Heterogeneity and participation in informal employment among non-cultivator workers in India

Abstract

Labour informality is one of the most serious challenges for the world and more so for developing economy like India with large scale poverty and little unemployment protection. The provision of decent working conditions becomes prerogative bringing the issue of labour informality into the forefront. This study scrutinized possible heterogeneity within informal employment among the noncultivator workers in India. It has studied the trend, pattern, and determinants of the various components of the informal employment. It found significant heterogeneity within the informal employment with respect to poverty, age, gender, socio-religious communities, educational attainment, and industrial classification.. Complexity of heterogeneity in informal employment has been rising over time, hence posing serious policy challenges. Cluster analysis carried out to demonstrate the relationship between informality in employment and quality of works. The evidence suggests significant diversity within the informal employment. Multinominal logit was applied to determine the determinants of participation in informal employment. The result further reinforces the complexity in informal employment. The convolution is more with respect to rural and urban area, dependency ratio, marital status, social groups, and poverty. With respect to education the dual market hypothesis was supported. Coexistence of voluntary and involuntary informal employment was also observed. Given the diversity of employment, the paper suggests specific policy deign for different segment of employment to achieve eatable and inclusive growth.

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