Organising the Unorganised

Social groups working in the informal sector as labourers are among the most neglected groups under the present pattern of capitalist development. The state does not acknowledge their presence, nor does civil society accord them respectable status. Trade unions too have mirrored this attitude and have, by and large, failed to make efforts at organising them. The Hamal Panchayat is a successful attempt at mobilising these workers and has been attempting to create a broad-based political alliance of unorganised workers and the urban poor forcing both the state and civil society to recognise their specific identities and acknowledge their contribution to the economy and society.