Capturing Women's Work

Accounting women's work has always been shrouded in mystery, be it the domestic sphere, in the agriculture field or the industrial activity. Globalisation, revolution in information and communication technologies, changing patterns of population migration and the role of women has altered the employment and work structure drastically leading to informalisation of formal labour. This imposes a severe threat on the survival of more than 90 percent of the workforce engaged in the unorganized sector of the economy. The major brunt is faced by the women who have come forward to carry on ths shattered mangles of the distorted work structure post globalization. The unorganized sector estimated to contribute 60 percent of the national income and 40 percent of India's exports constitute a large section of the women work force. Despite its contribution, the unorganized sector exists outside the gambit of labour laws and social security net resulting in mass exploitation of vulnerable communities particularly women. The present book highlights the plight of women engaged in the unorganized manufacturing sector in the major metropolitan centres of India where informal activities such as home based work, self employed women and women engaged in own account manufacturing entrepreneurial activities have replaced formal labour. An attmpt has been made to compare macro level information with micro level data.