818.2014.885939
    • Sharma, L., & Srivastava, M. (2020). A scale to measure organisational stress among women workers in the garment industry. European Journal of Training and Development, 46(9), 820–846. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejtd-04-2019-0060
    • Kabeer, N., & Mahmud, S. (2003). Globalisation, gender, and poverty: Bangladeshi women workers in export and local markets. Journal of International Development, 16(1), 93–109 https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.1065
    • ANNUAL REPORT 2022-23. (n.d.). In Ministry of Labour and Employment. Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India.

     

     

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  • Analysis of the Portrayal of Fictionalised Women ‘Namesake’ by Jhumpa Lahiri and ‘A Fine Balance’ by Rohinton Mistry

    Analysis of the Portrayal of Fictionalised Women ‘Namesake’ by Jhumpa Lahiri and ‘A Fine Balance’ by Rohinton Mistry

    Introduction

    ‘The Namesake’ by Jhumpa Lahiri (2003) and ‘A Fine Balance’ by Rohinton Mistry (1995) are accounts of fiction written during the millennial period. From a sociological perspective, both authors give us an insight into how human attitudes are moulded. The novels are based on Indian society and consider the influence of culture and traditions on human nature, which is testimony to how the plot progresses.

    An outline of the plots

    ‘Namesake’ is a debut novel by the author Jhumpa Lahiri, and revolves around an Indian family settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America. The story begins with  an introduction to the life of a pregnant woman, the mother of the protagonist, Ashima Ganguli in her twenties, struggling to find the ‘Bhelpuri’ she craves. The entire plot revolves around Ashoke and Ashima’s son, Gogol named after Ashoke’s favourite author Nikolai Gogol and his struggle to overcome the identity crisis and the shame he associates with the name. As the characters traverse through their lives, the reader witnesses Gogol moving to a new city for college, him changing his name to Nikhil, Ashoke’s death and Ashima’s loneliness. There are other supporting characters including Gogol’s sister Sonia, of which the most important are Maxine and Moushumi, who are the love interests of Gogol.

    ‘A Fine Balance’ is written by a non-resident Indian Rohinton Mistry who portrays how the lives of four different people: Dina Shroff who becomes Dina Dalal post her marriage; Ishvar and Omprakash Darji, and Maneck Kohlah, from different backgrounds, get associated with each other during the period of emergency (1973). It is set in an ‘unidentified’ city and is often considered Mistry’s critique of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her rule. He also gives the readers an account of their lives before Article-356 of the Indian Constitution was enforced. Dina is a Parsee survivor of child sexual abuse and becomes a young widow when she loses her beloved husband to an unfortunate accident. She is portrayed as a woman of solid resolve who tries to be financially independent and refuses help from her brother Nusswan Shroff. Ishvar and Omprakash are an uncle-nephew duo from the Chamar caste (Dalits) and therefore were involved with the caste-based occupation of leather tanning. This duo moves to the city in search of a respectable livelihood and plans to use their tailoring skill. Maneck is a pampered college student who is the son of a friend of Dina’s. Ishvar and Om become tailors for Dina who has taken up a contract from the garment industry and Maneck after a traumatising incident in the college hostel, shifts to Dina’s house as a paying guest. Dina often is taunted by her landlord, who is against any other activity being practised in his house, but she finds ways to elude him.

    Emerging Themes – An Overview

    THE NAMESAKE A FINE BALANCE
    Ideal Indian Woman

    Jhumpa Lahiri, through the character of Ashima Ganguli, brings out an ideal Indian woman. She is portrayed as a pious, devoted wife and a caring mother, who wears a saree, speaks broken English and sticks to her Indian culture and traditions. The author tells us that “She hates coming back to an empty house” when her husband and children move to various places for their work. This prompts her to take up a job at the local library, showing that women get used to the idea of domestic labour as love. Till the death of Ashoke, she looks after his needs and remains a ‘good’ wife.

