FALLING OUTSIDE INDIA’S FORMAL ECONOMY
However, not everyone is so fortunate.
Mr Sikander Khan sells ice cream to cover his expenses every day, and the 63-year-old believes he may have to do this for the rest of his life.
He and his wife barely see their nine children after they moved away from home and had their own families, let alone receive any financial support from them.
“We are alone and have to make our living. We have to go out and try to sell our ice creams,” said Mr Sikander, who has no pension and no health insurance.
“We have to earn a couple of hundred rupees to make our living. Sometimes we make some money and sometimes we earn nothing.”
These days, the couple try to scrape together a few dollars daily to get by.
For most of his life, Mr Sikander was a casual labourer and earned daily wages, which was spent on his family.
The Indian government has recently put the number of workers such as Mr Sikander who fall outside India’s formal economy at more than 400 million.