Mental health and the floundering informal worker

Source: This post has been created based on the article “Mental health and the floundering informal worker” published in The Hindu on 10^th October 2023.

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 Social Justice — Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health.

News: This article discusses the prevailing issue of informal workers suffering from economic and physical vulnerabilities which in turn, lead to mental health issues.

The theme of World Mental Health Day (October 10) this year is ‘mental health as a universal human right’. However, the issue of the mental health of informal workers has largely gone unnoticed.

How are work and mental health related?

Decent work influences mental health in a positive way.

However, unemployment, unstable or precarious employment, workplace discrimination, or poor and particularly unsafe working environments pose a risk to a worker’s mental health.

Workers in low-paid, unrewarding or insecure jobs, or working in isolation, are more likely to be victims of mental health issues.

Informal workers undergo mental distress due to accumulating debt and rising health-care costs, lack of food security, lack of access to livelihood and financial instability.

According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), unemployment and poor-quality employment have been detrimental to mental health.

What is the situation in India with regards to the mental health of informal workers?

India’s informal workforce accounts for more than 90% of the working population. This sector is characterized by:

1) Lack of regulatory protection

2) Unsafe working environments

3) Long working hours

4) Little access to social or financial protections

5) High uncertainty

6) Discrimination

— all these factors contribute to undermining mental health and limit their access to mental health care.

Women in the Informal sector: Over 95% of India’s working women are engaged in informal work, often without social protection, in addition to suffering patriarchal structures and practices.

Elderly in the Informal sector: The Census of India 2011 shows that 3.3 crore elderly people are working post-retirement in informal work.

The absence of proper financial, healthcare and social security can severely impact their physical and mental health.

Youth: A study by Lokniti (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies) indicated that youth between 15 to 34 years are highly susceptible to negative emotions. Youth unemployment, along with the stigma attached to it, significantly impacts their mental health.
An ILO report highlights how young workers are shifting to more precarious and informal work, accepting less pay and poorer working conditions, and sometimes, exiting the labour force altogether.

Policy decisions such as slashing of funding of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) and absence of universal social security as a goal in the Code on Social Security 2020 is also detrimental.

What needs to be done?

India’s budgetary allocation for mental health is currently under 1% of the total health budget and has over-focused on the digital aspect. This has to be optimized.

Strengthening of community-based, people-centred, recovery-oriented and human rights-oriented care has been suggested by the World Mental Health Report 2022.

With this phase of demographic dividend, it is important to focus on the quality of employment and long-term social security.

There is also an urgent need for proactive policies to improve mental health recognition and action. This is critical in upholding the basic human right to good health, including mental health, and in achieving SDG 3 on ‘good health and well-being’ and SDG 8 on ‘decent work for all/economic growth’.