Social Change And Development In India Chapter 5 Change And Development In Industrial Society

(i) The carpenters who make the sets for the films.

(ii) Minor dancer who participate in group dance shines.

(iii) Stunt artists and extras.

(iv) Some other type of senior artist.

Film stare and textile mill-owners live in places like Juhu, while extras and textile workers may live in places like Girangaon. Some go to five star hotels and eat Japanese sushi and some eat vada pav from the local handcart.

The residents of Bombay ape-divided by where they live what they aaft and how much their clothes cost. Befc'£ney are also united by certain common things that a city provides — they watch the same films and cricket matches, they suffer from the same air pollution and they all have aspirations for their children to do well.

Sociologists are interested in the questions of who produces what, who works where, who sells to whom and how. These are not individual choices, but outcomes of social patterns. In turn, the choices that people make influences how society works.

Home-based work is an important part of the economy. This includes the manufacture of lace, zari or brocade, carpets, bidis, agarbattis and many such products. This work is mainly done by women and childre. An agent provides raw materials and also picks up the finished product. Home workers are paid on a piece-rate basis, depending on the number of pieces they make.

Some thinkers and images of industrial society at the beginning stage:

(i) Many of the great works of sociology were written at a time when industrialisation was new and machinery was assuming great importance.

(ii) Thinkers like Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim associated a number of social features with industry, such as urbanisation, the loss of face-to-face relationships that were found in rural areas where people worked on their own farms or for a landlord they knew, and their substitution by anonymous professional relationships in modern factories and workplaces.

(iii) Industrialisation involves a detailed division of labour. People often do not see the end result of their work because they are producing only one small part of a product.

(iv) The work is often repetitive and exhausting. Yet, even this is better than having no work at all, i.e., being unemployed. Marx called this situation alienation, when people do not enjoy work, and see it as something they have to do only in order to survive, and even that survival depends on whether the technology nas room for any human labour.

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M. Imp.

(i) Industrializations leads to greater equality, at least in some spheres. For example, caste distinctions do not matter any more on trains, buses or in cyber cafes. On the other hand, older forms of discrimination may persist even in new factory or workplace settings.

(ii) And even as social inequalities are reducing economic or income inequality is growing in the world. Often social inequality and income inequality overlap, for example, in the domination of upper caste men in well-paying professions like medicine, law or journalism. Women often get paid less than men for similar work.

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V. Imp.

The bidi industry, as a home based work:

(i) The process of making bidis starts in forested villages where villagers pluck tendu leaves and sell it to the forest department or a private contractor who in turn sells it to the forest department.

(ii) On average a person can collect 100 bundles (of 50 leaves each) a day.

(iii) The government then auctions the leaves to bidi factory owners who give it to the contractors.

(iv) The contractor in turn supplies tobacco and leaves to home-based workers.

(v) These workers, mostly women, roll the bidis first dampening the leaves, then cutting them, filling in tobacco evenly and then tying them with thread.

(vi) The contractor picks up these bidis and sells them to the manufacturer who roasts them, and puts on his own brand label.

(vii) The manufacturer then sells them to a distributor who distributes the packed bidis to wholesalers who in turn sell to your neighbourhood pan shops.

Comparison between Indian industrialisation and western pattern:

(i) The experience of industrialisation in India is in many ways similar to the western model and in many ways different. Comparative analysis of different countries suggests that there is no standard model of industrial capitalism.

(ii) Let us start with one point of difference, relating to what kind of work people are doing. In developed countries, the majority of people are in the services sector, followed by industry and less than 10% are in agriculture (ILO figures). In India, in 1999-2000, nearly 60% were employed in the primary sector (agriculture and mining), 17% in the secondary sector (manufacturing, construction and utilities), and 23% in the tertiary sector (trade, transport, financial services, etc.)

(iii) However, if we look at the contribution of these sectors to economic growth, the share of agriculture has declined sharply, and services contribute approximately half. This a very serious situation because it means that the sector where the maximum people are employed is not able to generate much income for them.

