Industry & Economy
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Economy
PM calls for action plan for informal sector
Our Bureau
New Delhi
,
Nov. 10
THE Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has asked the Finance Ministry, financial institutions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to come out with a broad action plan for the informal sector with special focus on the gender issue.
"I suggest that the Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with other Ministries, banking and financial institutions and even non-government agencies prepare a broad action plan for promoting the poverty eradication potential of the informal sector," he said while inaugurating the Gender Poverty Summit.
Mr Vajpayee said gender issues should be the specific focus of this action plan and the successful experience of other countries in this regard should be suitably incorporated.
However, the Prime Minister said that the poverty level of the company had come down. He said that the informal sector could contribute in a big way towards poverty alleviation in the country and that an estimated 93 per cent of India's workforce (370 million people) is now in the informal sector.
Of this, one-third of workers in the informal workforce are women, he said, adding they included vendors of fruits and vegetables, bamboo workers, makers and sellers of diyas during Diwali, rag pickers who make a useful contribution to the recycling business and an "incredibly" wide range of economic activities.
The Prime Minister said that the size and the scope of the informal sector have vastly expanded and not shrunk, because of the forces of liberalisation and globalisation.
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