• Dr. Trishna Mani Thakuria

This paper examines how gendered intimacies and moral economies of care have transformed in post-pandemic Guwahati. Drawing upon 42 interviews and 3 focus-group discussions conducted between 2022 and 2024, the study explores how love and labour intersect within what I term the 'moral family'- a post-crisis institution where affect, work, and virtue are tightly interwoven. Using the frameworks of feminist political economy, affective labour, and moral economy, the paper shows how women's unpaid emotional and reproductive work, momentarily democratized during lockdown, was re-moralized as duty during recovery. The findings highlight how digital life intensified gendered surveillance and restructured care as ethical responsibility. The paper contributes to emerging debates on gendered moral labour by linking emotional economies with neoliberal recovery in South Asia.

Gendered intimacy, Moral family, Emotional labour, Post-pandemic Assam, Feminist political economy, Sociology of care

"Love, Labour and the Moral Family: Negotiating Gendered Intimacies in Post-Pandemic Guwahati", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.13, Issue 1, page no.b156-b158, January-2026, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2601125.pdf

"Love, Labour and the Moral Family: Negotiating Gendered Intimacies in Post-Pandemic Guwahati", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.13, Issue 1, page no. ppb156-b158, January-2026, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2601125.pdf