Economic Reforms And Their Impact On The Indian Economy

Small section of the Indian labor force belongs to the organized sector, while majority is engaged in the unorganized sector. The laborers in the unorganized sector of the economy can be divided into three broad categories, (i)Unorganized Urban laborers (ii) Agricultural laborers and (iii) Non-agricultural rural, laborers as per the Census of 1991. While the organized sector, which comprises of 8% of workforce is covered by comprehensive social security measures such as medical care, benefits relating to sickness, old age, maternity survival etc., the remaining 92% of the unorganized labor suffers from various kinds of social insecurity such as illiteracy, food insecurity, uncertainty about employment due to widespread actualization of work, lack of sanitation and health care etc. Low earnings, poor working conditions and lack of protection provided by the social security measures, characterize the sector. It is a fact that about one third of our population is still poor, about half of the population is illiterate. Many villages do not have access to sate drinking water. Productivity of our workforce remains very low in comparison to the international standards. This calls for vigorous efforts on our part. We have to accordingly reorient our strategies and evolve suitable institutions and policies in the wake of the developments.