Ms. Sneha Harshadbhai Ramani will present her APS as per the details:

Date: 25th & 26th February 2026

Time: 1:30 pm (on Both days)

Venue: HoD Room, C-TARA (25th February) & S-19, C-TARA (26th February)

Title: Navigating the Field of Construction Site: Social Construction of Skill and Livelihood Pathways of Women Construction Workers

Supervisor: Prof Subodh Wagle

Co-Supervisor: Prof Pankaj Sekhsaria

RPC Members: Prof Satish Agnihotri and Prof Rahul Sapkal

Abstract:

Skill is not merely a technical attribute but a socially constructed phenomenon, shaped by market demands, workplace norms, and power relations within the labour market. In construction, the absence of formal skill classification frameworks has led to informal hiring mechanisms where contractors, supervisors, and labour intermediaries (muqaddams) regulate skill recognition and access to skill-based job roles. These socially constructed processes reinforce gendered segregation, where men mainly work in skilled trades like masonry and plumbing, while women often remain confined to unskilled labour, despite engaging in skill-intensive tasks such as bricklaying and plastering.

The study explores how skill is socially constructed on construction sites and how this construction influences women’s pathways for skill acquisition or advancement. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice (1977), the research examines how capital, habitus, and the social field interact to shape livelihood pathways. Additionally, insights from the Social Construction of Skill framework (Steiger, 1993; Steinberg, 1990; Rigby & Sanchis, 2006) are incorporated to understand how skill is defined, recognized, and restricted through mechanisms of social closure.

This report presents the consolidated findings of fieldwork conducted across seven sites—six construction sites and one labour stand in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar (Labour Stand at Sector-6, Gandhinagar). Drawing on 20 formal interviews and 12 informal conversations with women construction workers, skilled male workers, contractors, and labour-stand actors, the study explores how skill is defined, recognised, and regulated within construction sites. The findings illustrate that skill is constructed not merely as technical competence, but is marked by autonomy, responsibility-bearing authority, and possession of specialised tools. Recognition operates through contractor-mediated evaluation, reference networks, and performance-based validation, while remaining conditional and revocable. Despite women’s sustained participation in technically overlapping tasks, their labour continues to be classified within the unskilled category, revealing a distinction between embodied competence and recognised status.

The study adopts a qualitative exploratory design using an embedded case study strategy and interpretive open coding. The construction site is treated as a social field structured by rules, norms, authority relations, and informal hiring mechanisms. Within this field, livelihood pathways emerge through the interaction of capital and habitus, yet unfold within boundaries stabilised by the social construction of skill. The findings indicate that women’s trajectories consolidate laterally within the unskilled segment rather than through formal reclassification into skilled roles. The report illustrates that it is not the absence of capability, but the structuring of recognition and classification within the field, that shapes women’s livelihood pathways in the construction industry.