Women workers in unorganised sector case study of Aligarh city

Women labour is an important segment of the total labour force in India. Women represent 50 percent of the total adult population and one third of the labour force of India. They perform nearly two-third of all working hours and receive only one-tenth world income. Women work longer hours than men in every country. More than 90 percent of the working women in India are engaged as wage labourers in the unorganised sector, many of them belong to the economically poor, socially backward, and oppressed section of the society. Mostly they are from backward caste communities. Most of them bear the brunt of poverty, homelessness, underemployment and destitution. Many of these women workers are primary earners for their families. The objectives of the study are to examine the level of women labour participation in the informal services. This paper focuses on the household, socio-economic, health, problems, vulnerabilities and working conditions of female labours of Aligarh city. The study is mainly based on primary data collected through field surveys. Questionnaire based interviews of household have taken in different wards of the city. Out of 70 wards 7 wards are randomly selected. The various information on 700 sample female workers, in the informal sector has been gathered from extensive survey of field investigation. Analysis shows that the conditions of female labour are poor, and they are facing many problems, such as low wages, long working hours etc.