International Labour Day, or May Day, observed on 1 May, honours the workers whose labour builds and sustains every society — and the long struggle for their rights. In India, the day is an occasion to look honestly at who its workers really are, because the vast majority do not fit the image of the salaried employee with a contract and benefits. Around nine in ten Indian workers are informal, and their reality — of insecurity, invisibility and resilience — is the true story of India's workforce. This guide explores it.
What May Day marks
International Labour Day commemorates the historic labour movement and its struggles for workers' rights — famously the fight for the eight-hour working day. It is a day to recognise the dignity and contribution of workers, and to renew the demand for fair wages, safe conditions and decent treatment. In a country where so much work is informal and unprotected, that demand is far from fulfilled.
The scale of the informal workforce
The defining fact of Indian labour is its informality: around 90% of workers are in the informal or unorganised sector. They are everywhere — street vendors, domestic workers, construction and farm labourers, small-workshop hands, waste-pickers, and the fast-growing ranks of gig and platform workers driving cabs and delivering food. Only a small minority of Indians hold formal jobs with written contracts and full benefits. This is not a fringe; it is the mainstream of Indian work.
The reality of informal work
Informality means a hard and precarious working life:
- No security — no written contract, easily hired and fired.
- No social protection — no provident fund, paid leave, health insurance or pension for most.
- Irregular, vulnerable incomes — a lost day is a lost wage, and shocks (illness, lockdowns, downturns) hit hard, as the 2020 migrant crisis showed.
- Little bargaining power — few unions or protections in the informal sector.
- Unsafe conditions — many work with real physical risk and no recourse.
Women and migrants in informal work face compounded disadvantages.
The rise of gig work
A newer chapter is the gig and platform economy — the drivers, delivery riders and online workers who power app-based services. It offers flexibility and income to millions, but often without the protections of formal employment, raising urgent new questions about how to guarantee fair pay, safety and social security in a changing world of work.
What is being done
Efforts to protect informal workers include:
- e-Shram — a national database that has registered over 30 crore unorganised workers to link them to welfare, the first step toward making them visible to the system.
- Social-security and insurance schemes for unorganised workers.
- New labour codes aiming to extend protections, including provisions for gig and platform workers.
- Rural employment guarantees like MGNREGA that provide a floor of paid work.
The gap, as ever, is between registration and law on one hand, and delivered protection on the other — closing it is the real work.
What you can do
- Treat the workers around you fairly — pay fair wages, on time, to domestic workers, drivers and others.
- Support labour-rights and worker-welfare NGOs.
- Back social protection for informal and gig workers.
- Companies can ensure fair conditions across their supply chains and use CSR for worker welfare and skilling.
The people who build our homes, deliver our food, and clean our workplaces deserve not just a day of recognition but real security and dignity. This International Labour Day, remember the informal workers who keep India running — and support the effort to protect them. To find worker-welfare organisations, browse verified NGOs on NGOLists.
Further reading on NGOLists
- Migrant Workers in India: Life, Rights and Welfare After the Exodus
- MGNREGA Explained: Job Cards, Wage Rates and Worker Rights in 2026
- Winter Shelter Crisis: Protecting India's Homeless from the Cold
- Female Workforce Participation in India: Why It's Changing and What's Next
- How CSR Funds Actually Reach Beneficiaries: A Transparency Explainer