The effect of globalization on labour market has been debated. Low-income countries often compete through lowering costs which is obtained partially through downward pressure on wages. In India, low costs of production are achieved by utilizing cheap sources of labor such as women, children, people belonging to disadvantaged castes and religious groups. Existing research shows that India's unique social structures of gender, caste and religion creates an uneven plane for these disadvantaged

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... ions in the labour market, especially in terms of wages. However, whether certain enterprise conditions based on the size and nature of firms overcome discriminatory labour practices or takes advantage of existing societal discriminatory labour norms is missing in the literature. Therefore, this paper aims to examine whether such societal effects of wages are overcome by the large globalised export orientated firms or rather do they take advantages of the discrimination to keep low on wages as in case of small and medium domestic market oriented firms. The study is based on a sample of over 300 workers and 20 firms in the garment industry in Delhi National Capital Region which has a global value chain and export processing clusters. Being a global industry it offers an added insight into the effects of global recession on employment. These results have important implications for policy makers in India in terms of increasing educational opportunities for various social groups, reducing social discrimination and increasing post-implementation accountability.