Labour Law II

SYNOPSIS
WOMENS IN UNORGANISED SECTOR IN INDIA

Abstract
This research project deals with the women workers in unorganised sector of economy in
India. Women labour is an important segment of the total labour force in India. Women
represent 50 percent of the total adult population and one third of the labour force of India.
They perform nearly two- third of all working hours and receive only one-tenth world income.
Women work longer hours than men in every country. More than 90 percent of the working
women in India are engaged as wage labourers in the unorganised sector, many of them
belong to the economically poor, socially backward, and oppressed section of the society.
Mostly they are from backward caste communities. Most of them bear the brunt of poverty,
homelessness, underemployment and destitution. Many of these women workers are primary
earners for their families. Studies reveal that the women workers in the unorganised sector
face the problems of sex discrimination at the workplace, wage discrimination, poor
working conditions, dual work burden, lack of training, education and skill, job
insecurity, low wages, health problems and so on, which are most common.1
The term unorganized refers to the vast numbers of women and men engaged in different
forms of employment. These forms include home-based work e.g. rolling papads and beedis,
self-employment e.g., selling vegetables, employment in household enterprises, small units,
on land as agricultural workers, labour on construction sites, domestic work, and many other
forms of casual or temporary employment. The unorganized sector is physically more visible
in India. It is found in almost all the industrial segments of the Indian economy, that is, in
agriculture, industry, household and the services sectors. India, the formal sector which
received significantly large resources has failed to provide employment to the growing labour
force, resulting in the problem of labour force explosion. Under these circumstances the
surplus labour force has been forced to generate its own means of income and employment.

KEYWORDS: Female labour, Household, Employment, Income.

1 Padma. 2002. Women workers in India in the 21st century-Unemployment and

underemploymenthttp://www.cpiml.org/liberation/year_2004/february/WomenWorkers.htm ,last accessed on 04.3.2017
Research Objectives
The main objective of the researcher is:

To examine the level of women labour participation in the informal services.

To analyse the household, socio- economic, health, problems, vulnerabilities and
working conditions of female labours.

Research Questions
Whether the women in unorganised sector are facing any kind of problems or not?
Whether the laws or statues made by legislatures have some positive applicability to
secure the rights of women working in unorganised sectors?
What will be the remedial strategies to improve the conditions of women working in
unorganised sector?

Review of Literature

Article

Padma. 2002. Women workers in India in the 21st century-Unemployment and

underemployment.
http://archive.cpiml.org/liberation/year_2004/febraury/WomenWorkers.htm , last accessed on
04.3.2017

This article talks about the women workers in the unorganised sector. They face the
problems of sex discrimination at the workplace, wage discrimination, poor working
conditions, dual work burden, lack of training, education and skill, job insecurity,
low wages, health problems and so on, which are most common.

Kushagra Trivedi
BC0140032