Informal Manufacturing: Conditions and Prospects

This book examines the essential but non-dynamic and unrecognized part that informal sector plays in the Indian economy. As our planners’ initial faith in state-led growth under a large public sector is now buried, the subject of informal sector has become particularly relevant. Coexistence of several modes of production such as own account work, family business and factory production is the focus of this book which provides an important insight into the working of the Indian economy. To understand the mutual relations among these different modes, a bottom-top, subaltern approach is attempted in this book. The study of informal sector is important because the crucial task of making productive use of abundant, surplus labour in the Indian economy remains neglected. Informal sector has been neglected by the government as well as by the trade unions. What the informal sector workers basically need is income and social security. For this purpose, an employment guarantee programme for urban areas can be added to the existing battery of special employment programmes. The issue of informal sector always raises uncomfortable questions like the supremacy of capital over labour. It is the responsibility of the state to ensure that the accumulation process takes place within a framework which guarantees some basic minimum rights of labour. The book not only raises the above issues, but also provides suggestions like tax on ancillarisation and sub-contracting. The book will be helpful for economists, planners, NGOs, legislators, social workers, corporates, students of economics, commerce and social sciences and entrepreneur employers.