📌 Snapshot
- How factories, offices and informal work shape Indian society, with job data, labour terms and key thinkers.
- Why India's industrial path differs from the western model, with a small organised sector and mostly informal work.
- How liberalisation, outsourcing and contract work changed jobs, and how people actually find work.
- Working conditions in mills, mines, IT firms and home based work, and what the 1982 textile strike showed.
📖 Detailed Notes
Written and reviewed by Subhra Gupta, Humanities faculty at UniDrill (M.A. Sociology, University of Delhi · 7 years teaching Humanities). Based on NCERT Sociology Class XII (Social Change and Development in India), Chapter 5.
Why do a film star and a mill worker in the same city live in different worlds?
Mumbai's film industry is a place of dreams for the audience, but for dancers, stunt artists and extras it is a workplace. They have a union of their own, the junior artists' association, which asks for eight hour shifts, proper wages and safe conditions. Film stars live in places like Juhu while textile workers live in Girangaon. Some people eat sushi in five star hotels and some eat vada pav from a handcart. Yet they watch the same films and cricket matches and breathe the same polluted air.
Where and how people work is a big part of who they are. This chapter asks two connected questions. How do changes in technology and in the kind of work available change social relations? And how do caste, kinship, gender and region shape the way work is organised?
Sociology looks at work as social, not just personal. Why are more women in nursing and teaching than in engineering, when nursing is physically harder than designing a bridge? Because society treats caring work as suited to women and "tough" work as masculine. Even coffee advertisements differ: in India a pack may show two cups, because many Indians drink coffee to socialise rather than as a solo wake up habit. Who produces what, who works where and who sells to whom are not only individual choices. They are social patterns, and in turn people's choices change society.
Images of industrial society
Many classic works of sociology were written when industry was new. Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim linked industry with urbanisation, and with the loss of face to face relations of village life (working on your own farm or for a landlord you knew) in favour of anonymous professional relationships in factories and offices.
| Feature of industrial society | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Detailed division of labour | Each worker makes only a small part of the product | A worker never sees the finished product |
| Repetitive, tiring work | Work follows the pace of the process | Even so, it is better than being unemployed |
| Alienation (Marx) | People do not enjoy work and do it only to survive, and even that depends on whether technology leaves room for human labour | A person tied to a machine and a wage |
| Equality in some spheres | Caste distinctions do not matter on trains, buses or in cyber cafes | Shared public spaces |
| Persisting inequality | Older discrimination can continue in new workplaces, and income inequality is growing even as some social inequalities fall | Upper caste men are dominant in well paid professions such as medicine, law and journalism, and women are often paid less than men for similar work |
Notice the last row. Social inequality and income inequality often overlap, which is why a sociologist studies who holds which job and not only how much it pays.
Two views. For the exam: modernisation theorist Clark Kerr's convergence thesis says industrial societies come to resemble one another, so an industrialised India of the 21st century shares more features with China or the United States of that time than with 19th century India. Another reading: culture, language and tradition do not simply disappear with new technology. They influence how people adopt and use new products, which is why Indian industrialisation has its own character.
Pause and predict: a call centre worker and a handloom weaver both earn a living. Which of the two is more likely to see the whole of what they make?
Check your answer: The weaver, usually. Industrial work is built on a detailed division of labour in which each person does one small step, so people often never see the end product. That is part of what Marx meant by alienation.
The specificity of Indian industrialisation
There is no single standard model of industrial capitalism. India resembles the western model in some ways and differs in others, and the first difference is the kind of work people do. In developed countries most people work in services, then industry, and fewer than 10 per cent in agriculture (ILO figures).
| Sector | Examples | Share of Indian employment, 2018 to 19 |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Agriculture and mining | About 43 per cent |
| Secondary | Manufacturing, construction, utilities | About 17 per cent |
| Tertiary | Trade, transport, financial services | About 32 per cent |
In finer detail, agriculture employed 42.5 per cent, mining and quarrying 0.4, manufacturing 12.1, trade, hotels and restaurants 12.6, transport, storage and communication 5.9, and community, social and personal services 13.8. The serious problem is the mismatch: agriculture's share of national income has fallen sharply and services contribute a little over half, yet the sector employing the most people generates the least income for them.
