Informal Work in the Formal Sector: Conceptualizing the Changing Role of the State in India
In India, the past few decades witnessed a growing process of “informalization of work within the formal sector”. The most alarming aspect of this trend is the process of informalization within the public/government sector, where the governments (both at
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Informal Work in the Formal Sector: Conceptualizing the Changing Role of the State in India Babu P. Remesh
Abstract In India, the past few decades witnessed a growing process of “informalization of work within the formal sector”. The most alarming aspect of this trend is the process of informalization within the public/government sector, where the governments (both at the centre and states) are found to increase the share of unprotected workers in the total workforce. Excessive use of employees under project mode, employment of temporary workers on continuous basis, outsourcing of non-core operations to service providers and engagement of workers through placement agencies/intermediaries are common practices followed by state-run institutions. With all these transitions, the role of governments as promoters of decent and protected jobs in the organized sector is gradually waning, as the state also participates actively in the rat race for cost-cutting measures like any other employer. This scenario, juxtaposed with the other ongoing changes in the state’s role (e.g. the thrust on “reforming” labour laws for enhancing labour flexibilities, reduced social sector spending and so on), suggests that there has been a double laxity on the part of state, both as employer and as the ultimate regulator and promoter of decent employment. Based on secondary data and available empirical evidence, the present chapter elaborates these concerns of informalization of employment in the public sector. Keywords Informalization ity Decent work
Public sector jobs Flexi-staffing Labour flexibil-
B.P. Remesh (&) School of Development Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi, Delhi, India e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017 E. Noronha and P. D’Cruz (eds.), Critical Perspectives on Work and Employment in Globalizing India, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3491-6_5
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Introduction
In India, of late, there has been a growing process of “informalization of work within the formal sector”. This trend, however, has attracted a wider academic attention only very recently, especially since the revelations of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS) that most of the increase in formal sector employment during 1999–2000 to 2004–05 has been of an “informal nature”. As per NCEUS, 58 million out of 59.3 million incremental jobs created in the formal sector, during the above period, were without any employment/work or social security.1 It is also shown that in 2004–05, 28.9 million out of 62.6 million workers in the formal sector (46.2%2) were in the “informal workers” category. This trend of informalization of formal sector employment has continued unabated in subsequent years also.3 From a closer look into this phenomenon of growth of insecure employment in the organized sector, it is evident that among its major determinants, the shifting role of the state in the recent decades is a prominent one. In the mixed economic system of planning followed in the India, the state
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