Down and Out

The tide of globalization and privatization that is sweeping across the globe often is often bad news for laborers, and their voices are little heard in the public discourse. This collection of fieldwork and photographs seeks to correct this imbalance. It presents snapshots from the lives of laborers in the Sarat region of India, showing workers in their villages, on the move, and at work in industries ranging from textiles and sugar to diamond-mining, brick-making, and construction. Combining stunning documentary work and rich anthropological research, the book paints a vivid and detailed portrait of modern laborers and the ways their lives are changing and not changing.