Types of employment. In developed countries most workers are in regular, formal jobs. In India the pattern differs. Self employment is still the largest category, even though its share has fallen over nearly half a century.
| Type of work | 1972 to 73 | 2018 to 19 |
|---|---|---|
| Self employed | 61.4 per cent | 52.1 per cent |
| Regular salaried | 15.4 per cent | 23.8 per cent |
| Casual wage labour | 23.2 per cent | 24.1 per cent |
Organised and unorganised sectors. Economists distinguish the organised (formal) sector from the unorganised (informal) sector. One definition is that the organised sector consists of all units employing ten or more people throughout the year, registered with the government so that employees get proper salaries or wages, pension and other benefits. In India over 90 per cent of work, whether in agriculture, industry or services, is in the unorganised sector. The textbook points out three social implications.
| Implication | What it means |
|---|---|
| Few people work in large firms | Few meet people from other regions and backgrounds. In small workplaces personal relationships decide raises and dismissals, unlike a large firm with clear rules, transparent recruitment and complaint procedures |
| Few have secure jobs with benefits | Of those who do, two thirds work for the government. This is why people strive for government jobs, and others depend on their children in old age |
| Few are in unions | Informal workers have not experienced collective bargaining for wages and safe conditions, and laws that monitor the sector are weakly enforced in practice |
Two views. For the exam: government employment has played a major role in crossing boundaries of caste, religion and region. One sociologist argued that the public sector steel plant in Bhilai, which employs people from all over India who work together, helps explain why the town has stayed free of communal violence. Another reading: the textbook itself notes that others question this claim, so treat it as a debated argument and not as a settled fact.
Beyond the textbook. For the exam: the organised sector is units with ten or more workers, registered with the government. In reality: the textbook itself says there is a debate over how to define the two sectors, so you may meet other definitions in other books. Why it matters: answer with the definition above in CUET, and remember the key point either way: very few Indians work in the organised sector.
Liberalisation and Indian industry
Since the 1990s government policy has been liberalisation. Private and foreign companies are encouraged in areas once reserved for the government, such as telecom, civil aviation and power. Licences are no longer required to open industries and foreign products are easy to find in shops. Many Indian companies, small and large, have been bought by multinationals, while some Indian companies become multinationals themselves. In one example, an Indian soft drink firm with an annual turnover of ₹250 crore was bought by a multinational whose advertising budget alone was ₹400 crore. Heavy advertising raised consumption across India and displaced many traditional drinks. Retail is the next frontier, and the textbook asks whether people will keep shopping at neighbourhood grocery and cloth shops or move to department stores.
| Change | Meaning | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Disinvestment | Government selling its share in public sector companies | Government workers fear job loss. Modern Foods, a government company set up to make healthy bread cheaply, was the first to be privatised, and 60 per cent of its workers were forced to retire within five years |
| Outsourcing and contracting | Fewer permanent employees. Work given to smaller firms or even to homes. Multinationals do this across the globe, with developing countries supplying cheap labour | Small firms compete for orders, so they keep wages low and conditions poor, and unions find it harder to organise there |
| Growth of services | Shops, banks, IT and hotels employ more people | The urban middle class grows, but few have secure jobs and even regular salaried jobs become less secure through contract labour |
| Land acquisition for industry | Government acquires land for industrial use | Industries do not always employ local people but cause pollution. About 40 per cent of the displaced are adivasis, who protest low compensation and fear becoming casual labour in big cities |
Some economists debate this, but liberalisation and privatisation worldwide appear to be associated with rising income inequality. This leads straight into the next chapter on globalisation.
How people find jobs
Only a small share of people find work through advertisements or employment exchanges. The self-employed, from plumbers, electricians and carpenters to private tutors, architects and freelance photographers, rely on personal contacts, hoping their work advertises them. Mobile phones have widened a plumber's circle of customers.
| Route | How it works | Social effect |
|---|---|---|
| Jobber or mistri | In Kanpur textile mills, jobbers came from the same regions and communities as the workers, but were backed by the owner and bossed over them | They also put community pressure on workers. Their importance has now fallen, and management and unions also recruit |
| Passing jobs to children | Many workers expect to pass on their jobs | Shows kinship ties in the factory |
| Badli workers | Substitutes for permanent workers on leave. Many have worked for years in the same firm without the same status or security | Called contract work in the organised sector |
| Contractor for casual labour | The contractor goes to villages and loans money, including the transport cost. The loan is treated as an advance wage, and the worker does not earn wages until it is repaid | Common on construction sites and brickyards, and families often migrate together |
Employment has two broad components: a job in an organisation (as casual wage labourer or regular salaried worker), and self-employment. Schemes such as MUDRA, Aatmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India aim to create jobs and self-employment, including for marginalised groups such as SCs, STs and other backward classes.
