Abstract
Two important international instruments adopted by the UN and the ILO in 2015 reflect a growing international recognition of the need to foster decent work environment. The United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in 2015, and Goal No. 8 of the SDG focuses on the promotion of inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and employment and decent work for all. The ILO adopted Recommendation No. 204 concerning the transition from the informal to the formal economy in June 2015. The Indian Constitutional vision that requires the use of State law provides crucial guidance to ensure minimum labour standards and a decent work environment for all.
I am grateful for the comments and questions received from participants of the Conference held in the National Law University Delhi. I have also drawn on previous research and my presentation made to the IALS General Assembly Conference on Labour Law and Labour Market in the New World Economy held in Milan in 2010.
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Notes
- 1.
For more details see, https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/decent-work/lang--en/index.htm. Accessed on December 25, 2018.
- 2.
Report of the Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System p. 132.
- 3.
Ibid. pp. 136–7.
- 4.
Ibid. p. 138.
- 5.
See the ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization adopted in 2008.
- 6.
The SDG 2015 has also set up target and milestones to achieve these goals as elaborated by the UN. For details see, https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg8.
- 7.
For various approaches to globalization see World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities for All (ILO 2004); Santos and Rodríguez-Garavito (2005).
- 8.
ILO, India Labour Market Update, July 2017, available at https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-bangkok/---sro-new_delhi/documents/publication/wcms_568701.pdf.
- 9.
- 10.
For details of the labour law concerning the informal economy see Sankaran (2006).
- 11.
For further details see, ILO, Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture, 3rd edition (2018) available at https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_626831.pdf.
- 12.
National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector, The Challenge of Employment in India: An Informal Economy Perspective (Government of India, 2009) at p. 24.
- 13.
Ibid at pp. 8–9.
- 14.
Ibid at p. 9.
- 15.
ILO, India Labour Market Update, July 2016, available at http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-bangkok/---sro-new_delhi/documents/publication/wcms_496510.pdf.
- 16.
NCEUS, ibid. p. 11.
- 17.
Unni and Rani (2008).
- 18.
Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy cited in Bhowmik (2009).
- 19.
NCEUS 2009 p. 21.
- 20.
See Paragraph 1 of ILO Recommendation No. 204.
- 21.
Sankaran (2010).
- 22.
See ILO, Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture, 3rd edition (2018) available at https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_626831.pdf.
- 23.
See for instance, Dukes (2011).
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Sankaran, K. (2019). “Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy”: The Continuing Relevance of State Law. In: Singh, M., Cremer, W., Kumar, N. (eds) Open Markets, Free Trade and Sustainable Development. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7426-5_3
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