term ‘unorganized labour’ has been defined as The term those workers who have not been able to organize themselves in pursuit of their common common interests due to certain certain constraints like casual nature of employment, ignorance and illiteracy, small and scattered size of establishments, etc.
Total Employment – 45.9 crores Total Employment 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Organized sector
Unorganized sector
- wor workers kers suffer from cycles of excessiv excessivee seasonality of employment employment - lack of a formal employer-employee employer-employee relationship - absence of social security protection - Low legislative legisl ative protection due to scattered and dispersed dispers ed nature of
employment - Large-scale ignorance and illiteracy and limited exposure to the outside
world wor ld
- Occupation: Small and marginal farmers, landless landless agricultura agriculturall
labourers, share croppers, fishermen, those engaged in animal husbandry, in beedi rolling, labeling and packing, building and construction, collection collec tion of raw hides and skins, handlooms handloom s weaving weaving in rural areas, brick kilns and stone quarries, saw mills, oil mills, etc.
of head loads, drivers of animal driven vehicles, loaders, unloaders, etc.
- Service categories : Midwives, domestic workers, workers, barbers, vegetable
and fruit fr uit vendors, vendors, newspaper news paper vendors etc. etc.
- The Payment of Wages Act, 1936
- The Employees State Insurance Act, 1948 - The Plantation Labour Act, 1951 - The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 - The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 - The Personal Injuries (Compensation Insurance) Act, 1963
Agricultural worker Agricultural workerss constitut constitutee by by far far the largest largest segment of workers wor kers in the unorganiz unorganized ed sector sector.. They are dispersed, unorganized unorgani zed and generally have have poor bargaining power. Due to seasonal work they often have to migrate for alternative avenues av enues of employment in other oth er areas like construction etc. during off-season. Circumstances force many of them to borrow bo rrow funds, from time to time, from private sources sources either for consumption purposes(even purposes(e ven to maintain a subsistence level) or to to meet social obligations obligati ons (marriages, etc.) and some of them end up as bonded labourers.
Home Based Workers are those who are engaged in the production p roduction of goods or services ser vices for an employer or contractor in an arrangement wherebyy the whereb the work is carried out out at the place of the wor workers’ kers’ own choice, often the t he worker’s own home. The major occupations of the Home based workers are agarbatti makers, craft persons, handloom weaving, beedi Rolling, zari workers, work ers, papad makers makers,, cobblers, cobblers, lady lady tailors, tailors, carpenters carpenters,, etc. etc. The issues p roblems problems home b ased based workers are or are very very complex because of and the absence ofof any direct master-ser master-servant vant employeremployee relationship between b etween the home worker and the t he person or organization organizat ion for whom he works. The relationship being ambiguous and indefinite, the home worker is subjected to exploitation in various forms.
Construction Workers Workers are those workers generally engaged in
construction, alteration, repairs, maintenance or demolition, of or, or, in relation relat ion to, buildings, streets, stree ts, roads, railways, tramways, airfields, irrigation, drainage, embankment and navigation works, flood control works (including storm water drainage works), works), generation, generati on, etc
Constructi on workers Construction workers constitute one of the largest l argest categories of workers in the t he unorganized sector sector.. The duration of employment, quantum quant um of work (work (work pressure) and and arduousness arduousnes s differ from one extreme to another. another. Workers Work ers are prone to risks of accidents, accidents, are giv given en very low wages wag es
Migrant workers are those workers who moves from the place of birth/origin birth/ori gin or normal residence residen ce to to a new place of residence. resid ence. The majority of inter-district and interstate migrants are illiterate and belong b elong to the poorest sections of the th e society. society.
The intermediaries often exploit their helplessness by giving certain advance payments and forced them into a kind of bondage. They do not have a fixed place of work and keep shifting from one place to another. In the event of disputes, dis putes, they have little strength to withstand and to wait for the dispute to be resolved by the formal resolution reso lution machinery.