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In developing countries like India, the majority of the workforce is informal. There is no specific study about the important factors that influence the consumption expenditure of informal workers working in urban areas. The purpose of this paper, thus, is to identify the determinants of the consumption expenditures of urban informal workers, and the same is explored with respect to migration and gender. In this regard, a primary survey was conducted at the household level of the informal sector workers following the method of multi‐stage stratified sampling. The method of analysis of variance and a binary logistic regression model is employed. The inferences of the study explained that the expenditure pattern of the informal worker depends on socio‐economic factors—age group, income level and essential commodities like milk, kerosene, oil and child education. The study also highlights the fact that the informal workers are dragged into the web of a vicious circle of poverty due to a higher level of consumption expenditure than income and demonstrates the effect of betel‐tendu leaf mini cigarette‐tobacco‐alcohol. Hence, it is desirable that the policymakers should frame a regulated subsidised pricing policy for essential commodities as well as increase the minimum wage rate in order to strengthen the basic consumption expenditure of the informal workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "alternative", "atypical" or "informal" workforce has grown in developed and developing countries alike. One of the more recent evolutions of informal employment has been of informal employment within formal enterprises. In the interest of flexibility and cost‐reduction, many formal firms increasingly resort to hiring workers on a temporary or informal basis. Alongside, and perhaps, as a result of the persistence and pervasiveness of informal employment, issues relating to inequality have come to the fore. This paper is motivated by these two intertwining aspects of Indian labor market—informality and wage inequality. Using nationally representative sample data, the paper examines trends in wage inequality among various forms of informal workers, overlaying these findings with broader trends in inequality. Using a regression based inequality decomposition, the paper compares the sources of wage inequality across different employment groups and the reasons for differences in wage inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 crisis has translated into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis for the poor and marginalized groups in society. The countrywide lockdowns, quarantine measures, and mobility restrictions across 200 countries of the world have resulted in a host of negative manifestations for women. There have been unprecedented losses in the informal economy, which is dominated by women. Some scholars also contend that the pandemic will translate into heightened burden of unpaid domestic work, loss of economic autonomy and disruption to maternal health services. Despite these factors a gendered perspective is absent in the policy response to this crisis. It is against this background that the present paper employed a feminist intersectionality lens to conduct participatory field based research on the lived experiences of women in informal employment in Indian Punjab during the COVID‐19 crisis. The research unearthed the specific pathways through which existing socio‐economic inequities rooted in caste, class and occupational entities magnify the vulnerabilities experienced by women during such a health crisis. The research offers a contextualized framework for understanding the gendered impacts of the crisis. It also highlights the urgency of taking account of gender specific constraints during the health crisis so as to institute robust, effective and equitable policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence for three decades or more indicates that wage inequality has consistently increased in most labour market segments in India. This paper focuses on how informalisation, migration, segmentation, and social discrimination, which operate most significantly at the lower end of the labour market, have contributed to well-being deficits and rising labour market inequality. There is a large and growing wage gap between formal and informal workers in the organised sector after controlling for other characteristics of the workers. On average, workers who are allocated formal or informal work in the organised sector have very similar characteristics. Across both formal and informal work, while education and experience improves wages, female and low-social-status workers have lower wages, controlling for other characteristics. This paper argues that seasonal and circular labour migrants form a growing segment of the informally employed. Poor and low-caste workers form a disproportionate proportion of such workers. Seasonal/circular migrant workers usually form the lowest rung of labour at organised sector work sites. They are segmented and fragmented by the recruitment process and along lines of caste, sex, ethnicity, language and region. This segmentation and fragmentation creates the basis for capital to acquire low-cost, highly flexible labour, who work long hours and take up the most dangerous work. This paper shows that the process of labour segmentation in Indian labour markets builds on well-entrenched processes of social discrimination but has assumed new forms as the workforce has become more mobile and informalised. Gender-based labour segmentation builds on the culturally determined social reproduction responsibilities of female workers and other socio-cultural factors. This paper concludes that while the above processes are linked to the underlying dynamics of capitalist growth in India, more equitable labour market outcomes at the bottom of the pyramid can be achieved through the provision of suitable social protection, sensible labour market regulation and a more comprehensive anti-discrimination framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The critics of pro-worker labor laws argue that employment protection legislation (EPL) hurts productivity and employment generation by creating rigidity in employment adjustments. The discourse on labor market rigidity has taken center stage in this neo-liberal phase of the global economy and is now being echoed by the state as well. However, the sharp growth in informal employment over the last two decades, cutting across developing as well as developed countries, puts