Social Science Journal for Advanced Research

1. Introduction

Informal and formal sectors play an inseparable role in the development process of the nation. Generally an enterprise owned by a person or group of self-employed workers are considered as informal sector. Such entity engaged in the production or sale or providing service of any kind to the public would be with a number of maximum ten workers. The basic features of such sectors are easy access, smaller scale operation, local ownership, labour-intensivewith basic technical skills, lower employee benefit schemes etc.

Informal sector means an enterprise owned by individually or self-employed workers engaged in the production or sale or production providing service of any kind where the enterprise employs workers, the number of such workers is less than ten (Arjun K. Sengupta, 2008). The characteristic features of this sector are easy entry, smaller scaleoperation, local ownership, uncertain legal status, labour-intensive and operating using lower technology based methods, lower employee benefit schemes.

In India women population play a vital role in every sphere of the economy just as their counterpart. Still their participation in many spheres of the economy is pathetic. They are predominantly restricted to agriculture and informal sectors. The women working in informal sector are not included in the official list of people employed, low paying and not provided with any benefits. Despite the advances women have made in societies they continue facing discrimination and marginalization.

The COVID-19 pandemic severely affected all spheres of the economy, irrespective of gender, caste, location and nature of work. For majority of the population jobs are at risk due to COVID-19 outbreak. People are currently affected by loss of business due to lockdownsand restrictions implemented in various countries. Women are the major segment affected by these restrictions loss of businesses. As majority of them are employed in informal sector, the restriction associated with controlling the COVID-19 affected them to a great extent. Loss of job and shutting down small production units drained major source of income to them, who are in reality the major ones in upbringing the family.

Sagari Sahu studied the situation of weavers in Manipur found that COVID-19 pandemic has brought uncertainty to women workers lives.

As per Khema Sharma the restrictions on informal labourers from economic activities for social distancing, leads to serious impact on consumption demand as there is a fall in their purchasing capacity.

Diptirekha found that even though there is professional development in women’s status today, they still struggles with the harsh realities of discrimination, exploitation and violence in organizations, societal and family pressures and suffer from the bitter effects of the balancing act which she is expected to perform for handling work place and household works.

Hunt A observed that discriminatory social norms in different social groups limit women’s access to: property, assets and financial services; opportunities for education and skills development; and social protection.

Nayak suggested strong cultural norms may constrain women’s mobility outside the home in some regions, restricting them to low-paid home-based jobs. Strategies to empower women in the informal economy address these established norms, structures and imbalances in power and provide women with agency.

5. Women in Informal Sector

It is evident in census 2011 that 48.46 percentage of the population in the country comprised of women and about 25.67 percent of it is designated as workers. Most of them working in informal sectors and their socio-economic conditions are pathetic compared to the male counterparts. Economist like Lewis (1954) insisted that there should be a change in the working situation of women labours. A radical shift from domesticactivities to commercial activities areto be initiated to instil the process of economic development. Considerable changes took place in women’s engagement in the labour market. It is may be driven either by necessity or by the result of increasing educational status, changing social scenario and increased job opportunities. But the female participation ratio in the country is much higher in informal sector comparing to formal sector.

The virus spreads to others when an infected person come in contact with others and hence the need to prevent importation of infection in workplace settings. Government introduced many measures to prevent the spread of the contagious disease. The pandemic adversely affected different aspects of the human living. It also affected severe impactson different sectors of the economy, industries, healthcare sector and tourism were largely affected by the pandemic. The combined economicimpact willbe ofthe order of 7 - 8 trillion INR for different sectors. The condition of each sector was pathetic but particularly the informal sector are worst affected due to measures like physical distancing, lockdown, shut down of companies and industrial units, restrictions on transportations etc. The underprivileged people of the society, particularly the women are highly dependent on this sector and hence the workers have been trapped severely in crisis during the lockdown period. The main aspect of pandemic is that it has unfolded the reality of workers and their working conditions. Most of the workers are living miserably and are forced to survive under unsecured conditions. Women workforce, who are self-employed and casual workers are immediately affected by loss of wages or earnings by the lockdown and other restrictions

7. Empirical Analysis

Government implemented lock down to control the growing cases of corona virus two times in the country. In this process transport services, factories, all sorts of public and private offices have been closed, even the mobilisation came to a standstill. These restrictive measuresaffected the common people who were with the vulnerable jobs such as salespersons, menial labourers, domestic workers, housekeepingand other unskilled service workers. As many of these jobs are performed mainly by women workers, they are worse affected throughout the last eighteen months especially during the lockdown period along with their families.

