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Thursday March 28, 2024

Gender facet of informality

By Mansoor Ahmad
November 18, 2021
Gender facet of informality

LAHORE: Informal work represents a tremendous degree of abuse of the working class. Informal workers are subjected to social and economic exploitation. They are forced to hazardous work without protective gear, denied real wage and overtime. There is no job protection as well.

Majority of informal workers in Pakistan are women. Women’s sexual vulnerability is often present and sometimes in a very pronounced manner. Women workers employed particularly in informal sectors do not have any legal or social protection.

These include agricultural workers, rag-pickers, construction workers, home-based workers, domestic workers or helps, street vendors or sellers, part-time workers. Some policy makers argue that informal work like for example home-based work is preferred by women because it suits their needs as it allows them time for their household responsibilities.

This may be partially true as usually for formal work women have to cover long distances that are time consuming and makes it impossible for them to attend to their own domestic duties.

Women risk their health and leisure and sometimes dignity when they work in the informal sector. Even women employed in the documented sector and better-paid as well, are frequently forced to make choices between their individuality as a worker and their other identities, as a householder, as a wife, mother, and daughter.

Men in formal employment have no such hang ups. Formal employment has been structured in a manner that discourages women and favours men who do not have to do household work.

Even before they enter the labour market, women are perceived as inferior labour than men. Cultural bias ensures that women get fewer resources for education, training, and access to capital.

There is no simple way to achieve something as complex as gender equality. Global data reveals that once in employment, nearly 15 percent of women are contributing family workers (ie, self-employed persons working in an establishment operated by a relative) whereas, among men, this status accounts for just 5.5 percent. Although no study has been conducted in Pakistan this ratio is much higher in our country. Most people around the world agree that men and women should be treated equally, and we also know that empowering women is a highly effective way to help families and societies lift themselves out of poverty.

We need to take some steps. For example, investing a dollar in family planning programmes can yield benefits worth $120. The best way to reduce violence against women, lift them out of poverty, and empower them to be full and equal members of society is to break the cycle of early marriage and childbirth.

Evidence from different approaches and countries is that spending one dollar on improving women's access to economic opportunities yields about $7 in health, education, and poverty-alleviation benefits. Other studies show that spending a dollar on improving girls' education is also a sound investment, producing $5 of benefits for each dollar spent.

Informality in the economy is a legacy of colonial exploitation and the consequent lack of capital in most underdeveloped countries, faulty state policies, economic mismanagement and corrupt practices, misguided policies of international financial institutions, gender-based labour division in the economy and the logic of capitalism. Informal work flourishes as it suits employers whether small, medium, or large, including multinational corporations (contract workers may get minimum wage but are denied all other benefits available to regular employees and they do not have job security as well) as they benefit from the informal nature of work.

Employers, in their obsession to cut production costs, cut labour costs, as wages are an important element of production costs. This way they also save other costs like insurance benefits, health costs, and social security and employees’ old age benefits.

Through informal employment, the employers can exercise control over the workforce. Informal workers have very little bargaining power; moreover, informal work also weakens the power of workers involved in formal work. Women in Pakistan would remain unpowered if the state failed to regulate informality. Minimum wage, for instance in all developed economies, is based on hourly wages. Every employer is bound to give the minimum hourly wage. Our minimum wage should be based on hourly basis and include every worker employed full or part time. Workers in the informal economy should be entitled to secure lives and incomes. They should have access to basic social services, such as health care, housing, education, and old age security. Informal workers are denied a social and political environment where their basic human rights are respected and guaranteed.