7. Micro-Insurance: Implications of Informal Economy on Women

Since informal economy is characterized by low-incomes, unhygienic conditions, lack of social protection systems and poor organization, women are likely to suffer more from such critical problems, as they have additional role of carrying out household work like looking after children. Informal economy has series implication on women. These are outlined below:

Although most women stay at home and carry out home-based economic activities, they have little time to give to other household chores out of their daily routine. In other sense, women are overburdened with more work and they are expected to sacrifice their leisure time for carrying out household tasks.
In women-led home-based economic activities, traditionally, older girls are expected to take up the same work at an early age, thus stopping their schooling and denying them higher education. This leads to low education status of women.
There is a major impact on the health conditions of women engaged in informal economy. Besides, undertaking work during maternity opens up women to greater risks.
There are also unhygienic work conditions, which have detrimental effect on women’s health. For example, the process of making incense sticks (in both India and Pakistan) is hazardous in several ways. Saw dust mixed with various colours and toxic chemicals is used to make a paste. The paste, normally handled with bare hands, leads to discolouring and injury to the skin. Workers inhaled the dust and toxins causing irritation in the upper respiratory tract that eventually resulted in asthma in many cases. In none of the cases was any kind of treatment resorted to, despite awareness of the health problem.

Women working in informal economy often fail to organize themselves into associations or unions to enhance business opportunities and negotiate better prices for their products. As a result of this, they have poor access to credit facilities and fail to get recognized by formal systems.

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CONTENTS:
1. Micro-Insurance: The Difference between Formal and Informal Economy…….2. Micro-Insurance: Characteristics of Formal and Informal Economy…….3. Micro-Insurance: Definitions of Informal Economy…….4. Micro-Insurance: Scope of Informal Economy…….5. Micro-Insurance: Some Facts about Informal Economy…….6. Micro-Insurance: Women and the Informal Economy…….7. Micro-Insurance: Implications of Informal Economy on Women…….8. Micro-Insurance: Social Protection…….9. Micro-Insurance: Social Protection is a Human Right…….10. Micro-Insurance: The Need for Social Protection…….11. Micro-Insurance: Risks…….12. Micro-Insurance: Risks in the Informal Economy…….13. Micro-Insurance: Definition…….14. Micro-Insurance: Principles of Micro-Insurance…….15. Micro-Insurance: Types – The Independent Model…….16. Micro-Insurance: Types – The Partnership Model…….17. Micro-Insurance: Types – The Provider Model…….18. Micro-Insurance: Types – The Integrated Model…….19. Micro-Insurance: Types – The Full-Service Model…….20. Micro-Insurance: Health Micro-Insurance