Access to Leisure: Impact of Forces of Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation on Socially Disadvantaged Groups in India

This paper uses India as a case study to argue that the forces of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation, which are currently spreading all over the world, are widening inequalities and de-basing rather than enhancing the leisure of already disadvantaged groups. In India the disadvantaged are now being excluded due to their lack of education and relevant skills even from low-skilled service sector jobs. Global markets, and tourists in particular, demand higher standards. Tourism is transforming traditional arts and pastimes into tourist goods and spectacles. The general commercialisation of leisure is denying access to the money-poor. Also, the lifestyles of all groups are being exposed to global judgments of quality, which leaves the disadvantaged feeling ever more frustrated.