India: Inclusive Development through the Extension of Social Security

Abstract

India’s spectacular economic achievements over the past decade have contributed to a strong decline in poverty, but the number of people living in poverty is still very high. A total of 370 million people — or about one-third of India’s population — live under the basic poverty line (less than 1 US$ [make consistent]per person per day, in 1993 purchasing power). A total of 855 million – or about two-thirds of the Indian population — cope with less than 2 US$ (ILO, 2006a). Moreover, employment in the formal economy has hardly grown. On the other hand, employment in the informal economy is rising, regrouping currently about 93 per cent of the labour force. The 7 per cent of all workers who are employed in the formal economy are the civil servants as well as most employees in medium and large enterprises. A small part of workers in the informal economy are also covered by social security schemes, such as welfare or micro-insurance schemes, with the result that only some 10 per cent of the Indian population enjoys some level of social protection.