Women Loaders of Azadpur Wholesale Market: A Study of Their Work Culture and Challenges at the Market

Azadpur wholesale market (Mandi) is one of the most famous fruit and vegetable markets of India. Many workers in the mandi carry fruits and vegetables from one place to another. They manually load, unload, pack, unpack, shift and carry heavy sacks to different sheds. Both male and female work as loaders (workers who carry loads) in the mandi but the focus of this paper is on the work culture of female loaders. There is a dearth of studies on loaders as a category of workers and female loaders in particular. As a result, there are very few policies for them. It is in this context that this paper explores the role, challenges and issues of the female workers of Azadpur to understand their working lives and work situations. It unfolds their daily struggles of existence and sustenance at the mandi. Since, the domain of outside has mostly been contested as men’s space, this paper brings out insights on how women participate in market processes, what positions they hold, how they manage work and home, how they interact and create spaces for themselves in a male dominated field. Built around these questions, this paper locates their wage structures, working conditions, gender dynamics, employer-employee relationships, negotiation patterns, issues and challenges at the mandi.