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Abstract
Various major interrelated factors stimulate the informal economy. Key amongst these are the adoption of LPG regime, under which there has been more emphasis on the flexible contracting and sub- contracting as the employers aimed to reduce their costs by using the low cost producers via subcontracting and creates greater vulnerabilities for informal workers, specially home based workers. Through the use of homeworkers in rural and urban locations, supplies to national and multinational corporations reduce their overheads and economic risks by transferring the pressures of prices and tight deadlines imposed buyer driven chains onto the most vulnerable workers (subcontracting workers) at the bottom of supply chains. The object of this paper an attempt has been made to examine the nature/ type of work the home based workers have to perform in the different industry groups and production activities. This paper is based on primary data collected through the survey of home based workers in Punjab state. The study can be stated that manufacturing is the main sector for male and female home based workers in both rural and urban areas. large majority of these workers (60.00 per cent) involved in manufacturing work and the share of female home based workers involved in manufacturing is more than 70 per cent in both rural and urban areas. 20 per cent home-based workers are involved in wholesale and retail trade. It points towards the limited employment opportunities for female subcontracting workers, especially in rural areas and most of them are working from their own dwelling unit in rural (86.36 per cent) as well as urban areas (79.89 per cent).