a question mark over the tenability of the “flexibility thought” invoked by employers while demanding abrogation of job security legislation. In this study, we argue that there exists a substantial flexibility in contemporary labor markets. Using a panel dataset on twenty-eight industrial sectors across thirteen major states of India for the period 1999-2000 to 2007-2008, we find that EPL does not affect total factor productivity of industries. The impact of EPL is not significant even in highly volatile industries. The paper underlines the failure of the state to translate EPL into meaningful job security. The findings of this study suggest that the debates on labor regulations must be expanded to bring into its focus the issues of growing informalization and its consequences on workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the position of women footwear homeworkers, using global production networks as a conceptual lens. Using qualitative data collected in India during 2011 to 2014, it illustrates the asymmetry of power between network actors and attests to the poverty, invisibility and lack of acknowledgement and representation characterising leather footwear homework. It represents leather footwear homeworkers as working from the margins of these networks, with weak links to most other actors in the networks. The paper interrogates how marginalised and informal workers might increase their agency and participation capacity in global production networks, and proposes that this can occur through support and organising undertaken by appropriate non-governmental organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of this paper is to look at the trends and pattern of changes in women's employment structure over years (1983–2018) consequent upon the structural changes in the Indian economy. It also attempts to analyse the quality of women's labour in terms of select parameters. The study finds that there is neither quantitative nor qualitative improvement in women's employment over time on account of structural changes in the economy. There is no 'U' curve of female labour supply in response to GDP growth and expansion of female literacy, implying that economic growth has not generated adequate jobs for women. It also signifies that women's entry or exit of labour market is influenced by non-economic factors also. There is no major occupational diversification in women's employment despite structural shift of the economy from primary to tertiary sector. Agriculture is still the leading sector in women's employment. The study further reveals that the quality of women's labour is poor. Overcrowding of workforce in agriculture largely as wage labourers, lower earnings, poor literacy levels, large-scale informal employment and most self-employment in the form of unpaid work are indications of women's disadvantaged position in the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a developing country like India, the formal sector is a coveted employment destination. However, in the present scenario, the formal sector is unable to absorb the entire workforce. In view of these labour demand constraints in the formal sector, this paper sets out to explore the opportunities for the promotion of informal sector employment. It measures employment trends and patterns in the informal sector in India and estimates the sector's employment determinants using a large and nationally representative sample of individual data. The estimation also tests the hypothesis that the determinants of informal sector employment vary with the states’ development levels. Our findings reveal that individuals without any general or technical education have a greater probability of entering the informal sector. As education increases, this probability decreases in all the states irrespective of their development level. In some cases, results for the underdeveloped states contrast with the developing and developed states. For instance, individuals in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category who always stay in the same employment catchment area have a greater probability of finding a job in the informal sector in the developed and developing states, while they have no exposure to finding a job in the informal sector in the underdeveloped states. Education (both general and technical) and migration are the main policy variables for the promotion of employment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses whether liberalisation has moderated or aggravated India's employment problems. Since the Modi government's election in 2014 and the introduction of the flagship "Make in India" policy, various government officials and academics have argued that India's employment situation has improved and is showing promising signs of growth and development. However, in this article, it is argued that India's liberalisation policies have generated numerous problems: employment has delinked from GDP growth due to the increasing financialisation of accumulation; job growth is equal to or below labour force growth; and informalisation is increasing. A structural shift is occurring in India and is causing rural–urban migration due to increased agricultural input costs, reverse tenancy and the mechanisation of agriculture without the creation of new employment. This has led to a redistribution of existing employment in the urban informal sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In urban informal economies, waste-pickers increasingly face threat to their livelihoods due to the rapid emergence of formal systems of waste collection and lack of adequate public policies for their welfare. In this context, the study explores livelihood conditions of domestic waste-pickers and their occupational and educational mobility in Chandigarh, which is often referred as one of most well-planned cities of India. Using a semi-structured schedule, a field-based survey of the waste-pickers brings out that waste-pickers are the migrant workers from adjoining states and work as waste-pickers mainly due to non-availability of alternative employment opportunities. Employment in waste-picking is characterized by informal service charge fixation purely through interaction between house-owners and waste-pickers, where their low bargaining power leads to a surprisingly low level of income with significant variations due to gender. Child labour, even though disguised, also tends to exist. The study reveals unsafe working conditions, awful health conditions and unpleasant living conditions of the waste-pickers along with trivial upward educational