India - Informal Non-Agricultural Enterprises Survey: NSS 55th Round : July 1999 - June 2000

Many of the enterprises in the informal sector are not big enough to have total freedom in terms of procurement of raw materials, machinery or marketing. They may heavily depend on bigger units/ contractors /middlemen for one or more of these. A high proportion of women, for example, staying at home and carrying on their domestic duties, are also engaged in economic activities such as stitching, preparation of paper bags etc. In most cases, they do it on a contract basis for bigger enterprises. They are variously called as home workers, home based workers, out workers etc. Apart from these, even bigger enterprises may engage in contracts for raw materials, credit, sale etc. for various reasons. This phenomenon is proposed to be captured through questions 17 to 21.

The enterprises in the informal sector are tiny units. In many cases, the enterprises are observed to be working as per the orders from a bigger unit. In such cases, certain conditions are put on the server unit by the contractor or master unit. Conditions may be on the sale of products, may be on the mode of payment or may be on the supply of raw materials, etc. If the surveyed unit works under contract, code against this item will be 1. Otherwise, code will be 2.