Revision summary
Informal labour: work without secure contract and social security. Hart, ILO, and Breman named the field; PLFS shows Indian scale. Post-industrial services and gigs informalised rather than ended it. Regulation is needed for safety and gender-visible care work. Challenges: many principals, livelihood fear, weak inspection. Portable benefits beat paper formalisation.
Model answer
Introduction
Informal labour is work without secure contract, social security, or full legal coverage. Jan Breman and others showed it as the majority condition in India, not a leftover of farms. Post-industrial society did not end it. Platforms and outsourcing grew it.
Body
What it is
- Keith Hart named the informal sector in Ghana. ILO later stressed decent-work deficits: no leave, no pension, no voice.
- It includes street vending, home-based piece-work, casual construction, and now gig delivery.
- Karl Marx’s reserve army and self-employment sit inside it. Census and PLFS class-of-worker tables show the scale.
Need for regulation
- Without rules, wages and safety are private bargains between unequal parties. Max Weber’s formal law does not reach the shed.
- Gendered home-based work, as Ann Oakley and Indian feminist labour studies show, is invisible unless named.
- Cities need vendors and riders; public health and traffic need standards.
- Tax and welfare states otherwise rest on a thin formal sliver.
Post-industrial twist
- Daniel Bell’s service society promised knowledge work. Much service work is informalised: care, logistics, click-work.
- Global value chains push risk down to informal units, which A. G. Frank’s linkage thesis still illuminates.
Challenges of regulation
- No single employer. Who is the principal for a gig app or a chain of contractors?
- Workers fear loss of flexibility and police harassment if licensing is only a squeeze.
- State capacity and corruption. Inspectors can become another rent.
- SEWA-type organising shows voice is possible; it is hard to scale to national codes.
- Over-formalisation without social security can destroy livelihoods, as some street-vendor drives showed.
A workable line
- Register the work, not only the firm. Portable benefits beat a fake factory Act on a cart.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD INF[Informal labour] --> DEF[No contract security] POST[Post-industrial platforms] --> INF NEED[Safety welfare voice] --> REG[Regulation] CH[No employer capacity fear] --> REG
Conclusion
Informal labour is insecure, uncovered work that post-industrial platforms have expanded. Regulation is needed for safety, gender justice, and a welfare base. The challenge is to find an employer, avoid mere policing, and build portable security. Breman, ILO, and SEWA mark the field.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Discuss the nature of social organization of work in capitalist society with reference to the Limits of the working day.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2018 · Q6(a)). View answer →
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Is informal the same as illegal?
Much of it is extra-legal or weakly covered, not criminal. Criminalising vending is a policy error.
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Did industry’s decline create it?
India never had a full formal majority. Post-industrial North also re-informalised services.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
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2020 · Q6(a) · Sociology GS 1 · 20 marks
Discuss the new labour codes and their impact on formal and informal labour in India.
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