Revision summary
Informal work lacks contract and security; for women it rides on unpaid care. Oakley and Walby map household and labour-market patriarchy. Census and NFHS miss much female work. Lockdown exposed domestic and migrant women without a home office. Challenges: recognition, portable security, care, and safety.
Model answer
Introduction
The informal sector is work without secure contract, social security, or a recognised career. For women it is often the default labour market. Gender equality here is blocked by unpaid care, weak law, and a status order that codes their work as help.
Body
What the sector does to women
- Ann Oakley made housework visible as labour. Informal paid work sits on that unpaid base, so the double day is the first challenge.
- Sylvia Walby’s patriarchal structures of household, paid work, and state meet in piece-rate, domestic service, home-based manufacturing, and gig tasks.
- No written wage, no maternity cover, and no union hall make “equal pay for equal work” a slogan without a file.
Indian files
- Census and NFHS undercount female work when it is seasonal, home-based, or unpaid family labour.
- SEWA showed that organising can raise voice. It does not by itself transfer land or stop violence.
- COVID-19 lockdown hit domestic workers and women migrants first: no WFH laptop, no urban citizenship.
Challenges named
- Recognition of work in statistics and law.
- Social security portable across houses and cities.
- Childcare and safety, without which “choice” of informal hours is constraint.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD INF[Informal sector] --> CARE[Unpaid care] INF --> LAW[No contract security] INF --> STAT[Undercount Census NFHS] CARE --> UNEQ[Blocked gender equality] LAW --> UNEQ STAT --> UNEQ
Conclusion
Gender equality in the informal sector is challenged by unpaid care, statistical invisibility, and missing contracts. Oakley and Walby name the structure. Census, NFHS, SEWA, and lockdown make the Indian case. Equality needs recognition and security, not only growth of informal jobs.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
How are Hierarchy and Exclusion the major impediments in the transformation of societies ? Discuss.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2020 · Q2(b)). View answer →
-
Is the informal sector a stepping stone to equality?
It can yield income. Without rights it often freezes women in cheap, flexible labour.
-
Does WFH help informal women?
Home-based piece work was already common. It rarely came with the salaried rights of professional WFH.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
-
2022 · Q1(e) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
How do sociologists construct gender in their analysis on social inequality? -
2022 · Q2(c) · Sociology GS 1 · 15 marks
Discuss social mobility in open and closed system. -
2021 · Q1(e) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
Critically examine Max Weber's theory of Social Stratification. -
2021 · Q4(a) · Sociology GS 1 · 20 marks
Explain the concept of social mobility. Describe with suitable illustrations how education and social mobility are related to each other -
2020 · Q2(b) · Sociology GS 1 · 15 marks
How are Hierarchy and Exclusion the major impediments in the transformation of societies ? Discuss. -
2020 · Q4(c) · Sociology GS 1 · 15 marks
Critically assess social mobility in closed and open systems. -
2019 · Q1(b) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
Davis and Moore made it clear that social stratification is a functional necessity and also an unconscious device. Discuss -
2019 · Q4(a) · Sociology GS 1 · 20 marks
Modernization presupposes class society; however caste, ethnicity and race are still predominant. Explain
More from this topic
Q5(b) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
Does the structural-functionalist perspective on social stratification promote a status quo? Give reasons for your answer.
Stratification and Mobility: Concepts
Davis and Moore treat unequal rewards as devices to fill important positions. Parsons ties ranking to a shared value system and role allocation. That logic easily sanctifies the present hierarchy as necessary. Tumin asked who defines importance and why talent and reward match so neatly. Unpaid gendered labour and caste inheritance expose the payoff story. Merton’s dysfunctions qualify equilibrium but do not make functionalism a conflict theory.
Q3(a) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 1 · 20 marks
Compare capability deprivation approach with that of social capital deprivation in understanding chronic poverty
Stratification and Mobility: Concepts
Sen’s approach defines poverty as capability deprivation, not income shortfall alone. Functionings are beings and doings; capabilities are the real set of lives one can choose. Social capital is networks, trust and norms in Coleman, Putnam and Bourdieu, unequally held. Chronic poverty lasts because freedoms stay contracted or because bridges to work and credit stay closed. Dense caste bonding can coexist with capability failure. Indian SHGs, migration networks and multidimensional poverty measures illustrate the comparison.
Q1(e) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
Is the social stratification theory gender-blind? Elucidate.
Stratification and Mobility: Concepts
Marx, Weber and Davis–Moore mapped class, status, power and function, usually with a male default. Gender-blindness means treating the household as a unit and unpaid care as non-economic. Hartmann, Walby, Oakley and Acker made patriarchy a structure of stratification. Crenshaw’s intersectionality warns against adding gender as an afterthought. Indian work on Brahmanical patriarchy and Dalit feminism shows caste and gender as one field. The elucidation is critical but not a dismissal of class analysis.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.