The Informal Sector in India: Neo-dualism and Dual Policy Response

Title

The Informal Sector in India: Neo-dualism and Dual Policy Response

Creator

Kundu, Anirban; Datta, Pratip Kumar; Chakrabarti, Saumya

Description

While the Indian economy grows steadily, its transformation reveals a disturbing pattern. Despite a continuing shift of labour out of agriculture, most of the employment expansion in the non-agricultural sector is concentrated within the low-income-generating informal sector. Dominant discourses consider that this prevalence of the informal sector (and informal employment in general) could be mitigated through economic growth complemented by some institutional reforms. However, our detailed observations on India show that the informal sector is expanding in tandem with the overall capitalist growth driven by the formal sector. We found that an expansion of the formal sector engenders a spread of informality along with its dual (intra-sectoral) tendencies of progression and persistence. While the formal sector-linked relatively large-sized informal firms are progressing, the vast petty-informal segment is trapped in stagnancy. This scenario calls for product-specific cluster formations involving millions of rural-urban petty informal firms. The clusters could be a collective and cohesive instrument to resist the aggressive formal sector dominated by big capital. On the other hand, the formal sector-linked advanced segment of the informal sector can be developed by inducing such linkages. Thus, a dual intra-sectoral trend necessitates a dual policy response. 2026 selection and editorial matter, Sejuti Das Gupta, Shouvik Chakraborty and Taposik Banerjee; individual chapters, the contributors.

Source

Contradictions of Democracy, Development and Inequality: A Case of India;pp.119-134

Date

01-01-2025

Publisher

Taylor and Francis

Coverage

Kundu A., Christ University, Bangalore, India; Datta P.K., Rajatpur Indra Narayan Vidyapith, Bolpur, India; Chakrabarti S., Visva-Bharati (University), India, Department of Economics and Politics, United States

Rights

Restricted Access; Hardcopy may be available in the library

Relation

ISBN: 978-104038875-4; 978-103229188-8;

Format

online

Language

English

Type

Book chapter

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003527978-10

https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105016589858?origin=resultslist