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The fashion industry's invisible workforce
For many retailers, India is the place to find the skills required to produce the exquisite hand-worked, embellished clothing and accessories that fashion-conscious consumers love. Yet although homeworkers are the backbone of this Indian export industry, the complex and informal supply chains that typify the garment industry mean they are often hard to trace.
And because of their informal status in the economy, homeworkers often suffer poorer living and working conditions compared to formal sector workers. Low wages, irregularity of work, lack of social protection, high rates of occupational injury, lack of access to training and information about rights and entitlements, as well as weak bargaining power have been identified as common concerns for homeworkers in India.
Resources from ETI programmes with homeworkers
You'll find a wealth of information and guidance on homeworkers and homeworking generated from ETI programme work, designed to help companies and other interested organisations to improve working conditions of homeworkers in global supply chains.