Labour Laws, Welfare, and Gendered Collective Action in Home-Based Occupations: A Focus on the Beedi Industry in Telangana, India

Kamtam, Madhuri (2026) Labour Laws, Welfare, and Gendered Collective Action in Home-Based Occupations: A Focus on the Beedi Industry in Telangana, India. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

Global trends of informalisation and feminisation of labour have raised questions around the ‘race to the bottom’, particularly regarding non-compliance with regulations around ‘decent work’. Beedi production, involving hand-rolled country cigars that provide major source of employment for women in rural India, reflects these trends. Despite key legislation—the Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966, and the Beedi Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1976—implementation on the ground remains inconsistent due to decentralised production systems, administrative inefficiencies, and socio-economic inequalities tied to gender, caste and class. While micro-level studies have examined beedi labour conditions, less attention has been paid to how these laws function in practice, how regional disparities shape welfare outcomes, and how collective action influences implementation.

This study evaluates the impact of beedi legislation on workers’ welfare, the factors shaping its uneven implementation, and the role of women-led collective action in securing entitlements. Theoretically, this extends Amartya Sen’s (1999) Capability Approach (CA)—traditionally applied to labour law in developed contexts—to labour laws governing informal employment in India. It conceptualises beedi legislation as a mechanism for expanding substantive freedoms, by integrating the concept of “collective capabilities” (Stewart, 2005; Ibrahim, 2006), highlighting how collective action functions as a critical demand-side factor in securing legal protections. Specifically, it explores three dimensions of the law: working conditions, scholarships for education, and the scope for collective action.

The impact evaluation at the centre of this study, was carried out using a generative approach to causality, integrating a theory-based evaluation within a mixed-methods design and guided by an intersectional feminist lens. Fieldwork was conducted in Sirikonda and Thandriyal—two villages in northern Telangana, India’s third-largest beedi-producing state. Adopting a feminist epistemological stance, the study centres women workers’ voices to reveal power asymmetries and intersecting inequalities. Findings show that enforcement gaps deprive home-based workers of protections, while structural barriers, particularly those rooted in caste, prevent Scheduled Caste (SC) workers’ daughters from accessing scholarships and limit SC women’s opportunities for leadership and representation. Women-led unions do secure welfare benefits but face a “pyramid of exclusion,” which restricts their representation at higher levels. These challenges highlight the need to reimagine labour laws and strengthen inclusive collective capabilities, to advance equitable rights for all informal workers, leaving no one behind.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
Depositing User:	Chris White
Date Deposited:	03 Mar 2026 08:41
Last Modified:	03 Mar 2026 08:41
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/102146
DOI:

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