This paper argues that India has no option but to follow a human development-
centred approach to economic and social development. This is because of the
massive poverty and under-development that are reflected in the conditions of work
of those who eke out a living in what may be called the ‘informal economy’. An
informal economy approach that has been articulated by the National Commission
for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector provides such an approach. This is a
perspective that addresses the challenge of development from the point of view of
work and livelihood, and through that, an understanding of human capabilities
and their social correlates such as gender and social identity. The problem of
labour here is not reduced to ‘man-hours’ or ‘man-days’ and its productivity,
but to one of actually living people with specific economic, social and gender
characteristics often trapped in a larger social structure which, despite many
changes, remains largely hierarchical and segmented