Informal Workers

The Delhi government has raised the minimum wages of workers in the unorganised sector, saying this will be a respite for them from inflation

There is a growing aspirational shift in the mindset of female representatives in the informal workforce, as a significant percentage of women said they are ready to compromise on higher salaries in lieu of health benefits, according to a survey. As per the survey by business service provider Quess Corp, 63 per cent of women in the Indian informal economy would compromise on salaries for health security benefits, compared to only 28 per cent of men. For the report, 4,179 respondents were surveyed between September 2022 and January 2023. For an increasing proportion of female employees, job security, training and career development are becoming absolute priorities even beyond the contents of their pay slips, it said. "We must acknowledge the value and contribution of women to India's informal formal economy, while simultaneously acknowledging that their requirements have now evolved. "India Inc must invest in training and skill development for better employability of women, helpin

Over 94% of 276.9 million informal sector workers registered on the e-Shram portal have a monthly income of Rs 10,000 or below and over 74% of the enrolled workforce belongs to SC, ST and OBC

What is the gig economy and who are gig workers?

Pandemic disrupted the markets' dream run and led to loss of lakhs of jobs in the informal sector. But it also gave rise to jobs in the gig economy. Find out more about this sector and its workers

What does the informal sector want from Budget 2022?

The pandemic proved to be devastating for the informal sector. Its representatives asked FM Nirmala Sitharaman to extend support in the upcoming Budget. Take a peek into the condition of this sector

TMS Ep90: Two-wheelers, informal sector, markets, Fiscal Deficit

What has derailed India's two-wheeler growth story? What does the informal sector want from Budget? What will drive index heavyweight RIL's Q3 earnings? What is Fiscal Deficit? All answers here

The portal is the first-ever national database of unorganised workers, including migrant workers, construction workers, gig and platform workers

A recently released report that says India's informal sector has shrunk, raises more questions that it answers

More than 2.5 million unorganised workers have registered on the e-Shram portal, the labour ministry said.

Workers registered on the portal would be given accidental insurance cover

While the informal sector has been affected more severely than the formal, it is also resilient and can revive quickly, say experts

The count of the unemployed mounted to 38.7 million in December 2020 compared to 27.4 million in November, registering a massive increase of 11.3 million

The US has committed $1.9 million to support vulnerable populations like informal sector workers whose livelihoods have been disrupted due to Covid-19

The issue is whether the annual survey should change the sample every time as is done currently when this survey comes out after a gap of five years

Contributions towards pension rose as new subscriber growth fell in April-July

The romanticism around employment-generating and cost-cutting characteristics of these informal firms have made us believe that informality is forced by excessive cost of regulation

The migrant workers' crisis is also the tra­gedy of contract workers, who have been growing in numbers over the years

If the government is serious about standing with the migrant workers, then it cannot leave them to the vagaries of unequal negotiations with employers.

Report points to the possibility of grains being hoarded by farmers and traders to be sold at a later date when mandi operations and logistics normalise

In India, with a share of almost 90% of people working in the informal economy, about 400 million workers in the informal economy are at risk of falling deeper into poverty during the crisis