WOMEN IN THE INFORMAL ECONOMY IN INDIA Remuneration, protection and duality of the labour market

What is it about?

The present paper looks at the women’s work, and wages in India. We argue that since women are more employed in the unorganised sector their wages are low without any benefit of the organised sector. All this has led to India being ranked very low. The pandemic has further worsened this situation. A large number of women working has been a global phenomenon in developed and developing world. Women working enhance their status and also lead to empowerment. If there are more women in employment it will also lead to the reduction of poverty. In India more women are found in the unorganized or informal sector than the organized sector. Businesses that operate under established norms and regulations are said to be part of the “organised sector“. We can receive reliable information about the standing of workers in this sector because it is governed by defined norms and regulations for hiring, retirement, promotion, layoffs, social security, maternity leave, child care facilities, etc. However, a large number of women remain concentrated in ‘invisible’ areas of informal jobs, such as domestic work, piece rate work, household chores and assistance in small family enterprises providing very poor and uncertain employment status, low pay and little or no access to social security, to safety, and minimal organizational ability to ensure the compliance of international labour and human rights standards. Around the world, women either earn low earnings or provide for their families without compensation. India scored 66.8 percent on the Global Gender Gap Index, ranking 112th position of the 152 countries studied, a markedly wider gap since 2006 (World Economic Forum, 2019). Despite this improvement, the condition of women in India remains precarious as India has fallen four positions below its previous position

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Why is it important?

Wages in India are a subject that is beginning to be increasingly studied and the ILO devoted a special issue to this subject in 2018. Four points emerge from this research. First of all (1), the Indian economy and wage structure remain very strongly dualistic, with a considerable informal sector made up of small businesses and low incomes in precarious working conditions and a minority but compact formal sector where establishments are larger, wages and working conditions moredecent and more regulated. A set of mixed situations, consisting of partial useof the two sectors by the same companies with complex subcontracting systems, seems to have developed since the 1990s. Then (2), it became clear that women were primarily employed in the informal sector and made up the majority of this precarious workforce. This has had significant consequences on household income, the consideration of women in society, the schooling of girls and the health of the female population in general. India (3) still has a significant gender pay gap, placing it at the bottom of the Global Gender Gap Index. The growth of the service economy, whether qualified or not, is favorable to women who could be less discriminated against than in agriculture or industry with the possibility of faster promotion thanks to qualifications and studies. Access to intermediate and higher diplomas is an opportunity for young Indian women: becoming a nurse, lawyer, teacher, technician, bank manager, doctor, would allow them to acquire social respect and better remuneration, which would then be beneficial for their own children, especially girls. The demand of the global economy is increasingly moving towards professions equipped with knowledge and autonomy. It is a real structural and long term opportunity The 2020-22 pandemic (4) was difficult for India’s large and often dense population, particularly in poor urban neighborhoods, but it also appeared to be gendered. Women were more affected than men. Overall, the salary of women in India constitutes a real challenge for future generations, even if real elements of convergence of the situation of women with the average situation of the population have appeared since the years 1990-2000. This is the time to turn the inequities of unpaid care work into a modern, equitable care system that works for all; and to develop socioeconomic policies with a deliberate emphasis on women’s and girls’ lives and futures. If we put women and girls at the center of economic decision-making, we’ll all benefit from speedier economic recovery and be one step closer to achieving Sustainable Development. The growing economies of South Asia will need to ‘ride out’ the economic downturn following the epidemic, therefore it is important to balance efforts to increase the participation of women in the workforce