According to a new report Corona impact acutely affected employment, poverty alleviation activities, welfare schemes etc. Per-capita income and GDP and its growth declined drastically. This report also predicts 135 million job losses which resulted severe poverty in the country. The problem of growing unemployment may worsen the poverty in India.

It resulted in market mechanism of demand and supply as people are kept inside the house. Some products, basically agricultural products showed price shocks. Furthermore, the poor farmers faced heavy losses asmany harvested products are not demanded by consumers due to Covid-19 related restriction

7.2 Employment

Decline in income of the women in informal sector during the pandemic isconnected with job situations in the economy. Many women working in informal sectors experienced job loss or cut in their wages or decline in working days. Informal women labourers in agriculture, petty shops owners, Small scale Industrial Units owners, and women who are engaged in animal husbandry are considered as self-employed. The details of employment of sales girls, daily labourers, contract and casual labourers and domestic workers are considered for analysing the change in employment opportunities.

Table 2: Employment opportunities during Covid-19

Source: Primary Survey conducted among sample informal women

Most respondents both women entrepreneurs and daily labourers shared that they lost their jobs. Contract and casual women labourersexperienced a 70% decline in the average number of working days per month. It is 54% for sales girls, 53% for women domestic workers and 28% of daily labourers. Many responded that they remain in the same work even though there is decline in number of working days per month after Covid-19.Getting a job with good salary was not possible during this period. Many women entrepreneurs were struck by the restrictions of the government and decline in general business conditions

7.3 Agriculture and Rural Economic Activities

As the major activity in informal sector, agriculture is important in the country as significantportion of country’s population is dependent on this sector.

The table above explains responses of the sample with regard to sources and purpose of borrowing. Banks, cooperatives, SHG, private financial institutions from local money lenders are the major source of borrowing to them.Borrowing is made mainly to meet the expenseson education of children (67%) and to meet agriculture expenses (54%). Borrowing is also made for other expenses like maintaining the household activities (39%), medical expenses (46%), and for purchasing household appliances (15%).

7.5 Medical Expense and Health Insurance Coverage

Even prior to the pandemic, informal workers had limited access to quality and affordable healthcare. Being economically weaker, women labourers, usually prefer public health care facilities and services which are often overcrowded, inefficient, and in most cases distant from workplaces. The private health care system is seldom accessible as it is expensive. During Covid-19, informal workers have little access to reliable information on Covid-19 and to the process of accessing health services. Most of them are not registered to health insurance schemes, in some cases are not even aware about it. As the insurance coverage is not available, the huge Covid-19 related medical expenses are always burdensome to them.

7.6 Distribution of Respondent Health Issues and Concerns

Women in rural areas face lot health challenges as they are subjected to lack medical facilities, proper knowledge about timely medication, financial problems and the social stigma, shame or fear of revealing their illness.Women in rural areas are affected by lack of accessibility to primary and specialty care facilities. Chronic health issues, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer are also a concern in rural areas. Table given below shows the distribution of respondents who face health issues

In this section we try to address few questions on the impact of lockdown on women workers in terms of livelihoods, wages and workloads etc. with a gender lens.

• Women’s unpaid work burdens’ were amplified during the lockdown. This is mainly due to two main reasons 1) family members spending more time at home and 2) children being at home. They have to look after their child who otherwise will have been in the school or day care centres. Many expressed that they could not go for work as the household domestic responsibilities increased during lockdown. This led to women facing a high risk on losing their jobs and income. Majority of the sample respondents acknowledged severe decline in their family income and number of working days per month. It was high with domestic daily wage earners. The existing gender norms and wage inequalities have aggravated this Majority of the women were working under informal sector had undergone jobless.
• During the personal interviews, many of the women entrepreneurs in informal sector shared that the repayment of the already borrowed money became a huge issue for them. Most of them started their business activities with the financial support from formal and informal financial institutions, including local money lenders. In the case of small production units, as the lockdown were so strong, the producers found it difficult to sell of their commodities. Also as majority of the people lost their jobs, their purchasing power got declined which in turn brought about a stagnancy in the field of production. Producers found it difficult to withstand this severe tragic situation as their business projects were initiated by employing loans. So once lockdown was being declared by the Government, these people found it difficult to find a source for loan repayment.
• Lockdown induced pandemic, brought about economic crisis in the economy especially that of the livelihood of the daily wage workers. Because of the movement restrictive measures taken by the Government and the complete lockdown resulted in the reduction of employment opportunities. Kudumbasree[1] workers also find difficulties during the pandemic.