    		 Women and Family Abuse

    After her father’s death, Dina Shroff’s brother takes up the role of the head of the family, as is the norm. She is then brutally abused and beaten by her brother Nusswan to ‘correct’ her wayward behaviour. The brutality reaches an extreme point when she goes against his order not to get a haircut. He slaps her, asks Dina to take a bath before him, and looks on lecherously while she does. The author leaves no stone unturned to explain Dina’s brother’s arrogant and lecherous nature. 
    Benevolent misogyny

    Ashoke Ganguli is a learned man who is the patriarch of the family. Though he is a man of few words, his actions prove masculine traits such as rationality and intelligence. This is in stark contrast to Ashima’s character, portrayed as emotional. Even though he is learned he believes that housework is a feminine activity and does not once help Ashima in her work. Even if he had wanted to, she would not let him because a ‘good’ woman fulfils her husband’s wishes and not vice versa. The author attempts to give the readers an overview of the concept of feminine duties and the burden on an Indian woman to uphold family integrity by slaving to the needs of the patriarch.

    		 The societal notion of the single woman

    Indian society has marred the lives of its women in the name of culture and tradition. Dina as a widowed single woman lives with the constant fear of being questioned by people. Her aim for financial independence is testimony to the fact that she wants to establish for herself a ‘respectable’ position in the community. When she brings in Ishvar and Om to work for her, she is at loggerheads with herself and gives in to the decision because of her dire need for money. This shows that a single woman has to consider several factors and not just her aspiration to be valued in society. A heterosexual woman in a marital relationship with a heterosexual man equals perfection according to Indian norms.
    Woman and Fidelity

    Ashima and Moushumi can be compared in this regard because Ashima is portrayed as a loyal wife who is naive and has an eye for no man other than her husband while Moushumi, wife of Nikhil aka Gogol is a modern, well-read, PhD scholar who has a different take on sexuality and relationships. Moushumi has an extra-marital affair with another man which forces Gogol to leave the marriage. This shows that a woman exploring her sexuality is considered infidel and disloyal. 

    		 Caste atrocities

    The author vehemently tries to engage the readers with the concept of purity and pollution throughout the text. Ishvar and Om are from the Chamar caste whose lives in the village are described in detail. There is a specific instance of Ishvar’s mom being sexually exploited for trying to sneak mangoes from a landlord’s orchard to ameliorate her son’s hunger. The landlord uses this to exact sexual favours from her. Many such instances throughout the book exist with Ishvar being forcefully sterilised during the emergency due to his lower caste origins. With a picturesque description of these events, Mistry centres his conversation around caste-based atrocities rampant in the Indian society.  

    Perception of women – A comparison

    The portrayal of women in both books is strikingly different owing to the lens through which they are viewed. A commonality is that both authors are descriptive in their narratives with a focus on providing the readers with a vivid reflection of their thoughts and the situation in question. Despite this, there is a visible contrast in the writing method with Jhumpa Lahiri taking a platonic tone with the specificity of minute details, whereas Mistry uses strong writing to describe the despicable traditions and norms in the Indian society; also, evidence of a non-resident Indian’s view of the societal norms. Women characters in both novels are depicted with varying densities, touching upon the aspects of femininity conditioned by the patriarchal society.

    Namesake

    The fact that ‘Namesake’ is written by a woman does not make the patriarchal norms that are inherent in an Indian woman fade away. However, Lahiri’s portrayal of Ashima is brilliant in execution and gives life to the internal conflict that occurs in a woman, who has been sent away from her natal home to a foreign land thereby making the readers feel the pain of loneliness.

    Ashoke is the only earning member of the family, her needs during pregnancy are also side-lined because Ashima knows that her husband “has to work”.

    This quote in the image is from the book that elicits the idea that she, as a foreigner, was left feeling sad and lonely. Lahiri captures these nuances from a gendered lens, i.e., the suffering of every Indian woman who is married and has to stay away from their natal home. However, the portrayal of Ashima as a typical Indian homemaker and her lack of financial independence in the initial stages of the plot to one of financial freedom when she takes up a job at the local library can be likened to the Western concept of liberation. Ashoke’s death is also an event which brings out the strength in Ashima, despite feeling lost she moves on with a “life must go on” attitude.