(iv) Another major difference between developing and developed countries is the number of people in regular salaried employment. In developed countries the majority are formally employed. In India, over 50% of the population is self-employed. Only about 14% are in regular salaried employment, while approximately 30% are in casual labour (Anant 2005: 239). The adjacent chart shows the changes between 1977-78 and 1999-2000.

The early years of Indian industrialisation since 1947 to 1990-91:

(i) The first modern industries in India were cotton, jute, coal mines and railways. After independence, the government took over the ‘commanding heights of the economy.’ This involved defence, transport and communication, power, mining and other projects which only government had the power to do, and which was necessary for private industry also to flourish.

(ii) In India’s mixed economy policy, some sectors were reserved for government, while others were open to the private sector. But within that, the government tried to ensure, through its licensing policy that industries were spread over different regions.

(iii) Before independence, industries were located mainly in the port cities like Madras, Bombay, Calcutta. But since then, we see that places like Baroda, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Pune, Faridabad and Rajkot have become important industrial centres.

(iv) The government also tried to encourage the small-scale sector through special incentives and assistance.

(v) Many items like paper and wood products, stationery, glass and ceramics were reserved for the small-scale sector.

(vi) In 1991, large-scale industry employed only 28 per cent of the total workforce engaged in manufacture, while the small-scale and traditional industry employed 72 per cent.

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Imp.

(i) In India nearly seventeen per cent of the total working population is engaged in industry sector. In our country fifty per cent of the population of this sector self-employed only about 14 per cent are in regular salary employment while approximately 30 per cent are in casual labour. Upto 1991 mixed economy policy was by the government. Public as well as private sector work together all major heavy industries were controlled by public sector but some were in private sector also.

(ii) In 1991 large scale industries employed only 28 percent of the total workforce engaged in manufacture, while the small scale and traditional industry employed 72 per cent.

(iii) Since 1990s, however, the government hence follow policy liberalisation. Private companies, especially foreign firms are encouraged are investment in sector earlier reserve for the government.

(vi) Generally people get jobs through advertisement or through employment exchange in industrial sector. Man and women both work in industrial sector.

(v) The persons engaged in industry get salary or wages alongwith certain benefit like HRA (House Rent Allowance) Medical facilities.

(vi) Job recruitment as a factory worker takes a different pattern. In the past, many workers got their jobs through contractors or jobbers. In the Kanpur textile mills, these jobbers were known as mistris, and were themselves workers. They came from the same regions and communities as the workers, but because they had the owner’s backing they bossed over the workers.

(vii) On the other hand, the mistri also put community related pressures on the workers. Nowadays, the importance of the jobber has come down, and both management and unions play a role in recruiting their own people.

(viii) Many workers also expect that they can pass on their jobs to their children. Many factories employ badli workers who substitute for regular permanent workers who are on leave. Many of these badli workers have actually worked for many years for the same company but are not given the same status and security. This is what is called contract work in the organised sector.

(ix) However, the contractor system is most visible in the hiring of casual labour for work on construction sites, brickyards and so on. The contractor goes to villages and asks if people want work. He will loan them some money. This loan includes the cost of transport of the workside.

(x) The loaned money is treated as an advance wage and the worker works without wages until the loan is repaid. In the past, agricultural labourers were tied to their landlord by debt. Now, however, by moving to casual industrial work, while they are still in debt, they are not bound by other social obligations to the contractor. In that sense, they are more free in an industrial society. They can break the contract and find another employer. Sometimes, whole families migrate and the children help their parents.

(xi) As far as social composition of the work force in industry is concerned, people from all caste and both gender from the age group of fifteen to sixty work. Some regions of the country are having more industry than the other. There is not a balanced development in industries.

II. Labour process or how the work takes place :

(i) In India, there is a whole range of work settings from large companies where work is automated to small home-based production. The basic task of a manager is to control workers and get more work out of them. There are two main ways of making workers produce more. One is to extend the working hours, the other is to increase the amount that is produced within a given time period. Machinery helps to increase production, but it also creates the danger that eventually machines will replace workers. Both Marx and Mahatma Gandhi saw mechanisation as a danger to employment.

