Vulnerable migrant women and beauty care in the city of Hyderabad

The beauty industry continues to attract aspirational migrants from within the country for economic opportunities to the city of Hyderabad, an IT hub. This paper examines the intersecting identities of women migrant workers from three northeast Indian states (Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram). This study analyses data gathered through a mixed methods approach of 44 migrant women from northeast working in the beauty industry. Based on semi-structured interviews and survey method the article contributes to the understanding precarity in the informal sector. By viewing aesthetic labour in light of intersectionality, the article aims to contribute to intersectionality and aesthetic literature in three ways. Firstly, it shows how aesthetic labour operates in the beauty salon of Hyderabad by analysing the participation of northeastern women migrant workers. Second, by analysing the aesthetic performative labour in beauty salons, it is revealed that the industry mobilises labour in the form of racialised ageism for its benefit. Third, while the industry offers a pretence avenue of social mobility it devalues women’s labour through systemic inequality and discrimination.