%0 Report
        %A Afridi, Farzana
        %T The Landscape of Self-Employment in India: Trends, Constraints and Policy Prescriptions
        %D 2025
        %8 2025 Apr
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 17842
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp17842
        %X This paper assesses the structure and quality of self-employment in India over a decade. India, historically, has had a much larger share of workers who are self-employed and a smaller proportion of wage and salaried workers. This structure of labour force participation has not shifted much in decades. In recent years, the proportion of self-employed has risen relative to the pre-pandemic era, and much more so for women. At the same time, significant underemployment accompanies low earnings of the self-employed. The paper highlights three key constraints for improving the quality of or transitioning out of self-employment – vocational skilling, access to formal credit and legal support for entrepreneurship. It concludes by discussing the implications of technological change and digitization for self-employment and the need for reforming the legal framework of self-employment in India.
        %K quality of work
%K gender
%K trends
%K self-employment
%K India