Undervalued and forgotten

Anisha Rajapakse

Today over 80 per cent of all employed persons in India make a living by working in the informal sector as cited recently by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The vast majority of women who work in India are informal workers. 2012 data indicate that 95 per cent of women work in the informal sector. A large section of women workers fall into this ‘informal’ sector category – that part of the economy that covers all major sectors and industries, where workers have no legal recognition or protection and often work without formal contracts in poor conditions, including at home, and for low wages. They are not counted into standard labour force and employment indicators. These are the ‘invisible’ women workers in India.

Women continue to remain concentrated in “invisible” areas of informal work, which includes domestic labour, piece-rate homework/sub contract work from factories and support to small family enterprises. In parts of India such as Karauli in rural Rajasthan, it is a common sight to see old and young women engaging in intensive backbreaking work such a carrying stone/granite slabs on their heads, heavy loads of firewood and large casks of water, irrespective of their physical capacity and long-term health repercussions. They are paid just a pittance and exploited by their employer and even by their husbands/family. They are poor women with little or no literacy, the majority given away in marriage often at a very young age. They lack any recourse to challenge their status quo or simply to ensure that their rights and dignity are protected, and remain invisible and voiceless. These are not ‘decent’ work options for these vulnerable women as they offer no recognition, affords little or no legally stated remuneration, invariably no access to social security or protection, and lacks the where with all to even consider ways to organise to ensure their rights. The realm of the enforcement of international labour standards and human rights could not be more removed from their orbit.

What kind of exploitation is more prevalent in this sector?

On an average, informal workers earn far less than formal workers and receive no benefits or protection. Today, the transitional direction for employment in many developing countries is not from ‘informal’ to ‘formal’ but it is from ‘formal’ to ‘informal’. The standard jobs are increasingly turned into non-standard jobs. Many enterprises are on trend to being downsized or closed and as a result the retrenched workers are forced to take up informal activities to sustain themselves and their families. This situation is further compounded by the absence of any single definition of the informal/ unorganised sector in India despite

Exploitation of these women is rife as they are often on short-term contracts or on an informal basis, and are unable to challenge low pay, long hours or safety issues. If we focus for example on the apparel industry in India, based on the data by Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) and the ILO, a conservative calculation puts the number of informal garment and textile workers to be 35 per cent that of those formally employed in the sector, the majority being women workers. It is a widely held understanding that this industry in particular, exploits the economic inequality that exists between male and female workers.

Job insecurity has serious and long-term effects on the wellbeing of these women workers and that of their families. Those in precarious work are more likely to be in poverty. Without representation or workplace rights, workers are more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, as well as health and safety violations. This affects both physical and mental health. With no guarantees of income, workers are unable to plan for their families’ future, affecting decisions such as whether to pay for schooling for their children.

With the increasing numbers of women joining the work force in India, there is renewed focus about working conditions, the casualisation of work and a ‘Feminisation of Labour’. Women’s employment in the official and recognised sphere of the formal economy has to be the desired aim of any economic policy directed at women workers. However while the percentage of women employed in the informal economy remains high, the number of Indian women engaged in formal, secure and recognized labour is still minimal.

Roadmap for improving working conditions for women in the informal sector

The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution, and a number of

policies and programmes for the empowerment of women have existed in the country for a long time. A special focus on the welfare of women was laid through Five Year Plans in India. The Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012–2017), which was intended to achieve faster, sustainable and more inclusive growth, placed priority on ending of gender-based inequalities. Discrimination and violence were regarded as overriding priority areas. Although various programmes and policies have been made by the government for the development as well as empowerment of women, there are many areas of concern that government need to pay attention towards uplifting the status of women. Especially those ‘invisible’ women that contribute to the economy.

What these women workers need most urgently is recognition and the opportunity to be heard and counted. By enabling them become change agents it helps the whole country on its development trajectory. It will end the cycle by which their daughters can be educated and become gainfully employed, respected and protected.  Factors such as child labour will be contained as the women workers will be empowered and confident in their ability to educate their children through a stable income, women will be empowered to break free from situations of domestic and workplace violence and abuse. The benefits are endless.

It is possible to facilitate this change, and it is happening, albeit slowly. In several cities in India, home-based workers have received basic infrastructure support to improve their homes-cum-workplaces. Street vendors have been allocated vending sites by some local municipalities. And waste pickers, among the most maligned of informal workers, have received contracts from local municipalities to collect, sort and recycle waste as that is a much-needed service.

A good example of how women are capable of improving their own situation is via Women’s Collectives. These provide a platform for women to come together irrespective of the formal or informal nature of their work.

Several international and national agencies including the UN are also contributing to uplifting the condition of women workers in India’s informal sector. Measures that are making a difference include capacity building of women by training them in traditional and non-traditional vocational skills and soft as well as building entrepreneurial skills; that in turn enables employment opportunities including self-employment options. Furthermore, there needs to be concerted awareness raising and multi-stakeholder interventions between government, private sector and civil society that will leverage each sector’s resources, in steps large and small, that may be replicable throughout the country.

Given that many of the underlying causes for inequality and discrimination are inherently woven into the cultural and traditional mindsets, it is critical that planned interventions are designed in a manner that will facilitate sustaining behavioural change by those who view the role of women with a stereotypical or narrow lens. Failure to be mindful of this will only result in ad-hoc approaches that will be a waste of valuable resources and only bring about fleeting results that are short-lived.

In the Indian context, rather than applying a generalized term such as the ‘feminization of labour’, it would be more adequate to talk about a feminization of casual labour, and of informal labour. Women workers in India, despite rising numbers, still remain largely invisible and their work unrecognized. This situation will continue as long as they are not integrated into the formal economy.

To mark this year’s International Women’s Day, let’s reinforce our efforts to make India’s invisible women workers be ‘visible’. India’s great invisible workforce will remain in the shadows until the government makes a concerted commitment to bring these women into the light.

—The writer is senior strategy adviser —  Social Sustainability and Business & Human Rights