Agarwala lifts veil on informal workers

In April 2013, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology Rina Agarwala published her second book titled Informal Labor, Formal Politics, and Dignified Discontent in India.

Agarwala, who currently teaches a course titled “Issues in International Development” as well as an introductory sociology course alongside Associate Professor Steven Plank, has dedicated her career to examining how the poorest people on Earth work for equality. Agarwala received her doctoral degree in demography and development from Princeton University after earning a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University.

In Informal Labor, Agarwala examines the plight of informal labor workers in India. Her interest in the subject matter began as a young adult in India when she interned for the Self-Employed Women’s Organization (SEWA), a trade union for poor women workers in the informal economy.

“During my work with this union, I became convinced that labor justice is the key to development, and I’ve been working on these issues ever since!” Agarwala wrote in an email to The News-Letter.

Informal Politics details the several successes that women working in the informal sector have achieved, examples of which include setting up health care clinics in their slums and educational scholarships for their children. However, Agarwala does not overlook the challenges that informal labor still faces.

“At the same time, [SEWA] has also failed in many parts of the country, and inequality is rapidly rising in India. So we have a long way to go,” Agarwala wrote. “But Indian workers are not taking things lying down, and they are fighting against the continuing injustices.”

Furthermore, Agarwala noted the importance of understanding these issues in the context of India’s continued development.

“India’s economic improvement will not be sustained unless the country addresses it’s mass poverty, illiteracy, hunger and ill health,” Agarwala wrote. “At the moment, the country’s challenge is finding the political will to do this.”

Although the book just came out earlier this year, it has already garnered many positive reviews.

“Informal Labor, Formal Politics, and Dignified Discontent in India is one of the most thought provoking books produced on the future of labor in recent years. It challenges us to radically rethink how we see labor after globalization but not in a pessimistic way. Instead Agarwala restores agency to ordinary workers struggling to survive in the age of insecurity and identifies their innovative organizational responses in a compelling way,” University of the Witwatersrand Professor Edward Webster wrote in a review of the book for the Global Labour Journal.

Informal Labor is not the first book that Agarwala has written. In 2008, Agarwala, alongside Cornell Professor Ronald J. Herring, published Whatever Happened to Class?: Reflections from South Asia.

In that book, Agarwala examines how economic analysis dependent on class structure helps to identify challenges faced by the working and middle classes in India and Pakistan.

Although noted for her work in sociology, Agarwala did not always want to become a sociologist.

“I didn’t actually learn what Sociology was until late into my education. I thought sociology was for people who wanted to do social work in the US, and I was certain from the start that I wanted to work on issues of international development,” Agarwala wrote.

It was for this reason that Agarwala majored in economics and political science during her undergraduate years at Cornell University. It was not until Agarwala began working towards her doctoral degree in demography and development at Princeton University, where she ended up taking a number of courses in the Sociology Department, that she realized how good of a fit she was for the field.

“It was in [sociology classes at Princeton] that I realized that sociologists do address international development issues. And more importantly, the way they examine the issues and problems resonated with me more than any other approach I had come across,” Agarwala wrote. “So I transferred into the Sociology Department, and ultimately got my PhD in Sociology and began my career in Sociology.”

Beyond her time in academia, Agarwala also has experience working in international development all around the world, having worked in many countries including China, India, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Colombia and the United States.

“My advice to all students (in sociology or otherwise) is to use college to explore. It is a rare opportunity in life to explore classes you had never heard of, try jobs you might never take, and read books you will never have time to read again,” Agarwala wrote. “All these experiences will not only shape you as a person, but will also one day surprise you with their usefulness.”

As for her own experience at Hopkins, Agarwala noted the sense of accomplishment she feels each time she is able to teach a student to look at the world with a different perspective.

“My most memorable moments are each time I realize a student has just seen the world in a new way, a way that differs from the way he or she saw the world when they entered my classroom. Sometimes the moments are fleeting, and sometimes they change a student’s life course. But in each case, it makes a mark on me,” Agarwala wrote.