Gendered Exclusions in the Work Spaces of Peri-urban Areas in a Neoliberal Environment

Abstract

The peri-urban areas of large metropolises have, in recent years, become favoured sites for private investments inflows and are consequently experiencing rapid land transfers from agriculture to the non-agricultural sector. There have been concerns that such land transfers have not yielded gainful employment uniformly for those facing livelihood displacements. The overarching question that this article addresses is that, given the larger contexts of deceleration of women’s work participation rates in the country and the transient nature of the peri-urban spaces, does the urban-centric growth process in the peri-urban areas offer women with better opportunities emerging out of the process of urbanization, or does it expose them to new vulnerabilities not observed in other regions? The article, by and large, confirms the latter hypothesis and concludes that in spite of evidences of economic spillover effects from the urban core to these spaces, the benefits get distributed unevenly in terms of employment, particularly when seen through a gendered lens.