Women’s Contribution to the Family Budget: Informal Labor Market in Pakistan (A Case Study of Bahawalpur District)

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.