Ghar-Baithe Entrepreneurs: The Paradoxes of Digital Work Among Muslim Women in Kolkata

This article critically examines the digital entrepreneurial practices of Muslim women in Kolkata, foregrounding how intersecting structures of gender, religion, class and digital inequality shape their experiences. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this study explores how women strategically utilise digital platforms to generate income while navigating cultural norms of respectability, spatial mobility and patriarchal constraints. While digital entrepreneurship offers temporal flexibility and alignment with religious and familial expectations, access to its benefits remains contingent on the possession and conversion of various forms of capital—economic, cultural, social and digital. The study highlights how inequalities manifest in algorithmic visibility, aesthetic norms, language barriers and limited network access, often restricting market reach to co-religious networks and reinforcing communal boundaries. Through the lens of Bourdieu’s capital theory, the article challenges celebratory discourses of digital empowerment, arguing that digital spaces frequently reproduce offline exclusions. It calls for a shift from techno-centric models of inclusion to intersectional, equity-driven frameworks that recognise women’s agency while addressing structural barriers to participation in digital economies.