‘Aesthetic Labour' in the Emerging Labour Market

‘Aesthetic Labour’ in the Emerging Labour market: A case study on female labour migrants from North Eastern India to the metropolitan city of Chennai, India.

Since the onslaught of globalization, the emergence of new service industries have attracted ‘single women migrants’ towards sectors such as retail services, hospitality industry, call centers etc. These newly emergent service sectors have become one of the major employers of women that accelerate the process of single female migration to urban centers. Thus, globalisation has blurred down the stereotypical gender roles and reconstituting itself by inventing a new category called ‘aesthetic labour’ which is in fair demand in the labour market.

The aesthetic labour force in Indian cities is largely populated by the female migrants from the North Eastern regions of India, who now are creating a niche in certain labour markets in the metropolitan cities. Their nature of being flexible, fair skinned and the fact that they are ready to migrate from the economically poorer regions of India easily qualify them as an ideal workforce for services like retail selling and hospitality. A new dynamics of inequality is framed through this processes of globalisation that prioritises soft skills (the attitude and appearance of employees) when it comes to selection and performance evaluation in their respective fields. The ‘Pan Asian’ physical appearance is a central character that negotiates interactions with the members of host community and they are subjected to different kinds of social evaluations and treatments from the host.

This paper would examine the process of migration of single female migrants from the North Eastern states of India to the Chennai city to see how the aesthetic labour market functions these women migrants negotiate and reconstruct their gender roles and identities.