Informality and Women

1
Informality and Womens Work

• Head, Dept of Economics,
• 4th Floor, Annexe Building, SNDT Women's
  University, Smt. Nathibai Road, Churchgate
  Campus, Mumbai 400020, India
• Mobile [phone]
• Email vibhuti.np_at_gmail.com

2
Macro Policies

• Dual Economy model
• Unequal relations between dependent and dominant
  sector
• Globalisation Triangles
• SEZs, EPZs and FTZs
• Role of State-complicity in perpetuating super
  exploitation,
• subversion of protective labour standards
• Labour reforms

3
Dynamics of Informal labour Market

• The shift from a stable/organised labour force to
  a flexible workforce has meant hiring women
  part-time, and the substitution of better-paid
  male labour by cheap female labour.
  Sub-contracting, home-based production, the
  family labour system, all have become the norm.
  This is being called an increase in efficiency'
  and productivity'.  
• Informal rules and norms impact the transactions
  between women's productive activities and their
  environment, specifically the availability and
  costs to women of labor time, skills, productive
  assets, credit, organization, and marketing.

4
Dr. Arjun Sengupta Committee

• Dr. Arjun Sengupta Committee Report on Condition
  of Work and Promotion of Livelihoods in the
  Unorganised Sector, 2006 revealed that there are
  tendencies of a higher concentration of women
  workers in low productivity and declining
  industries, belying the impression that with
  economic reforms, employment opportunities in
  more modern sectors would grow.
• The Unorganised Workers Social Security Act,
  2008

5
Urban Women in the Poverty Groups

• The percentage of women living in poor households
  was 34 in 1993-94 and 25 in 2013-14 in urban
  areas. Out of all women in the urban areas, 25
  are in the poverty groups as per NSS 68th round.
• There has been lot of debate on inadequacy of
  income criteria as an indicator of poverty. Even
  the focus on per capita income/expenditure is
  based on a false premise that household is a
  harmonious unit where each and every members
  needs are taken care of judiciously and
  equitably.

6
Women Headed Households

• As per 2011 Census, 27 million households,
  constituting 11 per cent of total households in
  the country, are headed by women.
• Several studies have pointed out that
  intra-household discrimination in education
  against girls, which results in girls possessing
  less skill than boys, contributes to fewer
  economic opportunities for women, resulting in
  higher poverty rates among women-headed
  households.

7
Interstate and Rural-urban Migration

• Due to shrinking job opportunities in rural
  areas, mass of poor women have been migrating to
  urban areas with or without their family members.
  
• Here starts their de-skilling process as their
  skills of agriculture, horticulture, fisheries,
  forest-based occupations and artisans become
  either redundant or rated as lowly.
• Occupations where poor women are employed have
  been dead-end jobs - domestic work, care of
  children, elderly and terminally ill people, and
  scavenging, vending and informal sector
  manufacturing jobs.

8
Distress Driven Employment Growth in Informal
Sector

• The burden of supporting the family is
  increasingly falling on women as large proportion
  of poor men are becoming involuntarily or
  voluntarily unemployed in a fast-changing and
  technologically advancing economy.
• sign of economic distress and sheer helplessness
• The survival needs of the family often has its
  toll on women with household work and
  reproductive responsibilities still entirely seen
  as womens work outside the sphere of production.
  

9
Service Sector Work Mostly Domestic Work

• Due to burgeoning middle class and thriving upper
  class that have enjoyed the fruits of iniquitous
  economic growth unleashed by policies of
  liberalization, privatization and globalization,
  the demand for paid domestic workers has been on
  the rise.
• Among women and girls, paid domestic workers are
  the most disadvantaged group of women who spend a
  significantly higher portion of the day on unpaid
  care work and degrading and unsafe paid work as
  domestic help.

10
Need for Labour standards

• Public Health and Reproductive Rights Concerns
• Deplorable Quality of Life Education, Health,
  Nutrition and Sanitation
• Labour intensity
• Occupational Health Safety
• Self Employed Poor Women in informal Sector
•  Women Vendors Waste pickers
• Sexual Harassment at Workplace
• Special concerns of elderly women-Pension, night
  shelter, community based half way homes

11
Social Security Social Protection

• Social protection needs to be seen as a long term
  investment in the productive capacities of the
  present and future generation of workers.
• Decent and safe work should be a fundamental
  consideration of economic, trade, financial and
  social policies.
• Social protection provision should be seen as an
  inalienable right connected to work. Schemes and
  legislations concerning health insurance,
  maternity benefits, pension, crèches, and
  workplace safety need to look at context-specific
  ways of combining contributions from different
  stakeholders, and combining statutory with
  voluntary provision.

12
Conclusion

• Effective implementation of The Unorganised
  Workers Social Security Act, 2008 must be the
  topmost priority for both the state and social
  movements.
• The state should acknowledge private employers
  responsibility for eroding social protection as a
  serious concern and raise the awareness of
  employers of the productivity-lowering effects of
  poor employment practices.
• Responsibility for social provision for informal
  workers needs to be shared by the state and
  employers however at present the stakeholders
  with the least responsibility are the employers/
  owners of capital.
• Thank you