Globally, the new millennium has been associated with an increase in informal forms of employment combined with a rising number of women in such forms of employment, across the developing world. Among the different forms of informal employment arrangements common in developing countries, home based workers constitute a significant and increasing form of the informal workforce in manufacturing and services sectors.

The majority of home-based workers are women, who while combining their work and family responsibilities, usually live and work in poverty. The home-based workers include self-employed or subcontracted homeworkers, generally with little education who spend long working hours in labour intensive, low productivity occupations, earning a subsistence level.

Home-based workers are involved in the production of goods or services for the market at their own homes or nearby premises. Home based workers who generally remain invisible from the public eye, are engaged in different industries and occupations. They are engaged in stitching garments and weaving textiles; producing craft products; processing and preparing food items; assembling or packaging electronics, automobile parts, and pharmaceutical products; selling goods or providing services (laundry, hair-cutting, beautician); or doing clerical or professional work; among other activities (Chen 2014). Home-based workers constitute a significant share of urban employment in many Asian countries, especially in case of women.

In case of India in 2011-12, home based workers accounted for 14 per cent of total urban employment and 32 per cent of women’s urban employment (Chen and Raveendran 2014); while in Pakistan in 2008-9, they constituted 4 per cent of total urban employment and 31 per cent of women’s urban employment (Akhtar and Vanek 2013).

Home based work represents a vulnerable form of employment, in terms of income security and lack of social protection and decent working conditions. Generally lacking legal protection, home-based workers remain vulnerable to exploitation, as they are engaged in work through informal arrangements and in isolation. Globally, home based workers have been recognized as a growing part of the workforce and the International Labour 8 Organization has adopted the Convention on Home Work (C 177), along with Recommendation (R 184) in 1996 for providing provides legal protection to home based workers. The Convention sets minimum standards for pay, working conditions and social protection which can be translated into national laws and policies. However, only ten countries have so far ratified the Convention, while Pakistan is not a signatory to the Convention.

Productive work for HBWs is essential for effective poverty reduction, as is a fair distribution of the wealth these workers help generate. HBWs and their organizations have raised their voice on the fragile socio-economic position of the majority of HBWs and other informal economy workers, and this concern is a recurring subject of debate among local, national and international organizations engaged in international cooperation on development and the promotion of social justice and a fair globalization.

In order to develop a better understanding of issues related to home based workers in the context of Pakistan, UN Women with the support of its implementing partners and provincial Labour Departments conducted a national survey of women home-based workers. This survey, conducted under the Project “Economic Empowerment of Women Homebased Workers and Excluded Groups in Pakistan (2017-2020)” collected data of around 9,000 HBWs from 8 districts of three provinces (Sindh, KPK and Balochistan).

This Report highlights the main findings of the Survey. In-depth analysis of the data would help understand the nature and dimensions of the problem and will provide insights for policy making, guide in drafting the law, in programme design and above all, will document the current situation for future research, and policy implementation.