(ii) Different workers have different working period in different industries according to their qualification, experience, age and risk of the job. The contract labourers get fixed amount as per the term and condition of contract. In organised sector pay and allowances are better than the unorganised sector. Sometime the workers go on strike due to adverse circumstances or on a call given by trade union workers kind it heart to sustain themselves without wages due to harsh role.

(iii) The government has passed number of pass to regulate working conditions. Let us look at mining where a number of people are employed. Coal mines alone employ 5.5 lakh workers. The Mines Act 1952 specifies the maximum number of hours a person can be made to work in a week, the need to pay overtime for any extra hours worked and safety rules. These rules may be followed in the big companies, but not in smaller mines and quarries. Moreover, sub-contracting is widespread. Many contractors do not maintain proper registers of workers, thus avoiding any responsibility for accidents and benefits. After mining has finished in an area, the company is supposed to cover up the open holes and restore the area to its earlier condition. But they don’t do this.

(iv) Workers in underground mines face very dangerous conditions, due to flooding, fire, the collapse of roofs and sides, the emission of gases and ventilation failures. Many workers develop breathing problems and diseases like tuberculosis and silicosis. Those working in overground mines have to work in both hot sun and rain, and face injuries due to mine blasting, falling objects, etc. The rate of mining accidents in India is very high compared to other countries.

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V. Imp.

(i) Social composition of the workers has changed in almost all the industries due to changes in technology or the kind of work, i.e., available to the people. On the other hand social institution like caste, kinship, networks, gender and regions also influence the way the work is organised or the way in which products are marketed.

(ii) In certain jobs and departments we find more women working than the men. For example, their working more in numbers in nursing or teaching jobs than in other sectors like engineering.

(iii) If he goes and observes or tries to find out the courses of such social composition of our working class we come to know that it is not just a coincidence it is because the people of Indian society that womens are suited for caring and naturing work as against jobs which are seen tuff and masculine.

(iv) Industrialisation requires a detailed division of labour.

(v) People Often do not see the end result of their work because they are producing only one part of product.

(vi) Industrialisation leads to greater equality, at least in some spheres. For example, caste distinctions do not matter any more on trains, buses or in cyber cafes. On the other hand, older forms of discrimination may persist even in new factory or workplace settings. And even as social inequalities are reducing, economic or income inequality is growing in the world. Often social inequality and income inequality overlap, for example, in the domination of upper caste men in well-paying professions like medicine, law or journalism. Women often get paid less than men for similar work.

(vii) In India, over 90% of the work, whether it is in agriculture, industry or services is in the unorganised or informal sector. What are the social implications of this small size of the organised sector ?

(viii) First, it means that very few people have the experience of employment in large firms where they get to meet people from other regions and backgrounds. Urban settings do provide some corrective to this - your neighbours in a city may be from a different place - by and large, work for most Indians is still in small-scale workplaces. Here personal relationship determine many aspects of work. If the employer likes you, you may get a salary raised, and if you have a fight with him or her, you may lose your job.

(ix) This is different from a large 1999-2000, nearly 60% were employed in the primary sector (agriculture and mining), 17% in the secondary sector (manufacturing, construction and utilities), and 23% in the tertiary sector (trade, transport, financial services, etc.). However, if we look at the contribution of these sectors to economic growth, the share of agriculture has declined sharply, and services contribute approximately half. This is a very serious situation because it means that the sector where the maximum people are employed is not able to generate much income for them.

(x) India is still largely an agricultural country. The service sector – shops, banks, the IT industry, hotels and other services are employing more people and the urban middle class is growing, along with urban middle class values like those we see in television serials and films. But we also see that very few people in India have access to secure jobs, with ever the small number in regular salaries employment becoming more insecure due to the rise in contract labour. So far, employment by the government was a major avenue for increasing the well-being of the population, but now even that is coming down.