mobility and no upward occupational mobility. The analysis presents a classic case of failure of both market and state in delivering optimum economic welfare to waste-pickers even in case of well-planned and highly urbanized city such as Chandigarh of India and demands immediate public policy intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Alternative Politics / Alternatif Politika is the property of Alternatif Politika and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Measured by the number of workers and work seekers, that is, the labour force, there has been a decline in the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) in the Indian economy during the last decade or more. But this story has been complicated by an increase in the LFPR between 1999-2000 and 2004-05, and then a decline during 2004-05 and 2009-10, resulting in a situation of almost jobless growth during a period of high economic growth. This result has been arrived at on the basis of Usual Principal and Subsidiary Status (UPSS). By deploying another measurement--Usual Principal Status (UPS)--and restricting to the age group of 15-59 years, a different interpretation of job-creating economic growth has been put forward by one of the scholars. Further, a net transfer of workers from the unorganised (informal) to the organised (formal) sector has been hailed as the advent of a 'virtuous circle' in the Indian economy insofar as the growth--employment interaction is concerned. This paper dissects this transfer and finds that the increase in employment in the organised sector has been mostly of an informal kind, that is, without employment or social security provided by the employer. It further goes into this phenomenon of informalisation of employment in the formal sector and examines the plight of these 'informal workers' in the formal sector. The labour control regime and its attendant oppressive working conditions are examined to determine the quality of this employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper provides comparative analyses across women’s employment-status groups to examine how processes of exclusion and constrained and adverse inclusion shape different women’s labor market opportunities and outcomes in Lucknow, India. It examines under what conditions, if at all, women’s labor contributes to household-poverty reduction and for which work types paid employment leads to increased voice for women in the household, one dimension of a process of empowerment. It finds that women’s labor force participation has a meager influence on household and individual level development outcomes largely due to the inter-related processes of exclusion and inclusion, where social norms and responsibilities for reproductive work can lead to constrained inclusion in the labor market, adversely affecting women’s terms of incorporation. The findings have relevance for programming focusing on improving the range and quality of choices for women in the paid economy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The present study contributes to the limited literature on the assessment of job quality (JQ) in India. In doing so, it acknowledges the close relationship between JQ, informality and worker wellbeing. We propose an alternative method of defining informality by distinguishing workers based on multiple dimensions of JQ. Our empirical exercise is guided by the capabilities framework as developed by Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum, among others. The study uses the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data for the three years 2004–05, 2009–10 and 2011–12. Cluster analysis is used to distinguish workers into good-quality and bad-quality jobs. We also apply the fuzzy set theory to compare the JQ of formal and informal workers under different dimensions. Our results indicate a significant overlap in the trends and determinants of informality under alternative definitions. Further, we find extensive work-based insecurities among the informally employed, especially among specific segments of the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Development Research is the property of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

It is often claimed that industrial restructuring leads to diminished roles for trade unionism and other forms of labour organisations by informalising employment and relocating production. Drawing on selected case studies from long-term fieldwork in regions of India, this article shows that trajectories of industrial restructuring and the responses by organised labour over the past two decades have been diverse. It is argued that the diverse response not only reflects structural opportunities and constraints for labour to be organised in particular ways, but also different histories and experiences of labour association. Contrary to the presumption about the general demise of trade unionism and the apparent unattainability of class solidarity in contemporary globalised capitalism, it is observed that India’s labour movement is experiencing a degree of resurgence, and new forms of labour organisations and activism are emerging, especially involving informal workers in the formal sector. That these innovative forms of mobilisation are shaped by experiences and aspirations that do not conform to the established institutionalised frameworks for dispute resolution has important policy and political implications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

India has a labour force of 460 million, and 93% of this is in informal employment. Formal sector workers have permanent employment and they get social security. The informal sector does not provide any of these facilities to its workers. The Indian trade union movement has a history of more than 85 years, but it covers mainly workers in formal employment. They also have strong links with political parties, which tend to dominate their functioning. With splits in political parties (especially in the post-independence period beginning in 1947) or the emergence of new ones, trade unions become divided. At present there are eight national federations and several more that are not recognised. The other weakness of trade unions is that, with the exception of SEWA, they are based in the formal sector. SEWA is the only trade union for women in informal employment. These two features are hindering the development of the working class. At the same time we need to stress that trade unions alone can effectively provide protection and strength to the working class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]