26 SOCIAL SCIENTIST 88 C Bettelheim, India Independent, 1968, p 23. 84 M Savur, Structure of a Village in Maharashtra (Mimeo) University of Bombay, 1975 pl2. 8B The Times of India, 3 May 1975. 86 D Symington, Report on the Aboriginal Tribes, 1939, p 36. 87 M Mies, in the Bulletin of the Concerned Asian Scholars, Vol 7, No 1, p 64. 88 M Savur, in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol VIII, No 11, 1973, p 55. 89 K Nath, in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol III, No 31, 1968, p 121. 4 ° One may mention the existence of small power loom units which cluster together on the periphery of an industrial town. Biwandi, for instance, on the outskrits of Bombay, has 33,156 authorized and 15,000 to 20,000 unauthorized looms (A R Momin, p 177) where grey cotton, art silk and synthetics are woven and fed to textile industries owned by Birlas and Khataus. In the Bombay mills the woven material is further processed and the brand name stamped. 80 per cent of these power looms are said to be financed by ^arwari' and 'Gujarathi^ financiers. The link between the big bourgeoisie and the * financier' is not clear, nor does one know the percentage of female labour employed here. But the v reason for such "putting out'^ system is clear and has been discussed elsewhere. 41 K Saradamoni, in Tojana, Vol XIX, Nos, 13-14, J975, p 29. 43 It is reported that untrained "ayahs" rather than trained nurses are employed in creches (Padmini Sen Gupta, p 85). This is another saving in total wage bill, but the working mothers are afraid to trust their children to the untrained women and creches are empty in most factories and plantations. 4 8 Maternity benefit now falls under ESI, and an analysis shows that the employees' contribution alone exceeds the actual cost of the benefit that the employees avail themselves (Savur, in Economic and Political Weekly Vol II, No 40, 1967, p 1817). The employers' real loss is to be seen only in terms of "women" days lost by availing of maternity leave. 44 R C James, "Discrimination against Women in Bombay Textile Industry" quoted in ILO, Working Women in Changing India, pp 209-220. 4B P Sen Gupta, Women Workers in India, (Mimco) p 113. 4* N Tata, in The Times of India, September 1975, p 1. 47 P Sen Gupta, op. cit,, p 80. 48 ILO, Working Women in Changing India, p 24. 4 9 Her counterpart in the parent concern is paid three times the wages paid in India and those in Indian proprietory concerns grossly underpaid. The wage rate may be as low as Rs 150-250 per month. *• Maharashtra Government Gazette, 5 January 1961, pp 40,43. 61 P Sen Gupta, op.cit., p 62. 5a M Savur, Kumbhars of Kumbhararwada (Mimeo) University of Bombay 1974, pp 17-30. 68 ll.O.op.cit., p53. 54 E Boserup, op.cit., p 80. 6B A number of urban middle-class girls are also finding employment in the growing number of five star hotels, as guides in tourist bureaus, as models and in films to list a few instances. The problem that these women face needs to be studied to build a consciousness among them. As this falls outside our frame of reference, no further mention will be made of it. 6 e In a case study of 278 blue-collar families of Poona the number of those above poverty line was 19. Of these in only one family was a woman's earning not necessary for keeping it above that 'poverty line' (Venu Dabholkar, in Artha Vijnana 1961 Vol 3, No 3, p 188). * 7 In non-socialist countries those who adhere to patriarchal traditions create an ideology that women are dependents. It is however belied by certain demographic facts. And one may well ask who is the weaker sex?