Pensions and Informal Sector in India

This book deals with the pension of uncovered people in India, the informal or unorganized sector workers who contribute more than fifty percent of India’s total output. Until recently, these workers don’t get any old age security when they retire unlike those from the organized sector workers such as govt. employees or corporates. This book offers insights on the pension system of the informal sector in India.

The book is the outcome of field research of two years and the field research was conducted on MSME sector (a sub sector of unorganised sector) which provides the knowledge about the present state of the unorganised sector workers in MSMEs, their financial condition and stress, their work participation, their awareness level of old age financial security or pension and their financial behaviour regarding pension savings in India. This book empirically demonstrates a relationship between financial literacy and willingness to save for retirement benefits among the informal sector workers in India. Access to banking also improves the probability of retirement savings along with the gender and education.

By reading this book, readers can understand the demographic change India is going to witness within the next thirty years and its challenges to meet the longevity risk of these workers.

Amlan Ghosh is Associate Professor in Finance at the Department of Management Studies, National Institute of Technology Durgapur, India. His research interest is financial public policy and mainly in the areas of pension sector, insurance sector banking, financial development, financial inclusion, MFIs and post offices.