Pakistan, Bangladesh and India have a large population of women. Among them, are those women who work in large numbers in the informal sector; a majority of them being home based workers (HBWs).
Home based workers are those who are involved in the production of goods and services from their homes for remuneration. This is fixed by their employers, irrespective of who provides the equipment, materials or other inputs used. Contributing family members are also included as HBWs.
While there are about 100 million HBWs in the world, in South Asia, there are about 50 million of these workers and approximately 80 percent of these are women. Half of these women are under 30 years of age. Even though they work long hours, in unhygienic, inconvenient and even hazardous conditions, these women do not receive their due pay. Their pay scale is low, they have no registration and they receive no social security benefits.
In a South Asian consultation, members from India, Nepal, Pakistan and Thailand came to Lahore to begin their session on how to improve their network and how to bring about betterment for the women workers.
Following are Home Net South Asia’s programmes:
1) To ensure that HBWs are registered and counted in census and have their recognition in SAARC
2) To ensure that HBWs have their own organisations all over the country
3) To ensure the presence of Saarc Business Aassociation of HBWs in each South Asian country
4) To promote social security for HBWs to receive child care, health care, insurance, old age pension, and include them in government schemes and promoting new scales These programmes highlight the fact that if more than half the population are women home based workers, they should be recognised and given benefits that they deserve.
