ABSTRACT
India's informal economy is enormous. It consists of export-driven industrial clusters, manufacturing hubs, enterprises which deal with precious gems, a vast majority of agrarian production, street vendors, and a large part of the black economy. Estimates for 2018 indicate that 80% of India's 461 million workers, or 369 million of them, are in the informal sector. Even in the formal sector, many workers are employed as informal workers, as casual labour. From workers walking for days to reach home to the long queues for a single meal, the COVID-19 crisis has reiterated the perilous situation of informal workers. Neither their rights as labourers nor their rights to state welfare are adequately addressed by the existing approach. Only a radically altered development model, which addresses the conditions that foment informalisation, can ameliorate these conditions.
