Plight of the Women Workers in Unorganized Sector—A Growing Challenge

Abstract

Ninety-three per cent of the total workers in India work in informal sector and one-third of that workforce comprises of women. Thus collectively, they account for ninety-six per cent of the female workforce in country. It is clearly evident that the informal sector provides livelihood for large number of women workers in India. The main reason for the employment of women in such large extent in the unorganized sector is due to their weaker bargaining power, low skills, ready to work for lower wages and lack of unionization. Majority of them are working in variety of occupations of unorganized sector such as pottery, agriculture, cotton and tea plucking, construction work, handlooms, domestic services and employment in household enterprises. These unorganized workers usually work as casual labour typically into intermittent jobs at very less wages. These workers face total lack of job security and zero social security protection net. They face extreme exploitation, resulting in long hours of work, unacceptable working conditions and occupational health hazards. As a woman in a vulnerable sector, she faces additional inequalities of because of gender. Discriminations like lesser wages, sexual harassment, the absence of maternity benefits, and poor nutrition and ill-health are very common. Even though government has passed few legislations protecting women’s employment,  these laws have not benefited these vulnerable women workers in many crucial areas, like health, maternal benefit and social security. In this backdrop, this paper unfolds the difficulties faced by women in unorganized sector, efforts by successive governments in ameliorating their problems and reasons for failure in achieving expected results. My paper also tries to analyse what can be the probable solution. Research methodology adopted in this paper is purely doctrinal.