In the changed circumstances since the 1970s, it has become increasingly apparent that the capitalist system is unable to provide for the reproduction of its own labour force. Analyses of the welfare state have pointed out the crucial role played by state policy in shaping the maintenance and reproduction choices of labour through social welfare programmes, income distribution policies, and substitute wage programmes. However, in developing countries where most of the labour falls outside the purview of state-mandated programmes, the crucial role of the family in maintaining and reproducing labour became evident in stark manner. Focusing on the actual processes of the social reproduction of labour, and the strategies of survival that engage them can yield a more nuanced understanding of the multiple dimensions of insecurity faced by contemporary labour in different historical contexts and the various strategies of protection they devise.