(xi) Girls like Madhu enjoys their work because rolling of bidis and- filling of tabacco rolled tendu leaves. They get opportunity to sit and lose to their family members and other women and listen to their chat. They opened most of their time in work in factory of bidis. Apart from the time spent doing household choose. Due to long hours of sitting in the same pasture daily, they suffer from backache. Madhu wants to restart her schooling.

(i) The Indian government has followed policy of liberalisation since 1990s. Due to it private company, specially foreign firm are encouraged to invest in sectors earlier reserve for the government, including telecom, civil aviation, power, etc. Naturally government jobs and employment have come down and private specially multinational companies and firms jobs have increased in India.

(ii) Lincenses are no longer required to open industries definitely this policy have increased the chances of self-employment.

(iii) Due to liberalisation foreign products now easily available in Indian markets and shops. Due to this some of the labour have to loose their employment and jobs.

(iv) As a resort of liberalisation, many indian companies have been brought over by multinationals. At the same time some Indian companies are becoming multinational companies. An instance of the first is when, Parle drinks was bought by Coca Cola. Parle’s annual turnover was Rs. 250 crores, while Coca Cola’s advertising budget was alove Rs. 400 crores. This level of advertising has naturally increased the consumption of Coke across India replacing many traditional drinks.

(v) The next major area of liberalisation may be in retail. Due to coming of foreign companies and big business Indian houses very small traders, shopkeepers, handcart sellers and hawkers have lost their jobs of employment or their small business is adversely affected by big mall, showroom or Reliance, Subhiksha, etc.

(vi) Clamouring to enter India’s red-hot retail sector, the world’s largest chains, including Wal-Mart Stores, Carrefour and Tesco, are seeking the best way to enter the country, depspite a government ban on foreign direct investment in the market.

(vii) Recent large investments by major Indian businesses, like Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel have increased the sense of urgency for foreign retailers....Last week, Bharti Airtle indicated that it was in talks with Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Tisco to set up a retailing joint venture...India’s retail sector is attractive not only because of its fast growth, but because family-run street corner stores have 97% of the nation’s business. But this industry trait is precisely why the government makes it hard for foreigners to enter the market. Politicians frequently argue that global retailers would destroy thousands of small local players and fledgling domestic chains.

(viii) The government is trying to sell its share in several public sector companies, a process which is known as disinvestment. Many government workers are scared that after disinvestment, they will lose their jobs. In Modern Foods, which was set up by the government to make healthy bread available at cheap prices, and which was the first company to be privatised, 60% of the workers were forced to retire in the first five years.

(ix) More and more companies are reducing the number of permanent employees and outsourcing their work to smaller companies or even to homes. For multinational companies, this outsourcing is done across the globe, with developing countries like India providing cheap labour. Because small companies have to compete for orders from the big companies, they keep wages low, and working conditions are often poor. It is more difficult for trade unions to organise in smaller firms. Almost all companies, even government ones, now practice some form of outsourcing and contracting. But the trend is especially visible in the private sector.

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M. Imp.

(i) Yes, we agree with the conclusion and convergence thesis put forward by modernisation theorist Clock Kerr, that an industrialised India of the 21^st century shares more features with China or the United States of America in the 21^st century than it (i.e. India) shares with 19^th century India.

(ii) India was very backward as far as modern industrialisation of the 19th century was concerned. Only the (colonial government) India was industrialised in a few industries and a very few areas were industrialised. India became free country in 1947. After the gap of nearly more than 120 years India has progressed by leaps and bounds in the fields of most industries. The latest technological advancement and methodology has been applied by most of the multinational corporations, foreign industrialist as well as progressive Indian industrialist India is likely to enter in the list of most advance ten countries of the world.

