Women in the Informal Sector: Home-Based Workers in Karachi (Manpower AND HUMAN CAPITAL Activities) (Karachi, Pakistan) (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION The exceedingly low official estimates of female labour force participation rates (which range from 3 percent in the 1981 Census to 11 percent in the Labour Force Survey 1986-87)are known to omit a large degree of employment of women in informal sector jobs. Underestimation of female employment tends to be particularly high in case of women working in their homes who are (a) unlikely to admit to working for remuneration and (b) unlikely to be located in labour force surveys or censuses with male enumerators. These home-based workers are thought to comprise a large proportion of the "hidden" female labour force in Pakistan and their study becomes a most interesting supplement to existing official statistics.