The Plight of Labour in India: Struggles, Reforms, and Hope

India’s growth story is often framed through increasing GDP, new industries and technological leaps. But behind those numbers lies an enormous workforce, the less observable but crucial component for the sustenance of the economy. Those workers, as factory hands, daily wage labourers, gig motorists, and agricultural labourers, make up the unorganised sector, the vast majority of India's workforce. Their world is marked by informalities, unstable contracts, and the ever-prevailing lack of social security.

Informality and Precarious Work

International Labour Organization & Institute for Human Development, Report-2024 reaffirm a stark reality: nearly 90% of India’s workforce works informally, and 82% are employed in the unorganised sector. Released in 2024 by MoSPI, the ASUSE Report – 2024  underscores a familiar truth: India’s informal economy is still the silent force powering the nation’s progress. This is not a new phenomenon. The unorganized sector has long been the backbone of Indian capitalism - an immense field of labour that operates beyond the protective reach of the state, yet is indispensable to production and accumulation. For women especially, unpaid family labour and disguised self-employment have become the default pathways into work. The Bharat Bandh of July 2025, where more than 25 crore workers participated, underscored many realities. Workers demanded not charity but recognition: a national minimum wage, social security, and regulation of contract employment.

Exploitation and Unsafe Work

If the numerical dominance of informality is one dimension, its consequences are another. Across India’s industries, unsafe working conditions and exploitation remain systemic. In Maharashtra’s sugarcane belt , the appalling prevalence of forced hysterectomies among female workers, undertaken to avoid the “cost” of menstrual leave, shows the extremes of gendered exploitation . In Tamil Nadu, strikes at multinational corporations demonstrate how contemporary manufacturing depends on fragmenting unions and restricting workers’ rights . The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code (2020) exists in principle, but its enforcement remains weak. As a result, workers navigate a labour regime where risks are normalized, safety is optional, and redress is rare.

Gig Work and Emerging Vulnerabilities

The expansion of the gig economy has been celebrated as a driver of flexible employment. However, research shows Indian gig workers face low pay, algorithmic control, and significant “invisible labour” such as unpaid waiting times . Although the Social Security Code, 2020, formally recognises gig and platform workers, implementation has been minimal . The gap between policy promises and lived realities illustrates the challenges of integrating new forms of labour into traditional protection frameworks.

Child Labour and Gendered Inequities

Despite decades of legal prohibitions, child labour persists. In Odisha, nearly 30% of child labour rescues between 2022 and 2025 came from just three districts - Angul, Jharsuguda, and Gajapati. Children’s labour is bound to household poverty, debt bondage, and the failures of education. It is not that the economy requires child labour; rather, impoverished households cannot survive without children’s work.

Gendered inequities deepen these patterns. Women are concentrated in insecure, low-paid jobs while simultaneously bearing the burden of unpaid domestic labour. The hysterectomy cases in Maharashtra not only medical coercion but also a structural economy wherein women’s reproductive health is treated as disposable and subordinate to economic imperatives. Domestic labour sustains the wage-labour market, but women’s wage-work rarely translates into empowerment. Their contributions are undervalued, their rights disregarded, their burdens doubled .

Labour Law Reforms and Contestations

India’s recent labour law reforms - consolidated into four codes which cover wages, industrial relations, social security, and safety were presented as a rationalisation. But critics claim that these changes weaken worker protections by extending working hours, making retrenchment easier, and restricting union powers. The ILO expressed deep concern over state-level amendments diluting core labour protections, warning that they may breach international labour standards. Karnataka controversy over proposals to extend the workday to 10 hours also illustrates how reforms risk, prioritising industrial flexibility over worker welfare .

Technology and the Future of Work

Technological change, especially automation and AI, is reshaping the labour market. But instead of creating inclusive opportunities, research finds polarisation : expansion of low-skill, low-pay employment on the one hand and job displacement in mid-skill positions on the other . This trajectory threatens to replicate the older patterns of underemployment and stagnation in new forms. Without large-scale investment in reskilling and education, millions of workers may be left behind in transitioning to a digital economy.

Conclusion :Towards Inclusive Labour Policy

The plight of labour in India is not merely a question of economic policy but of social justice. What then is the way forward? While the Social Security Code, 2020 formally extends social protection to gig, casual, and agricultural workers, coverage remains limited and implementation uneven. In order to bring universal social security, the government should expand the scope of benefits, ensure timely disbursal, as well as utilize targeted interventions to effectively reach all categories of informal and vulnerable workers. Safety standards should be strictly enforced in practice rather than remaining merely codified in law, with stringent penalties imposed for non-compliance. Occupational health and safety should be recognized as a fundamental right for all workers, not a privilege. Policy should take into consideration the double burden of domestic work as well as wage labour among women. This means targeted maternity protections, recognition of unpaid work, and serious attention to gendered forms of coercion. Platform workers should have guaranteed minimum wages, effective grievance redressal, and portable benefits, ensuring that technology does not become a license for informal employment.