Home-based work is a growing global phenomenon, with over 100 million people working from their homes (Sinha 2006), in countries both rich and poor. With the rise of complex global chains of production over the past half-century, home-based work has grown exponentially.

The term “home-based worker” is used to refer to the general category of workers who carry out remunerative work within their homes or in the surrounding grounds. It does not refer to either unpaid housework or paid domestic work.

Home-based work encompasses a wide diversity, ranging from traditional embroidery and weaving to tele-work. Home-based workers may work in the new economy (assembling micro-electronics) or the old (weaving carpets).

Within the general category of home-based workers, there are two basic types of workers: those who work on their own (the self-employed) and those who work for others (mainly as industrial outworkers). The term “homeworker” is used to refer to the second sub-set of home-based workers: namely, industrial outworkers who carry out paid work from their home.

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Urban Story

Home-based Garment Workers - The Impact of the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA)

Impact: There is arguably no greater gap in economic wealth and bargaining power than between the homebased garment worker and the owner of the large garment manufacturing or retail firm for which she produces. SEWA works with home based garment workers to increase their incomes, improve their equipment, and develop their skills.

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Publication

Mixed-Use Zoning and Home-Based Production in India.
Technical Briefing Note, No. 3.
By Nohn, Mattias. 2011

Download the pdf: Mixed-Use Zoning and Home-Based Production in India (pdf file 3 Mb)

Making Home-Based Work Visible: A Review of Evidence from South Asia
Research Report, No. 10.
By Sudarshan, R.M. and Sinha, S. 2011

Download the pdf: Making Home-Based Work Visible(pdf file 436 Kb)

Approaches to Basic Service Delivery for the Working Poor: Assessing the Impact of the Parivartan Slum Upgrading Programme in Ahmedabad, India.
By Sara Rusling. 2010

Download the pdf: Approaches to Basic Service Delivery for the Working Poor (pdf 658 KB)

We Are Workers Too!
Organizing Home-Based Workers in the Global Economy
By Celia Mather, WIEGO Organizing Series

The We Are Workers Too! manual aims to help home-based workers, no matter where in the world, to know more about:

• their skills and value, not just to their families but to society at large and to the economy, even at a global level;
• their status as workers, and the fact that, like all other workers in the world, they have rights, even if many others do not recognize this yet;
• how they can get together with other home-based workers to get more recognition and improve their situation.

Download the Pdf (web-viewing pdf 3Mb) (in-house printing pdf 9Mb)
For professional printing files email a request to webmaster@inclusivecities.org.

To access more research and publications, please visit the resources page