Socio-Economic Profile and Household Livelihood Security of Women in the Informal Sector: Evidence from Imphal West, Manipur, India

The present study was conducted to identify the personal and socio-economic characteristics of women working in informal sector in Imphal west, Manipur. Considering the need of the present study, the research was formulated on the basis of descriptive research design and suitable variables were selected. This study was conducted at six villages viz. Kanto, Khurkhul and Sekmai under Lamsang block, Thangmeiband, Iroisemba and Sagolband under Lamphel block of Imphal west district during a period from May 2022 to March 2023. In the study, 120 women respondents were selected purposively based on their informal livelihood activities such as vegetable vendor, fruit vendor, weaving, traditional costumes/items vendor, embroidery, etc. Data was generated through a sample survey of women by personal interview method. Household Livelihood Security Index (HLSI) constructed by Maurya in 2017 was used with suitable modification. Indicators such as Economic, Education, Health, Habitat, Food and Social Security were considered and the HLSI was obtained by aggregating the scores of indicators assuming that each indicator has equal weight to the overall HLSI. The findings revealed that majority of the respondents fell in medium level of household livelihood security. It was also observed that some variables like age, marital status and debts were negatively correlated to the level of household livelihood security while some variables like education, gender of the household head, family type, training exposure, type of house, household size, total landholding size, annual income of the household, annual income of the respondent, material possession, mean annual household expenditure, access to credit, resources and assets were positively correlated to the level of household livelihood security.