Women in Urban Informal Work and Covid-19 in India

The International Centre for Research on Women released this report in 2021 as part of a three-country (India, Kenya and Uganda) research study. The report analyses the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic as well as the policy responses to it during March 2020–February 2021 on women engaged in the urban informal economy in India. The report evaluates the workers’ vulnerability to events like covid-19. Towards this goal, it defines vulnerability as “the diminished capacity of an individual or group to anticipate, cope, resist, and recover from the impact of any hazard.” It is determined by the access to social and economic resources a person or a community has. The report relies on interviews as well as review of other data such as Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) to make its observations and recommendations. This report is divided into six sections: Covid-19 policies and women in informal work in India (Section 1); Introduction (Section 2); Findings (Section 3); Key takeaways for further research (Section 4); Delhi: Covid-19 and state response (Section 5); and Conclusion (Section 6).