Reimagining urban resilience through labour codes and women’s livelihoods

The new labour codes align with global perspectives on resilient cities, focusing on childcare, housing and infrastructure for workers, especially migrant workers in the informal sector. The OSHWC Code also provides portability of benefits between native and destination States, benefiting migrant women workers

The expansion of urban population and growth of cities in India has contributed in making India as one of the largest urban agglomerations. A recent report of the World Bank and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs titled “Towards Resilient and Prosperous Cities in India’ in 2025 had stated that Indian cities hold tremendous potential as centres of economic growth with 70 percent of new jobs coming from cities by 2030. With these developments, one of the biggest challenges the cities are grappling with is the problem of informality. As Indian cities increasingly depend on workers in the informal sector, particularly contract, self-employed, migrant, domestic workers, gig, platform workers, etc to sustain urban economies, protecting these workers and strengthening social protection and resilience for urban workers, including women workers, has remained a challenge. The protection of livelihoods in urban areas is perhaps one of the most important questions facing India’s urban transformation today.

Women’s employment and social protection in urban India   

While reflecting on women’s employment in urban areas, it is observed that women are mostly engaged in sectors like services, retail, hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing, etc. Also, one of the pressing demands for women workers has been domestic work and the emerging gig economy. While reflecting on the urban employment situation, the estimates from the Periodic Labour Force Survey show a grim picture with only a 3 percent increase in labour force for women from 24.7 percent in 2022 to 27.7 percent participation in 2025. It is evident from the PLFS data that a large majority of urban women, i.e., 40.9 percent, are engaged in other services, 21.7 percent in manufacturing, and 16.1 percent in trade, hotel and restaurant. Further, there has been a dearth of long-term job contracts for women, with only 16 percent having contracts for more than 3 years, while a large proportion, i.e., 77 percent women in the 15-59 age group did not have written job contracts.

Now, a question which arises here is how far these sectors are protected by legislative provisions and whether women are entitled to social security? In fact, most of these workers are in informal arrangements with lack of employment contracts and access to social security. Apart from protection under labour legislations, urban livelihood protection also includes access to basic infrastructure facilities like housing, drinking amenities water, health, sanitation, safety, etc. The Economic Survey 2025-26, while recognising the importance of informal sector, has emphasised on the need for revisiting urban planning strategies to promote a more integrative and inclusive approach for the informal workers for a more resilient urban transition.

What do the labour codes offer?

While the announcement of the new labour codes on November 21st, 2025, has been a historic and opens up plethora of opportunities for protecting the livelihoods of urban women. However, the concern is how far these provisions will strengthen livelihood protection and well-being of urban women workers?  The introduction of fixed term contracts under the Industrial Relations Code 2020 includes employment contracts that promote better access to social security. Workers are eligible for proportionate gratuity after completion of one year of continuous service based on the length of their service and are also entitled to maternity benefit. These new provisions can contribute in regularising employment contracts in the sectors where women are engaged in urban areas.  It is a significant step towards formalisation of employment towards promoting better social security.

Another important development under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020 has been the introduction of a ‘common creche facility’ which allows a cluster of establishments to pool resources to provide childcare facilities for workers. These provisions will undoubtedly contribute in reducing the unpaid care burden of women, which has remained a significant barrier for them to participate in employment. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the OSH Code in 2020 had suggested for the provisioning of creche facilities for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which will boost female employment and resilience of the urban economy. For urban economies to thrive, greater investment and access to affordable care services is important to retain women’s employment and upward career mobility. However, the implementation of these provisions will require interventions like the issuing of guidelines to MSMEs or industrial clusters for compliance of these gender sensitive provisions. The State governments have a larger role in terms of issuing appropriate guidelines to these clusters and also streamlining the enforcement machinery for ensuring compliance. 

The new labour codes align well with the global perspectives on resilient cities that focusses on childcare, housing, infrastructure, etc especially for workers, particularly migrant workers in the informal sector. The OSHWC codes also include portability of benefits like the public distribution system, either in native or destination state, which will impact the migrant women workers significantly. Further, provisions like setting up a toll-free helpline for inter-state migrant workers, study on migrant workers, etc are important for addressing challenges faced by migrant workers and promoting evidence-based research for policy formulation. Apart for this, the Eshram portal one of the largest databases on unorganised workers, links them to plethora of welfare schemes. While E-shram registrations are ongoing, it is important to promote awareness about the benefits of the portal to the workers and also facilitate registrations under the portal so the workers can avail the social security benefits.

Way forward

For implementation of these facilities, inter-ministerial convergences are important, particularly with regard to dissemination of welfare facilities like housing, health, education and other social security benefits to women workers in urban areas. There is a need to promote portable and universal social security benefits along with affordable childcare, transportation, etc. The E-Shram data needs to be leveraged to identify migrant status and integrate State-level labour welfare schemes so that workers are not deprived of social security benefits when they migrate. Urban resilience for women can only be achieved by combining social protection rights under labour codes with investments in gender responsive infrastructure that encourage women to work.

The E-Shram data need to be leveraged to identify migrant status and integrate State-level labour welfare schemes so that workers are not deprived of social security benefits when they migrate. Urban resilience for women can only be achieved by combining social protection rights under labour codes with investments in gender responsive infrastructure that encourage women to work

The writer is a Fellow and Co-ordinator, Centre for Gender and Labour, VV Giri National Labour Institute, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Noida; Views presented are personal.