{"id":19398,"date":"2021-12-07T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-07T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/?post_type=ground_up_stories&#038;p=19398"},"modified":"2025-12-12T16:29:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:59:23","slug":"for-adolescent-women-workers-work-also-means-agency","status":"publish","type":"ground_up_stories","link":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/ground-up-stories\/for-adolescent-women-workers-work-also-means-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"All work, some play: How adolescent girls find freedom in employment"},"content":{"rendered":"<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We met 16-year-old Manja* for the first time in Sabla block of Dungarpur district in southern Rajasthan. The eldest of four siblings, Manja was 12 when her father&rsquo;s failing health led him to quit the cycle of migration that sustained the household and return home for good. Soon after, Manja dropped out of school and began seeking work.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For four years now, Manja has been the sole earning member of her family, working on construction sites, farmlands, and MNREGA sites. In the aftermath of the lockdown, work remains sporadic&mdash;barely enough to sustain her family or repay the debts accumulated over the course of the months when she was unemployed.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the small village where Manja resides, her story is by no means unique. Regardless, it is not one told very often. Known as kishori shramiks (adolescent female workers), girls like Manja are an invisibilised part of the local labour market in southern Rajasthan&mdash;an area that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.indiafellow.org\/blog\/2021\/01\/the-kishori-shramik-and-the-labour-market\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">contributes significantly<\/a> to the informal workforce employed in Surat, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and Bangalore.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When we speak about kishori shramiks, we often only focus on the aspect of child labour. In doing so, we ignore how their work intersects with their desire for agency. For many girls, their entry into the labour market provides them with a degree of agency that they otherwise might not have. Some enjoy chatting with friends while commuting to work, while others like the fact that work allows them to earn their own money, spend it as they like (at least a portion of it), and access spaces outside of their homes.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">*<em>Name changed to maintain confidentiality.<\/em><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Priyanshu Krishnamoorthi has been an India Fellow and has worked&nbsp;with <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/bhs.org.in\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Basic Healthcare Services<\/em><\/a><em> in southern Rajasthan. Sruthi Nair is a former India Fellow and works with <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aajeevika.org\/index.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Aajeevika Bureau<\/em><\/a><em> in southern Rajasthan.<\/em><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiafellow.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>India Fellow<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;is a content partner for #groundupstories on IDR. Read the original stories&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.indiafellow.org\/blog\/2021\/01\/of-young-girls-and-big-responsibilities\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>here<\/em><\/a><em> and <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.indiafellow.org\/blog\/2021\/01\/the-kishori-shramik-and-the-labour-market\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>here<\/em><\/a><em>.&nbsp;A longer version of Sruthi&rsquo;s story first appeared on <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/feminisminindia.com\/2021\/01\/13\/kishori-shramik-women-work-labour-exploitation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Feminism in India<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Know more: <\/strong>Learn&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/why-are-teenage-girls-not-going-to-school\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">why teenage girls<\/a>&nbsp;in India aren&rsquo;t going to school.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Do more: <\/strong>Connect with Priyanshu Krishnamoorthi at <a href=\"mailto:priyanshupavana@gmail.com\">priyanshupavana@gmail.com<\/a> and Sruthi Nair at <a href=\"mailto:sruthinair2897@gmail.com\">sruthinair2897@gmail.com<\/a> to learn more about and support their work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":68538,"template":"","categories":[21],"tags":[3628,3653,474],"series":[],"meta-filter":[],"schema-filter":[743],"no-display":[],"class_list":["post-19398","ground_up_stories","type-ground_up_stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gender","tag-female-labour-force-participation","tag-informal-sector","tag-labour","contributor-priyanshu-krishnamoorthi","contributor-sruthi-nair","states-rajasthan","schema-filter-article"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>For adolescent women workers, work also means agency | IDR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Young girls find that work, despite being exploitative, gives them the autonomy to step outside their homes and spend a part of their income on themselves.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/for-adolescent-women-workers-work-also-means-agency\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"kn_IN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"All work, some play: How adolescent girls find freedom in employment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We met 16-year-old Manja* for the first time in Sabla block of Dungarpur district in southern Rajasthan. 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