Background

High rates of growth and growing openness in South Asia have raised expectations of better livelihoods and employment conditions. However, economic growth has not brought about a marked improvement in employment conditions, for a very large proportion of the work force which remains in poor-quality, low productivity employment in the informal part of the economy.

A large majority of workers face insecurity of livelihood and vulnerability to contingencies, which reflects both the poor quality of the jobs they have and the absence of any institutionalized social security system.