The unorganized sector covers approximately half of our country's GDP. This preponderance of unorganized workers occupies almost 90% of the national workforce. This sector is characterized by seasonal employment (in the agricultural sector), contractual work, lack of legislation on social security and social welfare, nor rights nor minimum wages. Lack of skills and education, few openings in the organized sector, ignorance of legal rights, poor quality of work and conditions of service, attract labor to the available vortex of the unorganized sector. Here they face problems such as poor health conditions, poor working life, harassment at work, inadequate and uneven wage structure, long hours of work, poor housing facilities, lack of security measures, Atrocities against women workers and lack of adequate education for the children.
India's labor force comprises 86% in the unorganized segment in 2004-05, of which the agricultural sector represented 64% of the unorganized sector (Reference: Fig. I, II and IV of Annex A ). The proportion of non-farm workers in the non-organized sector increased from 32% to 36% between 1999-2000 and 2004-05. In the non-agricultural sector, 72% of the workforce is disorganised. In non-agricultural workers, 50% of the workforce is struggling in production, transportation and related activities (Reference: Figure V, Annex A). Kerala, Delhi, Nagaland and Goa are among the states that have a high density of unorganized workers in India (Reference: Fig III, Annex A). In rural areas, 96.89% of the total female labor force is in the unorganized sector compared to 93.60% of the male labor force.
The organized sector has grown at a faster pace than the non-organized sector. However, there are significant differences in working conditions and benefits for workers in the organized and unorganized sector. The first important issue is to ensure minimum wages for workers. Compared with the organized sector, wages in the informal sector are not regularized. This has a negative impact on productivity by increasing transaction costs and training. The second major difference in regulation of the maximum working hours and the number of holidays. Non-payment of overtime is a very common phenomenon in the informal sector.
Another key differentiating factor in the formal and informal sector is healthy working conditions. Most industries that employ the informal workforce lack even the minimum requirement for a first aid kit. In addition, industries that are involved in hazardous working conditions such as carpet weaving, beedi winding, marine fishing and metal parts ideally need to ensure healthy minimum working conditions. Unorganized sectoral groups face extremely limited facilities for sanitation. Unorganized workers receive temporary residential shelters that lack minimal facilities.
Debt bondage is common in the informal sector. Migration, bonded labor and child labor often suffer from social exclusion of one kind or another. As a net result of these drawbacks, the informal sector labor force has no bargaining power.
While discrimination in the labor market often manifests itself in the definition of employment and in the reduction of remuneration, discrimination outside the labor market takes the form of a lower rate of participation in work.
The challenge is to transform the informal sector and reduce the gap between the formal and the informal by "leveling" the informal sector rather than "leveling" the formal sector.
It can be understood in the following video: