This paper examines the evolution of the institution of ‘Welfare
Funds’ for informal sector workers in the State of Kerala in India. The
Kerala experience, which is now thirty years old, reflects what the workers
in the informal sector could achieve in countries like India given the
contemporary political context and the democratic political framework
of the State. But it required sustained collective action on the part of the
workers. The paper finds that while the Welfare Fund Model of collective
care arrangements for the informal sector workers in Kerala showed
considerable innovation in its design and organisation, its functioning
is embedded in the bureaucratic system giving rise to a number of
problems. Even then the Model offers a minimum of social security to
the informal sector workers who are unprotected. Therefore the question
of replicating this Model with suitable modifications to other States in
India as well as to other countries, where there are no social security
arrangements for informal sector workers, is worth pursuing.
JEL Classification : I 30, I 38, J 50
Key words : collective care, informal sector workers, Kerala, social
security, welfare funds
