Chapter 2

Socio – Economic Condition of unorganised labour

Workers Socio-Economic Status (SES) is an amalgamation of an individual’s
economic and sociological standing. It is a complex evaluation which measures
various factors that includes a person’s work experience, economic and social
position in comparison to others, based on income, occupation and education.
The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics(Frawley & Asmonga,
1997) has provided following recommendations to judge the socio –
economicstatus of individual or society1

Socio – Economic Condition of unorganised labour

Socio-Economic Status (SES) is an amalgamation of an individual’s economic
and sociological standing. It is a complex evaluation which measures various
factors that includes a person’s work experience, economic and social position
in comparison to others, based on income, occupation and education. The
National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics(Frawley & Asmonga, 1997)
has provided following recommendations to judge the socio – economicstatus
of individual or society2

Social Security and Other Measures to Improve the

Condition of Unorganized Workers
According to ILO decent work, the indicators for social security are, “all measures that
provide benefits, whether in cash or in kind, to secure protection, from (a) lack of work-
related income (or insufficient income) caused by sickness, disability, maternity,
employment injury, unemployment, old age, or death of a family member; (b) lack of access
or unaffordable accessto health care; (c) insufficient family support, particularly for children
and adult dependents; (d) general poverty and social exclusion”. The above- mentioned
definition gives a comprehensive view of social security which should be provided by the
government of each nation to give security to their citizens thus enhancing the well-being of
the people. Social security is a net which safeguards the well-being of individuals when they
are unproductive due to illness, maternity, uncertainty or old age and also provides job
security. However, the social security in case of unorganized workers is extremely poor or
even negligible. “I would divide them into unorganized producers and unorganized workers.
For the unorganized producers, social security lies in 86 guaranteed access to resources,
access to the commons, protected market channels and infrastructure support. For the
unorganized workers, social security lies in regulated employment, minimum wages and job
security”(Nayak, 2005).3
Conclusion

Piecemeal worker under unorganized sector is categorized under

subcontracted home-based workers commonly known as
homeworkers. The concept of unorganized worker since its inception
in 1971 has been researched by various scholars, however, no
common definition has been reached due to heterogeneity that
exists in the sector. In case of homebased workers, it has been found
that the socio-economic condition of the workers, particularly of
women workers is precarious and low and the main reason
attributed to their condition is lack of education, poverty, low wages
and most significantly lack of legal provisions to protect the
piecemeal workers

REFRENCES

1. Bairagya, I., & Change, E. (2009). Kathmandu, Nepal,

September 23- 26, 2009. 0–15.
2. Naik, “ UNORGANISED Workers in India” New Delhi: Jawaharlal
Nehru University. Retrieved from
http://www.iariw.org/papers/2009/5a%20naik.pdf (assessed on 25
October 2015)
3. Goswami, 2009 critical evaluation of Unorganised Workers’ Social
Security Act, 2008 based on secondary data.