Informal Workforce in Indian Tourism Surges to 84 Percent

Chennai: After recovering from the pandemic, informality in the tourism sector has gone up. Around 84 per cent of workers in the tourism sector in India are employed in the informal sector, finds the International Labour Organisation. According to the industry, informal labour in the sector stood at around 50 per cent before the pandemic.

Tourism took one of the hardest hits during the pandemic with job losses felt worldwide. Now, the industry is seeing employment rise again in hotels, restaurants, and related sectors. Nevertheless, the sector continues to face decent work deficits, such as the prevalence of informality, variable and long working hours, low wages, limited access to social protection, gender-based discrimination, poor occupational safety and health (OSH) practices, and weak regulation, enforcement, and organization of labour.

India is among the countries with a high share of informal workers. Of the workers employed in the tourism sector in India, 84 per cent are engaged in informal labour. Hotels and restaurants employ 95,96,000 people, which account for 2 per cent of total workforce.

According to Iqbal Mulla, chief consul of Global Tourism Council, prior to the pandemic, informal labour was just around 50 per cent in the sector and it has gone up now. “As the tourism sector was hit severely, many people left the sector and got employed elsewhere. Several travel firms also were shut down. Now, when things are recovering, workers have started coming back, but it will take some more time to improve the formal labour share,” he said.

Some of the other countries with equally high share of informal workforce include Peru, Bolivia, Kenya, Indonesia, Cambodia, Angola and Nigeria. More than 270 million workers, or approximately 8.2 per cent of the global workforce, are employed in the tourism sector.

According to ILO, governments must adopt, implement and effectively enforce national laws and regulations and ensure that fundamental principles and rights at work and ratified international labour Conventions are applied to all workers in the tourism sector. Governments should strengthen labour administration and labour inspection systems in order to ensure full compliance with laws and regulations and access to appropriate and effective remedy and complaints mechanisms.