Work from home
Also called: Home-based work · Topic: Employment, Unemployment and Informalisation · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Employment: Growth, Informalisation and Other Issues"
Meaning
Work from home means producing goods or providing services from one's own home. It ranges from traditional crafts to modern IT work. Millions worked this way during COVID-19 (2020-21). Big firms also outsource piece-rate work to homes. NCERT's conclusion is that outsourcing is making "the home … the workplace".
Example
In Jalandhar, Punjab, footballs are stitched in people's homes and then sold by multinational companies. A software programmer writing code from their flat is also working from home.
Don't confuse with
- Unpaid domestic work: cooking, cleaning and care at home. This is not counted as economic activity. Working from home is paid economic work that only happens to be done at home.