Integrate

The informal economy is an integral feature of the economic landscape of cities. It is crucial for cities to recognize and value the contribution of informal workers. If cities aspire to increase economic productivity, the way forward is to include informal workers in the formal processes and institutions of urban governance, planning and finance.

As of now, multiple training schemes and microloans are being provided to those working within the informal sector. However, the current systems are not enough to tap the full economic potential of those working in the informal economy. Access to the market - be it in the form of information (such as on raw materials and technology), skills training, brand design, or financial education - is necessary to make informal activities scalable, profitable and sustainable.

So far, creating sustainable enterprises for these informal working groups have been mostly unsuccessful, due to: a lack of awareness of city-specific demand when informal workers choose their work activities, diseconomies of scale and production, absence of business plans and market strategies, and a lack of a business approach taken by the poor.

The goal is to transform Smart Cities' urban markets to be more inclusive for the poor. Through collective entrepreneurship - cultivated by creating a city level micro enterprise promotion and incubation centre - the goal is to transform smart cities' urban markets. Targeting home-based workers (typically women), vendors, waste pickers, and those with disabilities, our project goals to form and promote inclusive micro-enterprises and 'Incubation Centres'.

These Incubation Centers will provide skill identification and quality training, create business plans for economic activity and financial linkages, and foster pro-poor value chain development in the form of inclusive growth by capacitating marginalized communities to manage businesses. These Incubation Centers will provide handholding support to the enterprises for certain period of time after the project gets grounded. It will also facilitate convergence of different government schemes and link organizations like NGOs, private entities, and financial institutions.

The goal is to create a national model, which can be scaled up and replicated by the cities. In the next 8-months, the aim of the project is to create a framework of the micro enterprise promotion and incubation centre for the pilot city and a digital platform digital portal for facilitating the above operations. The framework will move skilled laborers to become entrepreneurs, which will lead to inclusive growth and employment. The urban poor will gain access to better business networks and more sustainable income. The benefit to the government would be a database (through the digital portal) for employment generation, ensuring better quality of life for the poor and a reduced dependency on subsidies.

There is a large urban informal economy (80% of workers) which is part of the city but is excluded in many ways from its benefits and growth. The workers in the informal sector are often penalized and stigmatized for trying to earn a living, they continue to face harassment like evictions from their houses and workplaces and confiscation of their goods. Most of the people in the cities and formal business setups in the cities are linked to the informal sector some way or the other. Yet, the cities continue to ignore the huge population of the working urban poor associated with the informal economy.

According to us, the Smart cities cannot be more equal or economically more productive if the majority of the workforce is excluded; especially the working poor. Hence, with our expertise and knowledge we are trying to understand how the informal sector is excluded from the urban setup and trying to find ways through which we can make the smart cities more inclusive for the informal sector. We need to recognize them as workers and contributors to the urban economy.