Home-based enterprise and housing policy: evidence from India and Indonesia.

Abstract

An increasing proportion of householders in developing world cities are using the space of the dwelling and the labour of the household to generate income in a wide variety of home-based enterprises (HBEs). In most cities such enterprises conflict with planning norms and zoning regulations with regard to economic activities within residential areas and consequently are actively repressed or grudgingly tolerated. Rarely are such activities acknowledged as playing a positive role economically or socially. However given the weakness of the formal employment sector and the inability of the state to deliver in many areas of urban policy, such informal household initiatives have a vital role to play both in poverty alleviation at household level as well as contributing to the vitality of neighbourhood and national economies. Because of their income-generating potential, the presence of HBEs is likely to improve housing conditions even though their use of space and generation of externalities may be seen as harmful. To examine these issues we will draw on empirical evidence collected as part of a recently completed international comparative research study into the environmental impacts of HBEs in four developing world cities. The project was funded by the British Department for International Development (DFID). Data from the two Asian cities (New Delhi and Surabaya) will be used to present the case for a radical rethinking of official policy responses to home-based income generation in low-income areas. The policy proposals advocated in this paper1 are in line with the sustainable livelihoods approach adopted by the United Nations which encourages the integration of various strands of development intervention including social development, micro-entrepreneurship, natural resource management, good governance and disaster preparedness. The paper offers physical planning guidelines with respect to infrastructure provision and plot sizes; proposals to minimise health and safety risks; 1 An earlier version of this paper was presented at the ENHR International Housing Research Conference in Vienna in July 2002.

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