Labour rights enjoy constitutional status in India. The Constitution of India provides for fundamental rights such as freedom of expressionand freedom of association, and labour welfare goals such as right to work, provision for living wage, appropriate conditions of work,maternity benefit, old-age assistance etc. However, in absence of state initiative informal workers in India are deprived of constitutionally guaranteed rights. Incidentally, the majority of workers in India are informal workers. Therefore, the majority of workers in the country remain excluded from labour welfare benefits. Informal workers'' organizations such as SEWA, KKPKP, Chintan etc. fills in this vacuum between constitutional guarantees and its actual realization for informal workers. By providing comprehensive services from vocational training to housing facilities, informal workers'' organizations enable workers to enjoy constitutional socio-economic rights. In this talk I will discuss the formation of a trade union of informal workers in Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, India, in order to argue that it is possible for a trade union of informal workers to realise constitutionally guaranteed dignified life for their members in absence of state initiative in this regard.