Women’s empowerment in the informal economy is mainly understood through a solution-based approach: improving access to finance or giving informal women workers avenues to express and acquire their political voice. Yet, little consideration is given to the root cause of their precarity, which, in the end, disempowers the very tools that can secure women’s rights in the informal economy.
The Indian labour market is characterised by a high level of informality, with large numbers of workers in poorly paid “lower tier” informal jobs, and somewhat better paid “upper tier” informal jobs, and no benefits or security of tenure as formal jobs.
The recent Labour Code on Wages Act enacted in August 2019 consolidates and codifies previous wage regulations under one act. However, in a country with a significant casual and informal workforce, how effective would the Wage Code be?
The government of Sri Lanka imposed an economic embargo on the N and E province in 1999 covering a range of consumer goods including fuel, food and medicine. The embargo created an informal market for these goods. More importantly it allowed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to play a dominant role in the management of the economy in the territory, leading to a dual economic system, a command economy in the north and east and a private sector-led liberal market economic model in the rest of the country. It is now a year since the economic embargo has been lifted. How has it affected the economy of N and E province? What are the factors inhibiting economic revival in this region?
