Including grass-roots women into formal economy

EMPLOYMENT is the main source of income of the poor and it is still considered the most effective vehicle to take them out of poverty. However, most of the working poor in developing countries are engaged in informal employment. While the informal sector offers a cushion to workers during an economic crisis, benefits of informal employment may not be sufficient to achieve an acceptable standard of living because informal employment rarely comes with adequate wages, good working conditions and social protection. It is, therefore, necessary that efforts to alleviate poverty must focus on the needs and constraints that the working poor in the informal economy face.

The informal economic sector of Bangladesh includes agricultural labourers, roadside vendors, paid domestic workers, self-employed individuals producing handmade products, piece-rate workers and other unregulated labourers. According to the 2010 Labour Force Survey by the International Labour Organisation, 89 per cent of Bangladesh’s total labour force is employed in the informal economic sector. Almost 77 per cent of the jobs available on the labour market in 2010 were undertaken in informal production units composed mainly of unpaid family workers and daily wage workers, both in the agriculture and non-agriculture sectors….read more