Commemorating Home Based workers day in South Asia 20 October 2013 The Government of Pakistan is now well aware of the fact that the burden of poverty falls more heavily on the women of the households. Women working in the house to earn money are the home based workers. They have constraints on their mobility and hence their access to skill development , market knowledge, health facilities ,education and micro credit are limited .Despite this they still manage to make a significant contribution to the labour and income of their households .Indeed, poorer the household, greater the contribution from the women. The Government of Pakistan has shown commitment to redress this grave injustice by taking the initiative to finalize the National Policy for the Home based workers, Punjab Policy for the Home based workers and Sindh Policy for the Home based workers; in order to recognize them as “workers” and extend the social protection to the invisible workers of Pakistan who are the silent contributors in the national GDP . The 65 percent of the home based workers of Pakistan approximately 12 million; goes unrecognized when they are not considered workers under the existing labour definitions in the country . Among the four provinces, the urban home-based women work force in Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan and KP is 1,275,022 (41.9%) million, 748,056 (24.6%) million, 905,401 (29.8%) million and 111,790 million (3.7%), respectively. The rural HBWs work force in Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan and KP was 6,052,057 (70.5%) million, 1,925,477, (22.4%) million, 553,281 (6.4%) million, and 55,677 (0.65%) million, respectively. They need to be declared “workers” ; they need to be counted ; they need to be protected and promoted by progressive legislations , social protection policies . They need to be honored for the silent contribution and support they are providing to the economy at this critical juncture. For theirs are the ‘golden hands’ behind the labour markets. On the occasion of South Asian Home based workers day , commemorating the Kathmandu declaration 2000; we urge upon the National and Provincial democratic government to : 1. Recognize the home based workers as “workers”. 2. Prioritize the adoption of the National Policy on Home Based Workers and ensure its proper implementation so as to guarantee women access to social security benefits; and, take measures to ensure that the correspondent policy is adopted by all Provinces in the State party. 3. Develop and adopt legislative frameworks around home based workers needs providing them protection , and promoting their skills for the national and international markets. 4. Ratify ILO Convention No. 177 on Home-based work. 5. Include the home based work category as a category of “work” in labor statistics and labour force surveys ; 6. Declare 20th Oct as Pakistan’s Home based workers day ; giving recognition visibility and identity to the invisible workers . -- Ume Laila Azhar Executive Director HomeNet Pakistan 2-B Garden View Apartments Lawrence Road Lahore Tel: +92 42 36313186-88 Fax: +92 42 36312294 Cell: 0334 4225779
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 20:22:17 +0000
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