Domestic Workers, Social Security and Gender Politics in India

Tuesday, 20 January 2015

The Newcastle Business School welcomed Professor Rajeshwari Deshpande for a public lecture

Domestic Workers, Social Security and Gender Politics in India

In 2008, India introduced the Unorganised Sector Workers Security Act. This piece of legislation, along with the emergence of a new political constituency of women in Indian politics, has seen a sudden enthusiasm on the part of politicians towards the issues of domestic workers - among whom the majority are women.

Professor Rajeshwari Deshpande, a lecturer in politics at the University of Pune, is working to decipher the sudden visibility of these workers in her research. Her work attempts to focus on two key and overlapping themes of contemporary Indian politics: that of social security and of women's empowerment. She also seeks to investigate the implications these two themes have on the development of political policy.

This public talk was made possible thanks to Professor Deshpande's status as a Visiting Professor and current position as the Rajiv Gandhi chair in contemporary Indian studies at the University of Technology, Sydney. She was invited to the University of Newcastle by Dr Sara Motta, Senior Lecturer in politics at the Newcastle Business School.

Contact

  • Dr Sara Motta
  • Phone: (02) 4921 5020

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