With the entry of big investors in the retail market, many people in the unorganised sector have lost their earnings, and this will impact the country’s economy badly, said R.V. Chandrashekhar, Coordinator of Talasamudaya Adhyayana Kendra at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru.
Delivering a talk on ‘Marginalisation and Social Exclusion in the Unorganised Sector’ at Kuvempu University on Friday, Mr. Chandrashekhar said 93% of the workforce in the country was in the unorganised sector. In recent years, big investors have entered the retail sector, taking jobs in the unorganised sector. “If a big shopping mall is set up in a locality, petty shops spread over at least a 3 km radius will be closed. The shopkeepers, who were owners, lose their earnings and end up as employees in other firms for their livelihood,” he said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, the unorganised sector was closed. However, the online shops were open. A businessman sitting in Delhi or Bengaluru can sell his product to his online customer, but a shopkeeper at the corner of the road is not allowed to do business. “There is a need to address the problems bothering the unorganised sector. However, bringing them under the organised sector will not resolve the problem,” he said.
Dr. Chandrashekhar delivered the talk as part of the two-day national conference on ‘Empowering the Invisible Workforce: Issues and Challenges of Unorganised Labour’. The conference was jointly organised by Dr. Babu Jagjivan Ram Studies and Research Centre, the Department of Studies and Research in Journalism and Mass Communication, and the Department of Studies in Social Work.
