The informal sector workers in India: a precarious situation
(2022) SIMZ31 20221Graduate School
- Abstract
- Informal employment in the 21st century is increasingly prevalent across the world and becomes particularly insecure in the Global South. This thesis studies different aspects of the precarious nature of informal sector jobs in a specific district in India. The research is built upon the concept of precarity which refers to instability, vulnerability and the volatile essence of the informal labor sector. It is especially relevant for India as the majority of working people earn their living outside of the official, registered, regulated structures. Utilizing a recently created methodology called Employment Precarity Index this thesis studies how precarious are the jobs of informal workers in various professions as well as what kind of... (More)
- Informal employment in the 21st century is increasingly prevalent across the world and becomes particularly insecure in the Global South. This thesis studies different aspects of the precarious nature of informal sector jobs in a specific district in India. The research is built upon the concept of precarity which refers to instability, vulnerability and the volatile essence of the informal labor sector. It is especially relevant for India as the majority of working people earn their living outside of the official, registered, regulated structures. Utilizing a recently created methodology called Employment Precarity Index this thesis studies how precarious are the jobs of informal workers in various professions as well as what kind of support in terms of social security from the employers, the government and the civil society actors is available for them. The data is collected through 25 semi-structured online interviews with informal laborers and two professionals from two non-governmental organizations working with informal workers. The research shows that informal jobs are indeed highly insecure and the scope of benefits that employees receive from the government and the employers are insufficient. Most informal workers in the sample are casual laborers. They usually earn small incomes and cannot work full time because the jobs are not regular. Lack of employment consistency is one of the biggest issues they have. They are also particularly vulnerable to external shocks such as the current pandemics because they do not have much savings, support from the government or other employment options as most of them are not educated, often even without a high school level of schooling. Due to the mentioned reasons as well as other variables the odds of having a dignified life are stacked against them. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9088133
- author
- Bubnys, Aleksandras LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SIMZ31 20221
- year
- 2022
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- informal sector in India, precarity, thematic analysis, social security, Employment Precarity Index
- language
- English
- id
- 9088133
- date added to LUP
- 2022-06-23 10:53:59
- date last changed
- 2022-06-23 10:53:59
@misc{9088133,
abstract = {{Informal employment in the 21st century is increasingly prevalent across the world and becomes particularly insecure in the Global South. This thesis studies different aspects of the precarious nature of informal sector jobs in a specific district in India. The research is built upon the concept of precarity which refers to instability, vulnerability and the volatile essence of the informal labor sector. It is especially relevant for India as the majority of working people earn their living outside of the official, registered, regulated structures. Utilizing a recently created methodology called Employment Precarity Index this thesis studies how precarious are the jobs of informal workers in various professions as well as what kind of support in terms of social security from the employers, the government and the civil society actors is available for them. The data is collected through 25 semi-structured online interviews with informal laborers and two professionals from two non-governmental organizations working with informal workers. The research shows that informal jobs are indeed highly insecure and the scope of benefits that employees receive from the government and the employers are insufficient. Most informal workers in the sample are casual laborers. They usually earn small incomes and cannot work full time because the jobs are not regular. Lack of employment consistency is one of the biggest issues they have. They are also particularly vulnerable to external shocks such as the current pandemics because they do not have much savings, support from the government or other employment options as most of them are not educated, often even without a high school level of schooling. Due to the mentioned reasons as well as other variables the odds of having a dignified life are stacked against them.}},
author = {{Bubnys, Aleksandras}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The informal sector workers in India: a precarious situation}},
year = {{2022}},
}