Abstract:

In many developing nations of the world, the informal sector workers constitute between 70-90 percent of the workforce, while the sector contributes up to 30% of national output.  More than 50% of the workforce are women while the incidence of poverty is highest among the informal sector workers, whether in the self-employed or employee category.  Apart from a few enterprise owners, many of the operators are employees, unpaid family helpers and apprentices, holding casual jobs. More often than not, in many developing nations, the informal sector also constitutes the largest pool of street beggars, child labour, as well as waste and garbage pickers.   In terms of structure of employment, three major factors are clearly discernible.  First, the agricultural sector is an important source of employment opportunities but more often than not, the rural sector is not attractive to the young school leavers and this heightens rural-urban migration. In the second place, informal employment and income opportunities represents a very large proportion of total national employment compared with the relatively high-wage formal sector of the nation. In the third place, the informal economy generates both wage and self-employment in both the rural and urban locations of the nation, which are important sources of economic opportunities to those who would have remained in open unemployment if such opportunities were not available.  In spite of its potentials for contributing towards national development and inclusive growth, the informal economy has been neglected, while in most cases the operators are subjected to official harassment.