In India’s informal economy, crores of women face gender bias and insecurity
Women’s participation in the Indian labour force is at a historic low. Representational image. | Manjunath Kiran / AFP
Over the last two decades, Rehana , 42, has been working on improving her tailoring skills, learning to cut, sew, and recently, design and stitch salwar suits for boutiques and individual customers. But even though she often works 12-hour days, she has little income security or any kind of safety net for herself and her family of eight.
Rehana, who is her family’s primary breadwinner and caregiver, lives in a hovel in Khajuri Khas, a low-income neighbourhood in north-east Delhi that witnessed