Status of Social Security Provisions in Urban Unorganised Labour Market of Uttar Pradesh: A Field Check

Women workers in the informal economy are in extremely vulnerable situations, with no protection through labour laws, no effective policy measures to address their situations, and lack of access to social security schemes. This paper underlines the need for a broader interpretation of social security in a state like Uttar Pradesh (UP) characterised by a high degree of deprivation and vulnerability of a large section of the unorganised workforce. In this paper, we intend to examine the coverage of protective social security in urban unorganised labour market in UP by different groups of unorganised workers, viz., domestic workers, construction workers, tailors and garment workers. We confine our analysis here only to the examination of protective measures prevalent in the labour market, that is employees’ provident fund, gratuity, pension, maternity benefit/leaves, sickness allowance, among others to the wage paid informal workers. To examine the status of social security among urban women informal worker SSI (Social Security Index) has been computed, which reveals the fact that the level and status of social security enjoyed by the urban women informal workers is not satisfactory. An attempt has also been made in this section to examine the relationship between explanatory variables and dependent variable (SSI). This issue needs attention minimum social security net be ensured for all workers irrespective of wage, enterprise size, and place of origin. It is also imperative to clearly define national policy for informal workers, including a national social protection strategy for them.