2. INFORMAL WORKERS
• The persons engaged in very small-scale or causal
self-employment activities
• Own-account workers working in their own
informal enterprise
• Unregistered or undeclared workers for formal or
informal firms
• Worker producing goods exclusively for own final
use by their household
Persons employed in private households
3. _430 million of unorganized workers
_Generates 62 per cent of the GDP
_40 percent of national exports
_Over 94% of the total workforce
_64% of informal workers are in
agriculture sector
4. SOME CHALLENGES
_To provide a unique identity to all informal
workers
_Designing of efficient delivery mechanisms
_The finance to secure various programmes
_Emphasis on cost-effective and targeted
interventions
_Improve working conditions – health and safety
_Designing of new and more effective social safety
measures
_ Improving socio-economic conditions including
illiteracy and level of awareness in critical areas
5. ROLE OF WOMEN
Despite the fact that women are active
agents shaping the prospects for
development of countries in global ‘South’,
consideration of their productive role in the
informal economy is still lacking from
development discourse , policy and practice.
Women in India are participating in
informal market under precarious terms,
irrespective of their rights as citizens and
workers.
6. INITIATIVES AND MODELS
_Centrally funded social assistance
programmes
_Food Security Initiatives
_Social assistance through welfare funds
_Social Insurance and Pension Measures
_Public initiatives
_Legislative Interventions and Initiatives on
Social Security
7. • Mid Day Meals Scheme (MDMS), 1995
• Community Grain Bank Scheme, 1996
• Annapurna Scheme, 2000
• Antyodaya Anna Scheme, 2000
• Janshree Bima Yojana, 2000
• Krishi Samajik Suraksha Yojana, 2001
• Varishta Pension Bima, 2003
• Unorganised Sector Workers Social Security Scheme,
2004
• Universal Health Insurance Scheme, 2004
FOOD SECURITY AND SOCIAL INSURANCE
8. Initiatives on Social Security
• National Rural Employment Guarantee
(NREG) Act, 2005
• The Right to Information (RTI)Act,
2005
• NCEUS Report on Social Security, 2006
NCEUS: Collection of Premium and
Delivery of Benefits
• Second National Commission on
Labour, 1999-2002
9. THE NEXT STEPS
_Engaged special study group on social security
_Provided outline for an umbrella legislation
_Unemployment insurance scheme and national
scheme for unemployment relief
_Expansion of coverage of welfare funds
_National widow pension scheme
_Comprehensive plan for social protection of
disabled
10. CONCLUSION
On the whole, there is an increased recognition of
social security concerns of informal sector labour
in India, which is evident from:
_Designing and implementation of right-based
social security systems
_Introduction of enabling governance structures
_Involvement of other stakeholders and social
partners, including the beneficiaries
11. REFERENCES
Bhalla Sheila (2007), “Policy Paper On Definitional and
Statistical Issues Relating to Unorganised and Workers in
Informal Employment”, NCEUS
Bhalla, S. (2003). The Restructuring of the Unorganized
Sector in India
Government of India (2002) Report of the National
Commission on Labour, New Delhi.
Goswami, Paromita. (2009). A Critique of the Unorganized
Workers’ Social security Act
Kundu, A. and Sharma, A.N. (eds) (2001), “Informal Sector
in India: Perspectives and Policies”, Institute of Human
Development, Delhi.
