Passage to India
Duggal spent what would have been her fall semester senior year in Ahmedabad, India, working with a women's union, the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA). "When I was in India, I learned about factories sub-contracting home-based workers, basically because there's no wage regulation ... That's how I first got exposed to the issue," said Duggal, who will spend the next year "studying organizations of home-based workers-mostly women-and how they unionize and lobby for rights."
Home-based workers are those who perform unskilled labor out of their homes.
"SEWA supported two kinds of home-based workers: those who receive materials from an employer, and those who purchase raw materials themselves and sell to a subcontractor," wrote Duggal in her project proposal.
After her time in India, Duggal followed up on her interest in the issue of home-based workers, writing a thesis on the subject. "I left SEWA with more questions than answers, and I wanted to learn more about how home-based worker organizing occurs," she wrote in her personal statement for the fellowship. At Amherst, the support Duggal received from her professors proved invaluable to her thesis work and her decision to continue researching the subject after graduation.
Worldwide Watson
"[Professor of Political Science and WAGS Amrita Basu,] my thesis advisor, was really amazing. She's this amazing combination of scholar and activist. And I'd say the same for [Assistant Professor of Religion Alec Irwin,]" Duggal said. Eventually, Duggal decided to apply for the Watson, in order to continue her research in a more immediate environment. Duggal's research will take her to England, Turkey, South Africa and Chile.
"A comparative study will allow me to explore what makes organizing work in different situations," she wrote in her project proposal. "I ... hope to take what I learn from my experience in my future career as a development planner, academic, and advocate, and make the voices of home-based workers heard where they have previously been ignored."
According to Duggal, home-based workers often suffer from a lack of official structure or legal boundaries in their trade. "There's never minimum wage guidelines for home-based workers, or even accountability in government regulations of home-based workers," said Duggal.
But, according to her project proposal, "the women involved in this work are far from passive recipients of an economic order beyond their control." Duggal will use her fellowship to study exactly how these home-based workers successfully lobby for rights. Her project proposal states that: "My research will entail interviewing women workers and organizers themselves, as well as local government functionaries, politicians, and academics."
Turning theory into action
Research, however, is not where Duggal's involvement ends. Instead, she believes that her year away will enable her to effect actual change. "I hope to translate my passion into policies, and make some difference in the lives of home-based workers," she wrote in her personal statement.
Duggal said she will remain involved in economic development research in the future, after her year studying home-based workers. "I'd like to work in economic development, focusing on issues around women and poverty, but I'm not really sure how I'm going to do that," she said.
The sentiment echoes the concerns Duggal had about her future when she was a senior; if her accomplishments since then are any indication, she will translate that uncertainty into admirable action.