Women-led initiatives were hit badly due to lack of social protection. Informal contracts, irregular labour, exploitative and undefined wage and working conditions are due the legal loopholes.

• About 70 percentage of respondents borrowed money from bank and other informal agencies for meeting their household expenses like education, medical expenses, household appliances etc. increased during the pandemic period.Employment gaps during the lockdown leave women more vulnerable than men to job loss. But the credit penetration has been increased in favor of women through providing them with higher incentives for loans like lower interest rates, lower stamp duties, expansion of collateral-free loans and by providing them opportunity to apply as co-borrowers . For instance, most of women who are part of informal employment had debts as part of SHG-micro finance loans which need to be repaid. During the crisis the scheme[2] worth Rs 2,000 crore of the Kerala state government provided interest-freeloansto thewomenself-help groups. Similarly, support extended from the KeralaStartup Mission (KSUM)[3] to womenstartups with a softloanscheme for an amount limited to Rs.15 Lakhs as working capital for implementing workshave contributed to this .
• Borrowing has increased during the pandemic as the employment income and income from other sources declined considerably during this period. It was made mainly from informal financial institutions and local money lenders, which increased the debt burden considerably.
• The majority of sample household (90 per cent) revealed that they do not have any kind of health insurance coverage. Pandemichas highlighted the need to be insured against uncertainties.The loss of job and income during pandemic has resulted in an increased vulnerability of informal women workers in choosing between health and money. Kudumbasree has provided micro insurance scheme that resulted in extending help towards working women in informal sector with irregular cash flows The absence of mandatory provisions are a major reason why the women fails to subscribe on insurance plans.

Still the condition of women in the country are found to be disgraceful especially that of women in the informal sector. Though pandemics affect all, the effects are much greater on the socially vulnerable sections in the society. Social identities like caste and gender still affect various dimensions of economic life. It is dependent on their access to education, good health facilities, decent housing, sanitation, and other basic amenities.They were already facing problems with their earnings and incomes.

Domestic women workers are the worst affected during the pandemic period. The COVID-19 pandemic and the precautionary lockdown slow down the economic activity especially in cities. Many women workforce who are daily wage earners and domestic workers losttheir jobs and incomes. In the formal sector, employees still have their jobs and receive their salaries. The informal sector depends crucially on people’s daily demand. As the people are restricted due to lockdown, potential customers of the informal sector staying at home withdraw from non-essential expenditures.

Meanwhile many attempts were made to overcome these gendered difficulties explicitly found as the aftermath of the pandemic. Initiatives undertaken by the NGOs and government agencies guarantee minimum employment even in the COVID period. Many of the issues that women face in workplace should also be addressed. Their access to social and financial infrastructure should be ensured. Moreover safe environment should be insisted to women both in workplace and in social interactions especially in thispandemic period.

Various employment and income generating initiatives must be introduced to support these women folks who have lost their employment or source of income due to issues related with pandemic. As this category do not experience any kind of security for their employment, employment guarantee schemes of the government would be essential to support their lives as well as that of their families. Women employers in informal sector should be protected by ensuring minimum wages, job security, basic facilities in the workplace etc. The basic amenities may uphold the dignity and status on women in the present society. The increasing role of the government is widely insisted for uplifting the social and economic standard of the workers in informal sector and women workers in particular, by implementing various schemes and programmes.

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14. Shiney Chakraborty. (2020). COVID-19 and women informal sector workers in India. Economic and Political Weekly, 4(35).

15. Srivastava Nisha, & Ravi Srivastava. (2010). Women, work and employment outcomes in rural India. Economic and Political Weekly, 45(28), 49-63.

16. Suravee, Nayak. (2020). Dispossessed women's work: The case of talcher coalfields of Odisha. Economic & Political Weekly, 4(20), 37-43.

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[1] Community organization of Neighborhood Groups (NHGs) of women in Kerala, India

[2] Sahayahastham Schemeis a loan scheme by Kerala (India) government to provide loan facilities to all of the women self-help groups situated in the Kerala state.

[3] Kerala Start up Missionis the central agency of the Government of Kerala for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in Kerala, India.

[4] ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers are the health activist in the Kerala, India, who will create awareness on health and its social determinants.

[5] Anganwadiis a type of rural child care centre inIndia. Started in 1975 as part of theIntegrated Child Development Servicesprogram to combat child hunger andmalnutrition.