MANUFACTURING IN ASIA IN THE INFORMAL ECONOMY

INNOCENTI WORKING PAPERS

No. 97

SOCIAL PROTECTION IN THE INFORMAL ECONOMY:

HOME BASED WOMEN WORKERS AND OUTSOURCED MANUFACTURING IN ASIA

Santosh Mehrotra and Mario Biggeri

Innocenti Working Paper No. 97

Social Protection in the Informal Economy:

Home Based Women Workers and Outsourced Manufacturing in Asia

SANTOSH MEHROTRA* and MARIO BIGGERI**

? December 2002 ?

* UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre ** UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre and Department of Economics, University of Florence.

Acknowledgements Earlier versions of this paper were presented at UNICEF's International Conference on Home Based Work by Women and Children in Asia, Bangkok, 6-8 December, 2001, and the conference on Child Labour in South Asia, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 15-17 October 2001. We are grateful to A. Giommi, L. Guarcello, P. D. Falorsi, S. Falorsi, B. Meyers, J. Micklewright, R. Srivastava, M. Suhrcke, and F. Volpi for comments. Thanks also to C. Vizcaino for her excellent research support. We acknowledge with gratitude the help of S. Mariani in getting the database in order. Without the assistance of Yvette Verna this project would have taken much longer to complete; we are deeply indebted for her support.

Copyright ? UNICEF, 2002 Cover design: Miller, Craig and Cocking, Oxfordshire ? UK Printed on recycled paper by: Tipografia Giuntina, Florence, Italy Layout and phototypsetting: Bernard & Co., Siena, Italy ISSN: 1014-7837

Readers citing this document are asked to use the following form of words:

Mehrotra, Santosh and Mario Biggeri (2002), "Social Protection in the Informal Economy: Home Based Women Workers and Outsourced Manufacturing in Asia". Innocenti Working Paper No. 97. Florence, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre.

UNICEF INNOCENTI RESEARCH CENTRE

The UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence, Italy, was established in 1988 to strengthen the research capability of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and to support its advocacy for children worldwide. The Centre (formally known as the International Child Development Centre) helps to identify and research current and future areas of UNICEF's work. Its prime objectives are to improve international understanding of issues relating to children's rights and to help facilitate the full implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in both industrialized and developing countries.

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Abstract

There has been an increasing informalisation of the labour force in developing countries over the past few decades. Simultaneously there has been a feminisation of the labour force. One aspect of this dual phenomena is the growth of subcontracted home based work in both manufacturing as well as services, and to some extent in agriculture. This paper draws on surveys carried out in five Asian countries ? two low-income (India, Pakistan) and three middle-income countries (Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines) ? where home based work is widespread. Home based work has a dual and contradictory character: on the one hand, as a source of income diversification for poor workers and the emergence of micro-enterprises, and on the other, the source of exploitation of vulnerable workers as firms attempt to contain costs. This paper examines the social protection needs of these women workers, and also argues for public action to promote such work as a possible new labour-intensive growth strategy in these and other developing countries. A companion paper examines the phenomenon of child labour in home based work in the same countries (Working Paper 96, see page 84).

One of the most understudied areas in informal sector activities in developing countries is that of home based manufacturing activities.1 Homeworkers are not counted in the GNP of most countries (in the case of own-account workers) ? much as in many informal economic activities. The scarcity of good data is both a cause and consequence of this invisible status and such activities are not covered in conventional labour force survey methods. There has been very little analysis or even acknowledgement of the contribution made by home based work (hbw) to family and national incomes. In addition, there is scant effort made, and almost no data, to distinguish children from adults in home based work, to understand the impact of this type of work on women's life and health and on children's health and schooling. Finally, there is the necessity to examine from a gender perspective the constraints as well as the opportunities arising from such income generating activities.

More attention has been given these issues in the 1990s. The ILO Con-

1 One should note that home work has been widely practised in industrialized countries going back to the industrial revolution. Home work in garment, textile and artificial flower production industries cannot be separated from that revolution. Home work survived largely due to the low wages paid to male workers in factories, the reserve army of labour available in agriculture, and the lack of alternative work for women. Home work was undertaken largely by poor, married women with children, who could thus support the family income. Around 1900, criticisms of such work began, and finally prevailed among trade unions, since it was argued that they reduced employment for men in factories, weakened their bargaining position and detracted from women's domestic responsibilities. See Boris and Prugl (1996) and Prugl (1999) for an interesting discussion.

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