Invisible Workers? Women Homeworkers in the Garment Industry of Pakistan

This paper focuses on women homeworkers in the garment industry of Pakistan. The paper has the objective of analyzing the challenges faced by women home-based workers. The paper is also an endeavour to understand the ways through which women's involvement in homework has empowered or constrained them in terms of access to their labour rights and entitlements in Pakistan. Existing labour rights entitlements available to homeworkers at the national and the international level are first reviewed and assessed. The study also introduces the local and global context in which homeworkers are situated and their work is analyzed both at the level of the labour market and at the household level, in order to explore the implications of global supply chains for their empowerment and agency. The paper argues that women's involvement in homework within the private sphere of the household held implications for their labour and other human rights in Pakistan. Women's involvement in homework brings some positive changes in the life of a few women, but the process of change is very slow and choices are limited for homeworkers in general. However, despite the limitations of homework there is also some, limited, scope for women's empowerment through establishment of different support mechanisms.