Kashif Shamim Siddiqui
As the world observes International Home-Based Workers Day today, Pakistan’s millions of home-based women workers remain caught in a web of invisibility, exploitation, and economic disparity. Behind every embroidered shawl, stitched garment, or handcrafted ornament lies the untold story of resilience and quiet endurance. Yet, these women who contribute significantly to the country’s informal economy continue to be denied fair wages and recognition.
This day serves as a reminder to look beyond factories and offices to acknowledge the invisible workforce that keeps Pakistan’s industries moving from within the walls of their homes.
Social and Economic Injustices:
Home-based workers (HBWs), predominantly women, bear the dual burden of domestic responsibilities and long working hours. They produce goods for both local and export markets yet are denied basic labor rights such as fair wages, social security, healthcare, and maternity benefits.
Working informally from their homes, they remain outside the legal definition of “workers,” which isolates them from unions, labor inspections, and protection mechanisms.
These women often face cultural constraints, lack bargaining power, and depend heavily on intermediaries making them among the most exploited segments of Pakistan’s workforce.
The Exploitative Role of Middlemen:
At the heart of the home-based labor system lies a deeply exploitative structure the middlemen or agents who control the entire production chain. They supply raw materials, dictate rates, collect finished products, and reap the lion’s share of the profit.
Women workers, on the other hand, receive only a fraction of what their work is worth. In areas like Orangi Town, Karachi, women making incense sticks are paid as low as Rs. 9 for producing 1,000 sticks while the same products are sold by intermediaries to factories at many times that amount.
This “piece-rate” system disregards time, skill, and cost of production, pushing workers into a cycle of poverty. Middlemen maintain deliberate opacity, ensuring workers remain disconnected from brands, contractors, and the final market and thus unable to claim their rightful earnings.
Legal Recognition: Progress Without Practice:
Pakistan has made legislative progress in recent years. The Sindh Home-Based Workers Act, 2018 was South Asia’s first law to formally recognize home-based workers as part of the labor force. Similar laws in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and Punjab followed.
Yet, these achievements largely exist on paper. Implementation is slow, and enforcement remains weak. The registration of home-based workers, minimum wage regulation, and social protection schemes are still pending. Meanwhile, middlemen continue to operate unchecked, exploiting the gaps between law and practice.
Pathways to Market Access and Empowerment:
For true empowerment, home-based workers must be connected directly to national and international markets. Eliminating exploitative intermediaries is key.
This can be achieved by:
Forming cooperatives and associations that allow collective bargaining. Leveraging digital tools and online marketplaces so workers can sell directly. Branding and skill development programs to enhance product quality and visibility. Ethical sourcing by brands that commit to transparency and fair pay across their supply chains. When home-based women are visible in the value chain, their economic contribution gains the dignity and recognition it deserves.
Shared Responsibility for Change:
The road to justice for home-based workers requires a shared commitment:
Government must ensure effective implementation of existing HBW laws, enforce minimum wages, and integrate workers into social protection systems. Private sector must establish transparent and fair procurement systems that bypass exploitative intermediaries.
NGOs and civil society must continue raising awareness, offering legal literacy, and amplifying the voices of home-based women. Empowerment will only become reality when policies translate into practice, and when every worker — regardless of where she works — is treated with fairness and dignity.
A Call for Recognition and Respect:
On this International Home-Based Workers Day, let us honor the unseen women who stitch, craft, and create from the shadows. They are the invisible strength behind Pakistan’s economic fabric deserving not of pity, but of partnership and parity.
Recognizing their work, ensuring fair pay, and dismantling exploitative chains is not charity it is justice long overdue.