A subtle point. In the past, agricultural labourers were tied to their landlord by debt. A casual worker who moves to industrial work may still be in debt, but is not bound to the contractor by other social obligations. In that sense, the textbook says, such workers are more free in an industrial society, because they can break the contract and look for another employer.
How work is carried out
A manager's basic task is to control workers and get more work out of them. There are two ways: extend the working hours, or increase the output within a given time. Machinery raises output but also threatens to replace workers, and both Marx and Mahatma Gandhi saw mechanisation as a danger to employment. Gandhi objected to the "craze" for labour-saving machinery and not to machinery as such. He wanted to save time and labour for all, not for a fraction of humankind, and saw the spinning wheel as an answer to unemployment and to the exploitation of the poor.
| Workplace | What the textbook shows |
|---|---|
| Textile mill | Workers describe themselves as extensions of the machine. A weaver in the Kanpur mills spoke of working under a continuous gaze, with the whole body in motion and four machines moving together |
| Car assembly plant | Two cars roll off the line every minute. Workers get 45 minutes of rest in the whole day, and many are exhausted by 40 and take voluntary retirement. The number of permanent jobs has fallen as services such as cleaning and security and the making of parts are outsourced. Parts arrive every two hours "just in time", which keeps costs low but keeps workers tense |
| IT sector | Software professionals are middle class and well educated, and their work is supposed to be creative. Yet it follows Taylorist labour processes, with a 10 to 12 hour day and sometimes overnight stays at the office called "night outs". The industry's "time slavery" comes from the time difference with client sites, underestimated project timelines and the practice of "flexi-time", which in practice means working as long as the task takes |
Late opening hours for shops and restaurants in IT cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Gurugram follow the work hours of those firms. When both husband and wife work, children go to crèches, and grandparents are roped in to help. So the joint family, which was supposed to disappear with industrialisation, seems to have re-emerged in a new form.
Beyond the textbook. For the exam: the IT sector's work follows Taylorist labour processes, and Harry Braverman argued that machinery deskills workers, for example when computers do much of the drafting that skilled architects and engineers once did by hand. In reality: "Taylorism" refers to Frederick Taylor's scientific management, in which managers break work into small timed tasks and closely control it. Why it matters: it explains why creative looking office work can still feel like a factory line.
Pause and predict: is a farmer who grows many crops, using knowledge of weather, soil and seeds, "unskilled"?
Check your answer: No. The textbook says that both a farmer and a software professional are skilled but in different ways. The "knowledge economy" idea assumes industry raises skills, but Braverman's view is that machinery can reduce them.
Working conditions
Everything we use was made by someone, often in bad conditions. Laws exist. The Mines Act 1952 (now part of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Condition Code, 2020) fixes the maximum weekly working hours, overtime pay and safety rules. These may be followed in big companies, but not in small mines and quarries, and sub-contracting is widespread. Many contractors do not keep proper registers of workers, which lets them avoid responsibility for accidents and benefits. Coal mines alone employ 5.5 lakh workers. Underground work brings the risk of flooding, fire, roof collapse, gas and poor ventilation, and workers develop breathing problems and diseases such as tuberculosis and silicosis. The rate of mining accidents in India is very high compared with other countries. After mining, companies are supposed to cover open holes and restore the land, but this is often not done.
Migrant workers. Fish processing plants along the coast employ mostly single young women from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, housed ten or twelve to a small room. Many men also migrate alone. These workers have little time or money for social life, so the nature of work in a globalised economy is taking people from "interfering joint families" towards loneliness and vulnerability. Yet for many young women it also means some independence and economic autonomy.
Home based work
Home based work covers lace, zari or brocade, carpets, bidis and agarbattis, and is done mainly by women and children. An agent supplies the raw material and collects the finished product, and workers are paid by the piece (piece rate). The bidi chain shows how long such a chain can be.
| Step | Who | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Villagers | Pluck tendu leaves, about 100 bundles of 50 leaves a day, and sell them to the forest department or a contractor |
| 2 | Government | Auctions the leaves to bidi factory owners |
| 3 | Factory owners to contractor | Pass the leaves to a contractor |
| 4 | Contractor to home workers | Supplies tobacco and leaves to home workers, mostly women |
| 5 | Home workers | Dampen and cut the leaves, fill them with tobacco and tie them with thread |
| 6 | Contractor to manufacturer | Collects the bidis and sells them to the manufacturer, who roasts them and adds a brand label |
| 7 | Distributor, wholesaler, pan shop | Packed bidis reach the neighbourhood pan shop |
Beyond the textbook. For the exam: home based workers are paid by the piece, with an agent supplying materials and collecting products. In reality: when thousands of IT workers worked from home in 2020 to 21, their position differed sharply from home based workers. They were salaried employees using their employer's systems, whereas home based workers are paid by the piece and depend on agents. Why it matters: "working from home" and "home based work" are different things, and CUET can test the difference.
