Research Abstracts on Child Labour Women Labour - Nipccd

Unorganised Sector/ Labour
establishments, employing at least one hired labourer. In the retail trade and hotels and
restaurants group 58.3% were OAEs, 75% enterprises in transport and communication were
OAEs, and 20% of the enterprises in manufacturing and processing were OAEs. 18% of the
enterprises were operating without premises and these were mainly involved in transport,
petty trading in textiles and vegetables. Of the total enterprises surveyed, 19.3% operated
without any electricity and the rest had access to electricity. 32.0% of the enterprises
operated with only one worker, 24% employed between 2 to 3 workers, 26.7% employed 4 to
5 workers, and 17.3% employed 6 to 9 workers. 18% of the enterprises were managed by
female entrepreneurs. 42% of all enterprises in the category retail trade, hotels and
restaurants were owned and operated by females; 21% of the total were owned by
scheduled castes, and the rest by others. 9.3% of the entrepreneurs were illiterate, 5.3%
had studied up to Class 11 or 12, and 1.3% had studied beyond that. 79.3% of the
entrepreneurs did not want to expand their operations. 32.3% of the total workers in this
study were females. Migrants constituted 86.2% of the total workers. The mean working
hours per day in different occupation categories were Construction 8.10, Rickshaw pulling
9.70, Auto repair 8.85, Hotel and Restaurants 8.65, Petty trading 6.90, Domestic service
7.60, IT and Communication 8.33, Handicrafts 7.86. 98.5% of the informal sector workers
did not have any paid leave. 68% received their wages in cash and 32% got their wages
partly in cash and partly in kind. 60% received their wages on monthly basis, 19.4% received
daily wages, 16.3% got weekly salaries, while 4% workers received irregular payments. 50%
of the recruitments were done on the basis of personal contacts, and 45% of the contacts
were made through relatives and friends. Only 4% of the recruitments were through agents
or sardars. 55% of the workers have not changed their employers during the past one year,
but 19.4% changed employers very frequently. Female workers, on an average, earned Rs.
2242 per month, while male workers earned Rs. 2685 per month. Self employed workers in
the informal sector earned Rs. 2837.50 per month, while hired workers earned Rs. 2445 per
month. It was suggested that credit facilities should be available to entrepreneurs in the
informal sector on the same terms as is given for modern enterprises. There is an urgent
need to make provisions for their welfare through awareness building as well as meaningful
state support. There is a special need for safeguarding the rights of migrant workers.
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<strong>Research</strong> <strong>Abstracts</strong> on Child Labour, Labour and Women Labour 1998 - 2009