    Another character which has to be analysed from a feminist perspective is Moushumi, Gogol’s wife whom he later divorces owing to her infidelity. Lahiri’s writing, despite having the perks of the feminist notion of women, sticks to the idea of liberal feminism where the dichotomy of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ woman arises. Moushumi’s extra-marital affair is construed as a deviant from the dichotomous norm and this can be seen as an attempt to appease the larger group of the society. Taking into account Foucault’s work on sexuality, this deviance is constructed as bad behaviour. The fact that not everything is black and white and that there are shades of grey is forgotten in the portrayal of Moushumi, who is an educated, well-read doctorate scholar. Lahiri’s writing is therefore poetic in all its sense but the women characters in her book may come across as lacking depth due to its affinity to a single view of ‘liberated women’, despite the scope it had for exploring the roles of women.

    A Fine Balance

    The women characters in this book are few, and some of them are Dina Shroff, her mother and her sister-in-law. There is also a take on the atrocities of the caste system on women, which can be considered as taking Crenshaw’s intersectionalities into account. However, the entire book is all over the place due to its attempt to explore multifarious issues. Primarily of import are the character of Dina and her attempt at exploring her sexuality. The choice of words to describe an event like sexual abuse is sexualised rather than creating a wave of anger in the reader. Casual sexism can be seen throughout the book, probably reflecting the author’s desperate attempt to capture the reader’s interest. For example, a male gaze in explaining how Dina was shunned by her brother Nusswan for getting a haircut can come across as strong writing but can also find itself on the spectrum of voyeurism. He writes,

    “She was standing naked on the tiles now, but he did not leave. “I need hot water,” she said. He stepped back and flung a mugful of cold water at her from the bucket. Shivering, she stared defiantly at him, her nipples stiffening. He pinched one, hard, and she flinched. “Look at you with your little breasts starting to grow. You think you are a woman already. I should cut them right off, along with your wicked tongue.”

    Although these depictions may be to ensure that the reader understands the depth of patriarchy, they can also create in the minds of the readers a voyeuristic portrayal of child abuse. Though Dina is shown as a woman trying to propel her life and create her own destiny, it can be a shadow representation of women. The importance of Dina to the plot is minimised to abuse and being a widow struggling for financial freedom with no evidence of trauma outcomes, i.e. of her sexual abuse as a child, whatsoever. Though it has Dina as one of the main characters, the storyline seems like an attempt at a comprehensive and extensive description of the issues in the Indian society and soon the focus is lost. In comparison, we can say that the depiction of women in ‘Namesake’ is more poetic and has considerate sexism, whereas ‘A Fine Balance’ is profane in depicting women as fragile beings.

    Conclusion

    Thus, the portrayal of women in these writings derails from the feminist attitude of empathising with fellow women and showcases outright sexism both in the physical and social sense. An attempt from both authors could have been made to focus on the internal conflict that occurs in a woman with regard to exploring her sexuality. The works find value, in assuaging the larger societal constructs of monogamy in the case of Lahiri and trying to cover all issues plaguing the Indian society at one time in the case of Mistry. There is an essence of a condescending tone which is similar in both works. The works were of the millennial period, and therefore, it is also necessary to consider historical perception, but even this argument does not hold water because it was also the era of a feminist fictional writer like Arundhati Roy. Therefore, the women in both these works could have had better portrayals if an effort was taken in the right direction to understand gender politics of sexuality, power, and violence.

    References

    • C. A. M., & Lourdusamy, A. (2022). Review of Displacement, Space, and Identity in the Postcolonial Novels of Jhumpa Lahiri, Rohinton Mistry and Manju Kapur. International Journal of Management, Technology, and Social Science, 354–372. https://doi.org/10.47992/ijmts.2581.6012.0195
    • (2023). Namesake (03) by Lahiri, Jhumpa [Paperback (2006)]. Mariner s, Paperback(2006).
    • Mistry, R. (2023). A Fine Balance by Mistry, Rohinton [Vintage,2001] (Paperback). Vintage,2001.
    • Alfonso-Forero, A. M. (2007). Immigrant Motherhood and Transnationality in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Fiction. Literature Compass. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-4113.2007.00431.x
    • Doron, A., & Raja, I. (2015). The cultural politics of shit: class, gender and public space in India. Postcolonial Studies, 18(2), 189–207. https://doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2015.1065714

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