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64 Women in the Economy (MWG-011)
Chapter-5
Legislation, Social Protection and Policy

Q1. What is the meaning and importance of social protection?
Ans. Social protection refers to the public actions taken in response to levels of vulnerability and
deprivation which are deemed socially unacceptable within a given polity or society. It, therefore,
deals with both the absolute deprivation and vulnerabilities of the poorest, and also with the need of
the currently non-poor for security in the face of shocks and life-cycle event. Therefore, it is an integral
component of any strategic, effort to reduce the incidence and severity of poverty.
Naila Kabeer (2008) writes, social protection is a relatively new policy approach that aims to integrate
concerns about social security and poverty reduction into a unified conceptual and policy framework
in response to a perceived increase in the vulnerability of populations across the world. According to
another definition, social protection “includes interventions and initiatives that support individuals,
households, and communities in their efforts to prevent, mitigate, and overcome risks and
vulnerabilities, and that enhance the social status and rights of the marginalized” (Avato, Koettl and
Wheeler).
Social protection is also understood to consist of a set of benefits available or not available from the
state, market, civil society and households, or through a combination of these agencies, to the
individual/households to reduce multi-dimensional deprivation. This multi-dimensional deprivation
could be affecting less active poor persons (e.g. the elderly or the disabled) and active poor persons
(e.g. unemployed). As opposed to social security, which is more applicable in conditions where a large
number of citizens depend on the formal economy for their livelihood, social protection is a more
relevant concept in developing countries where a significant portion of people earn their livelihood
through the informal economy.
While social protection is an important tool to reduce vulnerability to risks, it is important to
remember that the ‘risks’ consist of both economic and social risks. Economic risks include shocks and
poverty of an economic nature, such as retirement, resignation, retrenchment, maternity, old age,
unemployment, death, disablement and other similar conditions faced by the working class. In
addition, social risks and vulnerabilities, such as gender inequality, social discrimination and
exclusion, unequal distribution of resources and power within the household, and a limited exercise of
citizenship rights, also play an important role in the policy agenda of most countries in order to
enhance the effectiveness of social protection programmes. Rebecca Holmes and Nicole Jones (2009,
p.2) argues that till date, social protection has largely dealt with economic risks while social risks have
been largely absent from the debates on social protection. Such experts have emphasized the fact that
both economic and social risks are deeply intertwined and have significant implications for reducing
poverty and vulnerability.
After understanding the meaning of social protection, let us now discuss why social protection is
important for working class especially women workers.
Importance of Social Protection: Social protection is an increasingly important approach to
reduce vulnerability and chronic poverty, especially in contexts of crisis. According to Munro, (2008)
Social protection policies are often justified on the basis of three different discourses:
• The risks and market failures discourse provide reasons of failures in insurance markets often
due to informational issues, along with the failures in credit, human capital and labor markets
to justify provision of social protection.
• The rights-based discourse advocates for social protection to fulfil the obligations to grant
legally enforceable social and economic rights to its citizens on the part of the state.
• The needs-based discourse on the other hand invokes practical and moral arguments in favor
of reducing and alleviating chronic poverty, and promotes employing social protection
measures in achieving that.
Social protection is also important as it may not be possible to comprehensively or adequately address
the structural causes of poverty within the prevalent political and economic environment of many low-
income countries. Unequal distribution of factors of production, mainly land and capital, are
important structural causes of poverty. Such unequal distribution results in the poor facing a limited
supply of the factors of production, making it very difficult for them to participate in the process of
economic growth. The poor are also unable to adequately access the health and educational
infrastructure due to their lack of resources. Social exclusion and discrimination aggravate the
situation. Hence, the absence of social protection measures and safety nets for the poor and
vulnerable perpetuates poverty among them. Given the present political and economic environment, it