Volume : VIII, Issue : VII, July - 2019

ORGANISATIONAL ARRANGEMENT FOR THE WELFARE OF INFORMAL ECONOMY - A HEALTH PERSPECTIVE

Dr. Vijayalakshmi M

Abstract :

“Informal workers consist of those working in the informal sector or households, excluding regular workers with social security benefits provided by the employers and the workers in the formal sector without any employment and social security benefits provided by the employers”. More than 90 per cent of workforce and about 50 per cent of the national product are accounted for by the informal economy. Informal workers are socially and economically underprivileged. They are more vulnerable since small shocks can push them deeper into poverty. Unanticipated events are much harder and these may include accidents, disasters, illness, crop failures etc. Among all these health risk is more severe. Informal workers are more vulnerable to health shocks as these threaten their income–earning capacity. Accidents and ill health affect them directly and indirectly. These health shocks contribute to the loss of work days and hence directly impoverish them on the one hand and reduce their productivity and efficiency on the other. Traditional risk management strategies (like borrowing from money–lenders, friends and relatives, temporary migration etc.) are inadequate, unsuitable and sometimes significantly reduce the ability of informal workers to withstand future shocks. But, the state in most developing countries has not been able to fulfil health care needs of its population. Shrinking budgetary support for health services, inefficiency in public health provision, unacceptably low quality of public health services and the resultant imposition of user charges is reflective of state’s inability to meet health care needs of the informal sector. Institutional arrangement, in this regard, is necessary to enable them to fight risks and shocks. Keeping in view of the above, the paper has been designed to explore the unexplored issues of welfare of informal sector with special reference to health care, to derive insights for policy decisions at the different levels

Article: Download PDF    DOI : https://www.doi.org/10.36106/paripex  

Cite This Article:

ORGANISATIONAL ARRANGEMENT FOR THE WELFARE OF INFORMAL ECONOMY‾A HEALTH PERSPECTIVE, Dr. VIJAYALAKSHMI M PARIPEX‾INDIAN JOURNAL OF RESEARCH : Volume-8 | Issue-7 | July-2019

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