Strikes and unions
In a strike workers refuse to go to work. In a lockout the management shuts the gate and keeps workers out. Calling a strike is hard because managers may bring in substitute labour and workers cannot live long without wages.
| Feature | Bombay Textile Strike, 1982 |
|---|---|
| Led by | Dr. Datta Samant |
| Who it affected | Nearly a quarter of a million workers and their families |
| Duration | Nearly two years |
| Demands | Better wages and the right to form their own union |
| Outcome | People went back out of desperation. Nearly one lakh workers lost their jobs and went back to villages or took casual work. Others moved to powerloom towns such as Bhiwandi, Malegaon and Icchalkaranji |
| Afterwards | Mill owners did not invest in modernisation. Mill land is now being sold to real estate dealers for luxury apartments, leading to a battle over who defines the future of Mumbai |
Timeline
| Period | Event | Why it mattered |
|---|---|---|
| Early industrial era | Marx, Weber and Durkheim write on industry | Industry linked to urbanisation and anonymous relations |
| 1952 | Mines Act | Rules on hours, overtime and safety (now in the 2020 Code) |
| 1972 to 73 | Self employed 61.4 per cent of workers | Baseline for the later chart |
| 1982 | Bombay Textile Strike | Led by Datta Samant; lasted nearly two years |
| 1990s | Liberalisation | Licences end; private and foreign firms enter |
| 2018 to 19 | 43 per cent in the primary sector; self employed 52.1 per cent | Agriculture still employs the most people |
Key people
| Name | Idea |
|---|---|
| Karl Marx | Alienation; mechanisation as a danger to jobs |
| Marx, Weber, Durkheim | Linked industry to urbanisation and anonymous relations |
| Clark Kerr | Convergence thesis |
| Mahatma Gandhi | Objected to the craze for labour saving machinery, not machinery itself |
| Harry Braverman | Machinery deskills workers |
| Carol Upadhya | Long hours and "time slavery" in IT work |
| Datta Samant | Led the 1982 Bombay Textile Strike |
Exam traps
| The trap | Why it's tempting | The truth |
|---|---|---|
| "Alienation is Weber's concept." | Weber is also in this chapter | Alienation is Marx's term for workers who do not enjoy work and do it only to survive |
| "52 per cent of Indians work in the primary sector." | Two numbers sit close together | About 43 per cent are in the primary sector. 52 per cent is the share of self employed |
| "Two thirds of secure jobs are in the private sector." | Private companies seem to dominate | Two thirds of the secure jobs are with the government |
| "The organised sector means ten or fewer workers." | The number is the same | It means ten or more |
| "Gandhi rejected all machinery." | His view is often summed up as anti machine | He objected to the craze for labour saving machinery, not to machinery as such |
| "A lockout is a strike by workers." | Both stop work | In a strike workers stay away. In a lockout management keeps them out |
| "The mistri was an outside agent of the owner." | He had the owner's backing | He was himself a worker from the same region and community |
| "Work from home is the same as home based work." | Both happen at home | Home based work is piece rate work for an agent. Work from home was salaried office work done remotely |
60-second revision
| Topic | Lock this in |
|---|---|
| Industrial society | Anonymous relations, division of labour, alienation (Marx) |
| Convergence thesis | Clark Kerr: industrial societies look alike |
| Sectors, 2018 to 19 | Primary about 43, secondary about 17, tertiary about 32 per cent |
| Work status | Self employed 52.1, regular salaried 23.8, casual 24.1 per cent |
| Organised sector | Ten or more workers, registered; over 90 per cent of work is unorganised |
| Secure jobs | Few; two thirds of them in government |
| Liberalisation | Since 1990s; disinvestment, outsourcing, contract labour |
| Job routes | Contacts, jobbers (mistri), badli workers, contractors with advances |
| Machinery | Marx and Gandhi saw a danger to jobs; Braverman: deskilling |
| Working conditions | Mines Act 1952, now in the 2020 Code; migrants; home based piece rate work |
| Strike versus lockout | Workers stay away versus management shuts the gate; 1982 Bombay strike, Datta Samant |
Where this chapter connects
- Previous: Change and Development in Rural Society follows the village, while this chapter follows factories and cities.
