Addressing the Plight of Beauty Parlor Workers through Social Security Measures

Abstract

Social security is bare necessity. While people working in organized sector are secured in many fronts, people working in unorganized sector lag behind the former. Federal and state governments in India have, however, created a variety of specialized initiatives, both protective and promotional in nature, to assist unorganized workers. The unorganized sector receives social security through publicly funded Social Assistance Programs, the Social Insurance Scheme, welfare monies from the federal and state governments, and other programs. In India, there are plenty of people employed in beauty salons. While some beauty parlours are organized and provide all sorts of security to their workers, some other parlours are purely unorganized and they don’t give priority on the security measures for their employees. Considering this, it is pertinent to ascertain the conditions of such workers and examine whether social security measures can help them fight out their plight. The study is based on qualitative primary data collected through in-depth interviews with some selected beauty parlor workers of Cuttack, Odisha. It is found that their lives are miserable without any social security measures. Thus, the social security measures extended to workers in organized sectors are needed to such beauty parlor workers who are there in an unorganized set up.