(iii) I also agree that culture, language and tradition change with new technology. People adopt foreign culture, language, way of living, eating, dresses and means of transport and communication. For example, India has become the largest consumer of modem information technology. Means of transport are drastically advancing ahead. Metrotrains are being introduced in several cities of India. Under flies and overflies are being constructing day and night India participating in globalisation and liberalisation.

Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi the father of nation, was not only a great politician of that time, but he was a great humanitarian and economic reformer. He did not like a poor India and unemployed people in his country. He gave new means of struggle of economy also. He favour cottage and small scale industry. He wanted spinning wheel, khadi and weave cloth and cottage industries for Indians. All machineries he had written Hindu-Swaraj in 1924. He objected the craze for machinery. He was not opposed to use machinery but he did not like machinery upto that extent till machinery takes away work from the workers. He wanted to use machine for the help of labour and not to make him unemployed. He opposed the craze of those industrialists who called labour-saving machinery. He knew very well that thousands of men were unemployed in India. According to him unemployment was a great curse for individual and for society as a whole. He opposed machine if they are used to open streets to die of starvation. He wanted to save time and labour of the man. But not for a fraction of mankind.

He did not like concentration of wealth in the few hands but he wanted the distribution of wealth in the hands of all for social and economic justice in the society.

He wrote after ten year after 1934 that as a nation the people of India had adopted spinning wheel as a symbol national flag. Spinning wheel was adopted as tool to solve the problem of unemployment by providing employment to thousands and thousands villagers, poor urban people, farmers and labourers.

Gandhi was opposed of all types of exploitations. He did not like exploitation of any nation by India and he also did not like that any one country or the other of the world should exploit India. He was really a great socialist of his own kind. He opposed exploitation of the poor (people) by the rich (people).

We can give examples how machinery creates a problem for workers. For example an automatic printing machine prints books automatically with the help of two or three persons. Without the use of big automatic printing machine nearly two hundred labourers are required to do the same work or produce the same volume of production. It means due to use of big automatic machine unemployment is generated. Gandhiji had alternative in his mind that India should be labour-intensive modern industrial units or firms.

Adopting spinning wheel all people can spin cotton. They can prepare cloth on handloom.

There are two ways of making workers produce more:

1. To adopting new techniques and advanced technologies.
2. To extend the working hours.
3. To increase the amount i.e produced within a given time period.

Coastal cities were favoured by the colonial rules because from here primary commodities could be easily exported and manufactured goods could be cheaply imported. 
Coastal cities such as Bombay, Calcutta & Madras were developed by the British in India.This may be mentioned as Mumbai, Kolkatta, Chennai also.

(i) 10-12 hours is an average workday, and it is not uncommon for employees to stay overnight in the office (known as a ‘night out’), when faced with a project deadline. It has a negative impact on the industrial society.
(ii) Even when there is no actual work pressure, employees tend to stay late due to peer pressure or to show the boss that they are working hard.

Following are the major forms of Job recruitment in India:

1. Jobs through contractor system: This system is very visible in the hiring of casual labour for work on construction sites, brickyards and so on. The contractor go to villages and ask if people want work.

2. Jobs through personal contacts: People who are self-employed such as plumbers, electricians, carpenters, architects free-lance photographers and teachers who give private tuitions come in the category.

3. Jobs through advertisements: It is also one of the popular means of getting jobs but only a small percentage of people get jobs through advertisements or through the employment exchange.

4. Job recruitment as a factory worker takes a different pattern. In the past, many workers got their jobs through contractors or jobbers. Now a days, the importance of the jobber has come down, both management and union plays an important role in recruiting their own people.

Following are some of the possible causes of migrating of labourers:

(i) Commercialisation of agriculture has been responsible for the growth of migrant agricultural labour. Seasonal demand for these labourers increase in Green Revolution areas.

(ii) A pattern of seasonal migration is seen and thousands of workers circulate between their home villages and more prosperous areas.

(iii) Labourers also migrate due to the increasing inequalities in rural areas. Migrant workers come from drought prove and less productive regions. They go to work for part of the year on agricultural farms in the Punjab and Haryana or in brick kilns in U.P. or Construction sites in cities such as Delhi and Bangalore etc.

