BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY'S RELATIONSHIP WITH SDG 8

As the world’s largest democracy, home to around 1.3 billion people, India’s implementation of SDG 8 is of pivotal importance for the global pursuit of the UN’s Sustainable Agenda, as India’s progress and setbacks significantly affect global metrics due to the sheer size of its population (Tripathi et al., 2025, p. 996). Aware of its weight in the global achievement of economic growth and decent work for all, India is strongly committed to achieving SDG 8. Over the past decades, India has invested significant resources in the formalisation of its labour market to improve social protection and fight the precarious conditions of Indian workers in the informal economy, while strongly supporting innovation and entrepreneurship to foster economic development and job creation (NITI Aayog, 2025, p. 101). Yet, significant challenges still need to be addressed, particularly in the area of decent work for all, where the progress made throughout the last decade seems to have slowed down after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

CURRENT CHALLENGES AND RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

India’s primary concern in the area of SDG 8 is represented by the enormous size of its informal economy, which is estimated to have produced approximately 45% of India’s GDP between 2022 and 2023 and to have employed nearly 90% of its workforce in 2024 (NITI Aayog, 2025, p. 104; International Labour Organization [ILO], 2024, p. 20). As stressed by the ILO (2015), employment within the informal economy is typically accompanied by precarious working conditions, unregulated working arrangements, and a complete lack of social and legal protection that leave most informal economy workers in an extremely vulnerable position. To counteract this widespread phenomenon, India’s government has recently launched the E-Shram Portal, a digital platform providing easy access to Union and State Government welfare schemes for over 300 million workers in the informal economy (NITI Aayog, 2025, p. 105). However, more effort is required to reach decent work for all and provide Indian workers with secure working arrangements in the formal economy.

Moreover, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, India’s economic development has experienced a concerning slowdown. Since 2019, India’s labour market has supplied an increasing number of workers to India’s agricultural sector to the detriment of the rest of the economy, marking an abrupt reversal of the pre-pandemic trend that had seen a steady transition of India’s workforce away from agriculture to other economic sectors higher up in the value chain. On a similarly concerning note, real wages of regular Indian workers have stagnated or even declined over the course of the past decade, and working conditions have deteriorated since the COVID-19 pandemic (ILO, 2024, p. 20).

Despite these critical challenges, important progress has been made in the promotion of entrepreneurship and innovation, with promising results for the country’s future economic development. The current government’s initiative Startup India supports Indian entrepreneurs with tangible fiscal incentives, fostering a startup-friendly environment which is conducive to economic growth (Bose, 2024). 

Furthermore, India’s commitment to expanding education over the last decades has temporarily retained a significant proportion of the country's working-age population, who are investing more and more time in higher education. Following the ILO (2024), India is expected to reap the demographic dividend generated by the entry of these individuals into the workforce over the coming decades. Yet, despite the promising economic prospects of the newer, more skilled generations entering the labour market, the current state of Indian youth employment is precarious, characterised by far fewer opportunities and poorer quality compared to employment for adults (pp. 22-23). Therefore, significant effort is also required to ensure that the highly skilled, new generations entering the labour market will be able to apply their skills productively in the coming decades.

LIST OF REFERENCES AND USEFUL LINKS

International Labour Organization (2015, March 23). Informal economy: a hazardous activity. Retrieved September 7, 2026, from https://www.ilo.org/resource/other/informal-economy-hazardous-activity

International Labour Organization (2024). India Employment Report 2024: Youth employment, education and skills. https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/2024-08/India%20Employment%20-%20web_8%20April.pdf

Mose, A. (2024, June 3). Unveiling India’s Economic Ascendancy: Exploring Sustainable Development Goal 8’s Impact on Labour Market Dynamics and Challenges. Centre for Development Policy and Practice. Retrieved September 7, 2026, from https://www.cdpp.co.in/articles/unveiling-india-s-economic-ascendancy-exploring-sustainable-development-goal-8-s-impact-on-labour-market-dynamics-and-challenges#

NITI Aayog. (2025). India Voluntary National Review Report 2025. United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. https://hlpf.un.org/sites/default/files/vnrs/2025/VNR%202025%20India%20Report_0.pdf

Tripathi, S. K., Farooque, A., & Ahmad, S. A. (2025). Progress and challenges in achieving sustainable development goals in India: A comprehensive review. Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology, 9(1). https://doi.org//10.55214/25768484.v9i1.4304

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (n.d.). SDG Country Profile: India. Retrieved September 7, 2026, from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/dataportal/countryprofiles/ind#goal-8