Anjana H Kumar

Invisible Workers of Cashew Global Value System in Kerala

The study proposes to explore the dynamic relation of women workers employed in the production and processing of cashew nuts in Kerala to the global value system (GVS) of Cashew. In doing so, the study attempts to bring light into their labour in the shadows and the associated exploitation. The GVS of Cashew locates Kerala as a processing hub, heavily dependent on the imported raw cashews from parts of Africa, with markets in the United Kingdom and USA. The system runs on unequal exchange between countries, where capitalist countries accumulate at the cost of vulnerability, informalisation of labour and hostile working conditions subjected to the working class (Jha, 2019), particularly in this case, women. The system works through the structure of patriarchy to avail cheap piece rated labour of women by subcontracting jobs, wiping their reckoning as a worker, along with harsh and dangerous working conditions. The study proposes a purposive sampling technique to locate women employed in the cashew sector, with focus on both factories and cottage industries. The study will employ time use surveys and in-depth interviews of women workers and representatives of workers organisations. While the study will use secondary data sources, it will work with the understanding that data fails to portray the reality of the impact of GVS on social reproduction and unpaid labour of women.

Keywords: Women, Cashew, Labour, Imperialism, Patriarchy

• Present: Pursuing PhD at Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India.
• 2020: Master of Arts, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, Majoring in Development and Labour Studies with primary on Global Value Systems, Women and Work, Economics of Labour and Nature, Labour and Capital.
• 2018: Bachelor of Arts, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India, Majoring in Social Sciences with primary on Economic, History and Political Science.

• May 2017: Research Intern and Content Maker for Students for Free Tibet, Dharamshala, India.
• November 2016: Research Intern for Rural Agency for Social and Technological Advancement, Kerala, India.
• June 2016: Intern at Drought Duty by Swaraj Abhiyan, Maharashtra, India.
• April 2015: Intern at Eco Foundation for Research and Training, Telangana, India.

• Student Activist at JNU
• Member of Dastak, a political cultural forum

• Best dissertation Award 2018 for Bachelor of Arts at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India for “Vulnerability of Women, Marriage and
• Community: A Study of Arab Nikah among the Chaush Community in Hyderabad, Telangana”.
• Won National Children’s Science Congress, Kendriya Vidyalaya Nationals, Bhopal, India.

anjanahemanthkumar23[at]gmail[dot]com