Homebased Work in 21st Century India

FOCUS

This paper has been written by Indrani Mazumdar and published by the Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi. Published in May 2018, the paper presents an overview of evolution and trends in home-based work practised by women in India. While the contribution of home-based workers to global production numbers and women’s employment trends has been studied, the implication of home as the workplace for women within patriarchy has not received much attention, the paper notes. 

The paper adds that multinational corporations benefit from the labour of women workers in developing countries who are not adequately compensated – there are established connections between premier brands like GAP and Walmart and women workers in factories/sweatshops. Trade unions have attempted to bring recognition to the situation of home-based workers in various parts of India, however, their efforts have fallen short with reference to the rapidly changing situations, locations, and gender of home-based workers. 

The paper cites a 1988 report by National Commission on Self-Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector which noted that piece-rated home workers needed better wages and better implementation of labour laws. The report recommended that minimum piece-rates given to women workers should be determined with reference to what an ordinary adult women can achieve in a period of eight hours of work. The paper adds that there has especially been token acknowledgement of unpaid labour with reference to homebased manufacturing in India. 

    FACTOIDS

  1. In 2011-12, women constituted 42.8 per cent of the homebased workers in India. However, the share of women in the country’s overall workforce in the same year was just 27 per cent. The report adds that while men outnumber women in home-based work in India, the share of home-based work in non-agricultural female employment (31.7 per cent) is almost three times its share in non-agricultural male employment (11 per cent).

  2. The manufacturing sector accounted for 72.7 per cent of women homebased workers in 2011-12, while the trade sector accounted for only 14.1 per cent of women homebased workers.

  3. Beedi manufacturing has been the single largest employer of women homebased workers. The number of beedi workers in 2010 was highest in the states of West Bengal (28.09 per cent of the total beedi workers in India), Madhya Pradesh (16.22 per cent), and Tamil Nadu (11.33 per cent). Beedi production has decreased in the 21st century from the mid-1900s, yet, the number of women beedi workers has increased.

  4. The number of handlooms in India fell from 48 lakhs in 1985 to less than 24 lakhs by 2009-10. A generalised crisis in the livelihoods of handloom workers has led to a series of suicides by distressed handloom workers since the 1990s. However, the number of women working in the handloom sector has increased from a little over 2 million as per the 1995-96 handloom census to close to 3 million in the 2009-10 handloom census.

  5. The paper notes that the predominant model of handloom production in India (outside the north-east) was mostly based on specific weaver castes or communities, although linked work such as hand spinning involved a larger group of communities. Most handlooms (more than 65 per cent) are concentrated in Northeastern India.

  6. Homebased work has long dominated the profile of women workers in Indian readymade garment manufacture. The share of homebased workers among women garment workers has increased from 63.7 per cent in 1999-2000 to 85.5 per cent in 2011-12.


    Focus and Factoids by Karen Chhaya.

AUTHOR

Indrani Mazumdar

COPYRIGHT

Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi

PUBLICATION DATE

2018

TAGS

#women-artisans #women-workers #homebased-work

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