Abstract

Social protection refers to public and private measures designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability by offering support in situations of unemployment old age sickness maternity disability and other contingencies. In India a substantial portion of the workforce is engaged in the informal or unorganised sector where workers typically lack formal contracts regular wages social security and access to institutional benefits — rendering them particularly vulnerable to economic shocks health crises and income instability. Over the past decades the Government of India has introduced legislative instruments and social security schemes aimed at extending protection to informal workers most notable among these is the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act 2008 (UWSS Act 2008) along with various welfare and insurance schemes targeted at unorganised workers. Despite these initiatives coverage remains incomplete and many informal workers continue to be excluded due to administrative structural and