(iv) Jan Breman has termed these migrant workers as 'Footloose labour' However, these landless workers do not have many rights and are also denied minimum wages. This large-scale circulation of labour has had many important effects on rural society. Women are also coming us as the chief source of agricultural labour. It is leading to the 'Feminisation' of agricultural labour force.

People find jobs through various means like: - advertisements, employment exchange, contractor, personal contact, agency, consultants, jobbers, through neighbourhood, community. Although in the past, many workers and labourers go their jobs through contractors but at present, the importance of the contractors is decreasing.

1. Federation of Indian Chambers and Commerce.(FICCI)
2. Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).

1. Home-based work is an important part of the economy. This work is mainly done by women and children. It proved as an advantage to the home sitting women to earn some penny for their livelihood and ultimately helped them to come over the financial crisis.
2. Being an important part of the economy the Home-based work includes the manufacture of lace, zari, carpets, bidis, agarbattis and many such products.
3. In this sort of work, An agent provides raw materials and also picks up the finished product. Home workers are paid on piece-rate basis, depending on the number of pieces they make.
4. It can be better understood by the process of making bidis. For example: The villagers pluck tendu leaves and sell it to the forest department or a private contractor. The contractors pick up these bidis and sell them to manufacturers who roast them and put on their respective brand label. 

Disinvestment: It is the process in which the government tries to sell its share in several public sector companies. Many government workers are scared to lose their jobs after disinvestment. Example in the case of Modern Foods, which was the first company to be privatized. Workers were forced to retire in the first five years.

Working conditions are dangerous in underground mines due to flooding, fire, the collapse of roofs and sides, the emission of gases and ventilation failures. Many workers develop breathing problems and diseases like tuberculosis and silicosis.

1. The unorganized sector or informal sector has over 90% of the work force in agriculture, industry or services. It shows very few people have the experience of employment in large firms. 
2. Here personal relationships determine many aspects of work. If the employer likes you, you may get a salary raise, and if you have a fight with him or her, you may lose your job. 

1. Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
2. All India Plastics Manufacturer's Association.

1. Under the industrial system, the production can be increased by adopting new techniques and advanced technologies.
2. The policy of liberalisation was taken up in 1990s. The main purpose of this policy was to boost industrial production by weeding out industrial stagnations.
3. The era of liberalisation introduced the new concept of multinational companies.
4. The scientific techniques of industrial management are being followed. The new methods of advertising are being adopted. More and more companies are decreasing the number of permanent employees and outsourcing their work to smaller companies.

1. Workers in underground mines face very dangerous conditions, due to flooding, fire, the collapse of roofs and sides, the emission of gases and ventilation failures.
2. Many workers develop breathing problems and diseases like tuberculosis and  silicosis.

Strike is a condition where in response to harsh working conditions, workers do not go to work and they go to strike. Whereas, in a lock-out the management shuts the gate and prevents workers from coming. 

1. According to Karl Marx the Concept of alienation or alienated labour involves extreme division of labour and specialisation.
2. This causes absolute alienation when people do not enjoy work, and see it as something they have to do only in order to survive, and even that survival depends on whether the technology has room for any human labour.

1. In the process of industrialisation, caste distinctions do not matter anymore on trains, buses or in cyber cafes.
2. Industrialisation leads to greater equality, In new factories or workplace, the social inequalities are reducing.

1. Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
2. All India Plastics Manufacturer's Association.

When the government tries to sell its share in several public sector companies, a process is called disinvestment.

1. In the past, many workers got their jobs through contractors or jobbers. These jobbers were also called as mistris and were themselves workers.
2. The contractor system is most visible in the hiring of casual labour for work on construction sites, brickyards and so on.
3. The contractor goes to villages and asks if people want work. They promise to loan them some money. This loan includes the cost of transport of the workside.
4. The contractors came from the same areas and communities as the workers, as they had the owner's support they bossed over the workers.