1. Introduction

This chapter introduces the reader to the content of the book on informal sector employment in India over the last decades. Chapter descriptions lead to the main focus of the book. In the background of the massive dependence of labour force on the informal sector, which has increased after neoliberalism, we need to consider whether the country is at all giving recognition to this employment in terms of data and contribution. The perspective became more visible during recent COVID-19 phase where all the invisible sectors mostly informal were made visible. The analytical structure in production and labour relations was put into question in contemporary India. The book also deals extensively with the urban informal sector in a metropolis Kolkata as a live historical evidence at the end derives a structure based on production and employment relations in the country in a political-economic framework.