Breaking down the question
The question asks you to identify and examine the principal issues that characterise the informal labour market in urban India. The operative word is issues — the examiner expects a diagnostic answer that lays out the defining problems, not a mere description of who informal workers are.
Frame the answer around the paradox that the informal sector absorbs the overwhelming majority of the urban workforce yet remains outside the protection of labour law and social security. The issues flow from this structural exclusion: insecurity of employment, absence of regulation, low and irregular earnings, and vulnerability rooted in caste, gender and migrant status.
How to approach it
Begin by defining the informal or unorganised labour market, invoking Keith Hart's original coinage and the Indian usage that ties it to enterprises outside statutory regulation. Then organise the body around distinct issues — insecurity and casualisation, absence of social security, low wages, poor conditions, and the reinforcement of social inequalities.
Jan Breman's ethnographies of footloose labour and circular migration give the answer empirical depth and a theoretical vocabulary. Keep the treatment analytical and, where possible, note recent policy responses so the account reads as contemporary rather than static.
Model answer
The informal or unorganised labour market comprises workers in enterprises and activities that lie outside the ambit of statutory regulation, labour legislation and formal social security. In urban India it accounts for the great majority of the workforce — street vendors, construction and domestic workers, home-based producers, waste pickers and casual daily-wage labourers — and its expansion has continued even amid economic growth, a process of informalisation of the workforce.
The foremost issue is insecurity of employment. Work is casual, contractual and often secured through intermediaries, so tenure is precarious and workers can be dismissed without notice or recourse. Jan Breman's studies of footloose labour describe a workforce endlessly circulating between countryside and city, employer to employer, with no stable attachment to any workplace.
A second issue is the near-total absence of social security. Informal workers lack provident fund, pension, insurance, paid leave and safe conditions; illness, accident or downturn pushes them swiftly into destitution. Wages are low, frequently below the statutory minimum, and irregularly paid, while working hours are long and conditions hazardous, especially in construction and waste work.
Third, the informal market reproduces and deepens existing social inequalities. Migrants, Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims and women are concentrated in its lowest tiers, so labour-market disadvantage overlaps with caste, ethnic and gender disadvantage. Women workers face a double burden of low pay and unpaid domestic labour, and often work invisibly from home.
Fourth, the very informality of the market weakens collective bargaining. Dispersed workplaces, migrant status and dependence on contractors make unionisation difficult, leaving workers with little voice. Policy responses — the Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act, welfare boards and vending regulation — have made only limited headway against the scale of the problem.
In sum, the urban informal labour market in India is defined by insecurity, unprotected conditions, meagre earnings and the compounding of social inequality. It is not a residual or transitional phenomenon but a structural feature of the economy, on which formal enterprise itself increasingly depends through subcontracting and outsourcing.
Examiner's perspective
For 10 marks the examiner seeks a crisp, issue-wise treatment rather than a generic description of informal work. A strong script defines the sector, then names distinct problems — insecurity, no social security, low wages, hazardous conditions and the reinforcement of caste and gender inequality — each stated with analytical clarity.
Citing Breman's footloose labour and Hart's coinage, and noting the overlap of informality with migrant and marginalised status, signals sociological command. A brief mention of policy responses keeps the answer current. Precision, structure and British spelling will secure the higher band.