- Next: Globalisation and Social Change widens outsourcing and liberalisation into the world economy.
- Related: The Market as a Social Institution shows how markets, trade and labour are shaped by social ties.
🎯 Practice MCQs
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Q1. Which thinker used the term alienation for a situation where workers do not enjoy work and do it only to survive?
▸ Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
Alienation is Marx's concept. Weber and Durkheim also linked industry with urbanisation and anonymous relations, but did not use this term in the chapter. Clark Kerr is known for the convergence thesis.
Q2. In 2018 to 19, about what share of Indian workers were employed in the primary sector (agriculture and mining)?
▸ Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
About 43 per cent were in the primary sector. 17 per cent is the secondary sector, 32 per cent is the tertiary sector, and about 52 per cent is the share of the self employed.
Q3. According to one definition, the organised sector consists of units employing:
▸ Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
The definition used is ten or more people throughout the year, registered with the government so that employees receive proper wages, pension and other benefits.
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Q4. Consider the statements. (1) Over 90 per cent of work in India is in the unorganised sector. (2) About 52 per cent of workers are self employed. (3) Of those with secure jobs and benefits, two thirds work in the private sector. Which are correct?
▸ Show answer & explanation
Answer: A
Statements 1 and 2 are correct. Statement 3 is wrong because two thirds of those with secure jobs and benefits work for the government.
Q5. Match List I with List II. List I: (i) Mistri (ii) Badli worker (iii) Disinvestment (iv) Lockout. List II: (p) Government selling its share in public sector companies (q) Jobber in the Kanpur textile mills (r) Management shutting the gate against workers (s) Substitute for a permanent worker on leave
▸ Show answer & explanation
Answer: A
The mistri was a jobber, a badli worker substitutes for a permanent worker on leave, disinvestment is the sale of government shares in companies, and a lockout is management keeping workers out. Options B, C and D each swap at least two of these pairs.
Q6. Assertion (A): Both Marx and Mahatma Gandhi saw mechanisation as a danger to employment. Reason (R): Gandhi rejected every form of machinery because he thought industry itself was morally corrupt.
▸ Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
The assertion is true. The reason is false because Gandhi objected to the craze for labour saving machinery, not to machinery as such, and he wanted labour saved for all and not for a few.
Q7. The Bombay Textile Strike of 1982 was led by:
▸ Show answer & explanation
Answer: A
Dr. Datta Samant led the strike. The other three names in the options are scholars cited in the references, not strike leaders.
Q8. Which sociologist argued that machinery deskills workers, for example when computers do much of the drafting once done by skilled architects?
▸ Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
Braverman put forward the deskilling argument. Marx wrote on alienation, Kerr on convergence, and Upadhya on long hours and time pressure in the software industry.
Q9. Which is the correct order of the bidi chain, starting with tendu leaves?
▸ Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
Leaves are plucked, go to the forest department, are auctioned to factory owners and pass through a contractor to home workers. The contractor then sells the bidis to the manufacturer, who sells to a distributor, then a wholesaler, then pan shops. The other options leave out steps or reverse them.
Q10. In the textbook's example of a car assembly plant, which feature is described?
▸ Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
Two cars roll off the line every minute and workers get 45 minutes of rest: two tea breaks of 7.5 minutes and a half hour lunch. The other options change one or both figures.
Q11. The first government company to be privatised, in which 60 per cent of workers were forced to retire within five years, was:
▸ Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
Modern Foods was set up by the government to make healthy bread available cheaply and was the first company to be privatised. The other options are not the example the chapter gives.
Q12. The long working hours, night outs and flexi-time described for the IT sector illustrate:
▸ Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
The chapter describes extended working hours justified through flexi-time and peer pressure, and calls it time slavery. Option A is wrong because the chapter does not describe strong unions there. Option C is wrong because no regulation is described. Option D is wrong because grandparents are often roped in, so joint families seem to re-emerge.
Q13. About what share of those displaced by industrial land acquisition are adivasis, according to the chapter?
▸ Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
Adivasis make up approximately 40 per cent of those displaced. The other values are not the figure given.
Q14. The Mines Act 1952 has now been included in which broader code?
▸ Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
The Mines Act is now part of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Condition Code, 2020. The other Acts and codes named are not the ones the chapter connects to the Mines Act.
Q15. Which statement about how people find work is correct?
▸ Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
The contractor's loan, including transport costs, is treated as an advance wage and the worker works without pay until it is repaid. Option A is wrong because only a small share find work that way. Option C is wrong because the jobber came from the same region and community as the workers. Option D is wrong because badli workers lack the same status and security.
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