and citizens are left more vulnerable. In this way, debt becomes a tool of coercion, intertwining corporate dominance with authoritarian rule, stripping away the very foundations of democracy and freedom.21 Feminists have also documented the impact of global inequality on communities in South and Southeast Asia – due to a system that relies on resource and labour extractivism in these parts of the world. For example, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple have market capitalisations ranging from USD 900 billion to USD 2 trillion.22 On the other hand, developing countries such as Nepal, Mongolia, and Cambodia for example, have gross domestic products (GDPs) of less than USD 40 billion”.23 These examples show the deep inequality of our world, where a handful of private corporations that while corporations rely on underpaid labour in the Global South, many countries from where the labour is extracted do not enjoy the . Instead, these profits are monopolized this has had a serious impact on employment and labor politics in Southeast Asia. Feminist economists from the region note, “Women find jobs in precarious segments of the global value chains of manufacturing products such as electronics and garments where they experience flexible employment schemes with little to no health and social benefits, long hours of work, low wages, sexual harassment and discrimination”.24 Feminists in South Asia have expressed alarm at the severe impact of the economic crisis and government responses on the lives of marginalized communities, where universal welfare measures are being stripped in favor of “verifying measures” that require government selection of persons to receive welfare benefits. For example, feminists in Sri Lanka have warned against the lengthy, invasive and intimidating “verification” process that poor communities have had to undergo in seeking benefits, as it has led to many eligible individuals being excluded due to logistical issues and stringent criteria that do not accurately reflect the complex realities of poverty in Sri Lanka. The “targeted discourse” of social welfare required by the IMF and World Bank has perpetuated anti-poor discourse surrounding these measures.25 21 Gallo, 2021. Prev cit. (cit 21). 22 The Tech Giants, Compared to the World’s Biggest Economies.” Visual Capitalist. Published July 7 2021. https:// www.visualcapitalist.com/the-tech-giants-worth-compared-economies-countries/#google_vignette 23 GDP by Country.” Worldometer. Accessed September, 2024. https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-by-country/ 24 Ibid. 25 Feminist Collective for Economic Justice. (2023). World Bank and IMF’s targeted discourse against working poor of Sri Lanka. Daily FT. https://www.ft.lk/opinion/World-Bank-and-IMF-s-targeted-discourse-against-working-poor-of-Sri-Lanka/14-748032 18