The emphasis has been primarily on the export processing zones where the conditions of work are arduous and low paying with little or no security. Organised and Informal Sector Nisha Srivastava observes that with financial restructuring and spread of computers in foreign and private banks, there is on one hand an increase in the lower level routine and repetitive clerical jobs and on the other hand some highly skilled and creative upper echelon posts. Hence only the most skilled and educated can survive in the organised sector. Swapna Mukhopadhyay points to the gross underestimation of the workers in the informal sector. She discusses how in beedi industry where predominantly women are engaged, almost one third are not identified according to the Labour Bureau.
Women are mainly in petty trading and domestic service and are broadly low paid and illiterate.
Renana Jhabwala emphasises that state programmes should intervene in the labour market by increasing labour demand, wages, bargaining power and assets. SEWA has played a very important role in this sphere, by the creation of financial and collective assets. A more detailed discussion of the development policy and its approach towards women and workers in general may have been useful.