Abstract:
The contribution of women working in informal sector has been on the agenda of
national and international organizations for over two decades, but progress in measuring
it has been slow. Collection of data, on the informal sector is an arduous task (in the
past the sector has been considered immeasurable) especially for women. The definition
of informal sector and its implication of data collection are also relevant. In this study
we are concerned with women contribution in family budget. We have calculated the
contribution of women in household budget. The typology of work in informal sector
varies form region to region. We concluded that women involved in ladies dress-
making are comparatively in higher ratio and contributing more. The ladies dress-
making is a traditional profession of informally employed women of Bahawalpur.
Applying OLS model on primary data from urban and rural areas of Bahawalpur, we
have analyzed the determinants of contribution of women in household budget. It is
found that married women, women as head of household, having assets, good health
status and belonging to nuclear families are contributing more to their household
budget. There exists also a positive relationship between the contribution of women and
unemployed husbands, presence of infants in the household, the utilization of loan by
household, and urban locality. The presence of school-age children, presence of adults
(male and female), and husband’s educational status negatively affects the contribution.
The determinants of contribution are different for urban and rural areas. It is proposed
to intervene by government for education of informal sector women, provision of assets
and loan, health facilities by public sector and implementation of minimum wage
legislation in informal sector.
