Unorganized Sector Workers — Definition

Definition

Unorganised sector workers are workers in employment arrangements characterised by the sector and worker definitions in the applicable law, often with limited access to stable records and formal social protection.

They include diverse forms of self-employment, wage work and home-based work; the category is not synonymous with unemployment or with work outside towns. The policy challenge is to identify actual work relationships and connect people to appropriate protection despite mobility, irregular earnings and dispersed workplaces.

A national worker database can assist that task, but registration must be distinguished from entitlement under a particular scheme and from the eventual receipt of a benefit.