According to the ILO, 81.6 percent of women’s employment in India is concentrated in the informal economy — this is work that’s not taxed, or under the table. On today’s episode of the Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women, we examine why India has one of the highest rates of women in the informal sector and what can be done to get them more rights, income, and support. Host Reena Ninan first speaks with Deepa, a domestic worker and union member of the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), which has more than 1.5 million women informal worker members. Then Ninan speaks with SEWA Punjab State coordinator Harsharan Kaur, who describes how SEWA advances the rights and economic empowerment of women informal workers. After that, Nina talks to Institute of Social Studies Trust Research Fellow Monika Banerjee, who specializes in women informal workers in India, and finally, the Chief Economist for South Asia at the World Bank, Hans Timmer.

To hear more about women informal workers in India, listen to our latest episode on this page or subscribe on your favorite podcast app -- and thank you to Apple Podcasts, which just listed HERO as a New & Noteworthy Podcast! The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women is a Foreign Policy podcast supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

We want to hear from you! To fill out our 2021 listener survey, go to survey.fan/foreignpolicy.comLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices