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{{Short description|Canadian-Indian economist (1933–2021)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Sheila Bhalla
| image = 
| alt = 
| caption =
| birth_name = Sheila Scott
| birth_date = {{Birth date text|1933}}
| birth_place = Canada
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2021|09|25|1933}}
| death_place = [[Puducherry (union territory)|Puducherry]], India
| other_names =
| occupation = {{plainlist|
*Economist
*Union activist
}}
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}

'''Sheila Bhalla''' (1933-25 September 2021) was a Canadian-Indian labor economist and trade union activist.

She was professor emerita at the School of Social Sciences in [[Jawaharlal Nehru University]], New Delhi, and also taught at [[Panjab University]], Chandigarh. Her work focused on agricultural and labor economics in the Indian state of Haryana.

== Biography and education ==
Sheila Scott was born in 1933 in Canada. Her father, J.C. W. Scott, was a physicist. She met her husband, the Indian economist, G.S. Bhalla, while they were both undertaking post-graduate research at the [[London School of Economics]]. After her marriage, she moved to India with Bhalla, and lived there for the rest of her life. During her time in India, she became fluent in the [[Punjabi language|Panjabi]] language. She died in 2021, in [[Puducherry (union territory)|Puducherry]], India.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|date=2021-09-16|title=Agricultural economist Sheila Bhalla was a life-long supporter of peasants' rights|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/agricultural-economist-sheila-bhalla-was-a-life-long-supporter-of-peasants-rights-7506937/|access-date=2021-12-04|website=The Indian Express|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|date=2021-09-26|title=Remembering Professor Sheila Bhalla, a Canadian who made Punjab and India her home|url=https://www.theworldsikhnews.com/remembering-professor-sheila-bhalla-a-canadian-who-made-punjab-and-india-her-home/|access-date=2021-12-04|website=The World Sikh News|language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Sheila Bhalla: A Committed Scholar and Activist|url=https://thewire.in/rights/sheila-bhalla-a-committed-scholar-and-activist|access-date=2021-12-04|website=The Wire}}</ref>

== Career ==
In 1969, Bhalla and her husband both joined the faculty of [[Panjab University]], where they taught economics. They were closely involved in establishing a teachers' union at Panjab University.<ref name=":0" /> In the late 1970s, they both moved to Jawaharlal Nehru University, where Bhalla taught until her retirement in 1992. At Jawaharlal Nehru University, she headed the then newly established Centre for Economic Studies and Planning. She also taught at the Institute of Human Development.<ref name=":1" />

Bhalla's research and work related to agricultural economics, with a special focus on the state of [[Haryana]], India. Along with her husband, in 1974, at Panjab University, she published a pioneering study on the impact of the [[Green Revolution in India|Green Revolution]] on agrarian structures in Haryana. At Jawaharlal Nehru University, she continued to work on analyzing agrarian structures in Haryana independently, and expanded the scope of her research to other agrarian states such as Andhra Pradesh.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> Bhalla's empirical research focused on the prevalence of long-term labour contracts in agrarian work, and later mapped declining demands for labor in modern agriculture.<ref name=":2" /> In 1995, she was elected to preside over the Annual Conference of the Indian Society of Labour Economics in India.<ref name=":2" /> In the early 2000s, she contributed research to multiple departments in the Indian Government on labor diversification in agrarian fields, including research on [[informal labor]] for the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector.<ref name=":2" /> Her contributions to Indian agricultural and labor economics are notable, particularly for her use of large data sets and field surveys in analyzing labor participation.<ref>{{Cite web|title=RAS {{!}} Remembering Professor Sheila Bhalla (1933-2021)|url=https://www.ras.org.in/remembering_professor_sheila_bhalla_(1933_2021)|access-date=2021-12-04|website=www.ras.org.in}}</ref> Bhalla's research has been published in [[Economic and Political Weekly]],<ref name="Bhalla 1976 A23–A30">{{Cite journal|last=Bhalla|first=Sheila|date=1976|title=New Relations of Production in Haryana Agriculture|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4364490|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=11|issue=13|pages=A23–A30|jstor=4364490 |issn=0012-9976}}</ref> The [[The Journal of Peasant Studies|Journal of Peasant Studies]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bhalla|first=Sheila|date=1999|title=Liberalisation, rural labour markets and the mobilisation of farm workers: The Haryana story in an all-India context|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03066159908438704|journal=Journal of Peasant Studies|volume=26|issue=2–3|pages=25–70|doi=10.1080/03066159908438704|issn=0306-6150|url-access=subscription}}</ref> [[Social Scientist]],<ref name="Bhalla 1976 A23–A30"/> and the Indian Journal of Labor Economics.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bhalla|first=Sheila|date=1993|title="Test of some propositions about the dynamics of changes of the Rural Workforce Structure."|journal=Indian Journal of Labor Economics|volume=36|issue=3 |pages=428–439}}</ref>

Bhalla was also closely involved with agricultural labor movements and unionization, and worked with the [[All India Kisan Sabha]], consulting with them on economic research relating to labour, agriculture, as well as the [[All India Agricultural Workers Union]].<ref name=":1" /> She also published research documenting early trade union movements in these organizations, and participated in their activities, including protests.<ref name=":2" /> Bhalla vocally supported the [[2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest]].<ref name=":2" /> In 2014, Bhalla wrote for the [[Economic and Political Weekly]], flagging significant concerns about the functioning of the Indian [[National Sample Survey Office (India)|National Sample Survey Office]], which is responsible for collecting public statistics about the Indian economy.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2015-06-05|title=Behind the Post-1991 'Challenge' to the Functional Efficiency of Established Statistical Institutions|url=https://www.epw.in/journal/2014/7/special-articles/behind-post-1991-challenge-functional-efficiency-established|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|language=en|volume=49|issue=7|pages=7–8}}</ref> In 2019, she was one of a group of 250 scholars and civil servants who wrote to the Indian Government to flag concerns about weaknesses in the functioning of the [[MNREGA]], which is a rural employment guarantee scheme in India.<ref>{{Cite web|title='MGNREGA Being Systematically Undermined': 250 MPs, Eminent Citizens Write to Modi|url=https://thewire.in/rights/mgnrega-fund-crunch-250-mps-eminent-citizens-letter-narendra-modi|access-date=2021-12-04|website=The Wire}}</ref>

== References ==

<references />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhalla, Sheila}}
[[Category:1933 births]]
[[Category:2021 deaths]]
[[Category:Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in India]]
[[Category:Indian economists]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Jawaharlal Nehru University]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Panjab University]]
[[Category:Indian women academics]]
[[Category:Indian women economists]]
[[Category:Indian trade unionists]]
[[Category:Indian people of Canadian descent]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian economists]]

Sheila Bhalla - Revision history

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