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Women entered the market for wage labour after the industrial revolution, creating employment opportunities for women, but these women occupied secondary work place in the labour work force. Their significance was considered marginal and constituted the reserved labour force. They entered in the labour markets only when the economic necessities forced them to supplement the meager family earnings. This concept of women to work as a supplementing or balancing force in the family and the nations work force has made them susceptible to all sorts of discriminatory treatment and exploitation (physically, economically and socially) in the field of employment. The labouring women generally work in the unorganised sector. This sector is characterised by the presence of factors viz., long hours of work, wage discrimination of men and women, lack of job security, lack of comprehensive legislation cover, no limit for minimum wages, lack of minimum facilities at work place, ill treatment, heavy physical work, and sexual exploitation, etc.
Although the jobs in this sector offer no attraction and are exposed to physical ordeal, women continue to seek employment in this sector because of irregular nature of employment, lack of skills, easy entry and exit, ignorance and illiteracy. This is a fact that modernisation and commercialisation of the economy and efforts made by government to replace traditional institutions and marked have led to rapid urbanisation and capital formation. The concomitants of urbanisation like degree of exploitation, inequality, poverty, unemployment and under employment, etc., has aggravated further.
In India, the per cent of unorganised workers for the year 1994-95 was 92.3 per cent of the total force of which 50 per cent are women (National Sample Survey of India (NSS) 1997) and estimated female employment in the urban unorganised sector is 17.3 million. The female Work Participation Rate (WRR) in the urban areas was 9.1 per cent as compared to 49.0 per cent in

Main objectives of the study are acteristics pattern of the working women engaged in the as follows : (I) to study the existing ticnii:rrganised sector in Varanasi district of eastern Uttar Pradesh. 44 (ii) to examine the relative and absolute socio-economic status of women workers in comparison to the male counterparts and factors (viz., worsened economic situation, destitute poverty, indebtness, illiteracy, insufficient land holdings, natural calamity, lack of employment opportunities in rural areas, type of work involved in, impact of new economic policy on migratory behaviour, unable to meet the ends of family member etc.) responsible for migration of women to urban areas. (iii) to examine the causes and reasons of migration, why migrated women seeking employment? Who promoted them to migrate? Whether it was push or pull that led to migration to urban areas and type of migration? maintenance of link with native place? And also study problems and constraints being experienced by migrant women workers engaged in unorganised sector. (iv) to study the socio-economic transformation of women workers of their standard of living, children health,education, life expectancy, status in the family, etc. (v) to analyse the level and causes of exploitation (social, sexual, economic etc.) of working women and their continuance in employment of unorganised sector. (vi) to suggest measures for further strengthening employment opportunities and upliftment of women workers engaged in unorganised sector. The study concluded that 26.15 per cent of the respondents belong to higher castes, 38.46 per cent scheduled castes, 3.38 per cent scheduled tribes and 32.00 per cent other Backward categories (OBC). 18.15 per cent of the respondents were farmers, 30.15 per cent labourers (both agricultural and non-agricultural), 26.15 per cent skilled workers, 12.91 per cent artisans and 12.61 ent were engaged in services. The study depicted that 53.84 per c rent of women workers were found illiterates, 18.15 per, cent upto per - upto primary, 10.15 per cent up high school, 9.23 per cent up cent upto graduation and only 3.07 per intermediate, 5.53 per

Indian Council of Social Science Research.

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