KARACHI: Women workers working in informal sectors on Friday sounded apprehensive about manifestos announced by political parties for election 2018 with specific reference to the empowerment of labour force in the country.
Sadaf Bano from Landhi said empowerment of labourers is a crucial requirement as they are the major force behind the economic growth of the country.
“Introducing a wage equivalent to a decent standard of living for a worker and his or her family is incumbent upon all political parties and their leadership,” she said.
Bano in reply to a query emphasized that a decent standard of living encompasses food, water, education, healthcare, transport, clothing and other essential necessities of life.
HomeNet Sindh Coordinator Naheed Syed expressed that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) seems to have taken a lead in realising the needs of women workers related to informal sector.
“The party has not only introduced a law to regularized the home based workers but also took measures for implementation of 14 different Labour Laws for the protection of rights of workers during its previous tenure in Sindh,” she said mentioning that most prominent is the raise in minimum wage as compared to all other provinces.
“There is urgent need that political leadership in general take meaningful measures towards a democratic and impartial system of governance based on equality and fair distribution,” said Naheed.
Senior women activist and a former journalist Mahnaz Rahman supplementing Naheed said PPP in its manifest has highlighted their mportance of recognising the informal sector of the economy.
“It cannot simply be ignored by any section,” she reiterated mentioning that the sector consists of 748,056 and 1.9 million in rural areas home-based workers of Sindh who fall into the informal bracket of the economy.
The activists were of the concerted opinion that strong commitment was needed for preparation of the rules of business regarding pro-workers laws only recently adopted in Sindh.
“In-fact this should be on the forefront of concerns of other political parties too, as this has been endlessly neglected,” added Mahnaz reiterating that these are crucial for the economy to prosper and help raising the standards of living of informal workers in particular and all workers in general.
HomeNet Pakistan Chairperson Umme Laila Rizvi said there is a need of categorical commitments on part of all political parties to help empowerment of millions of workers in the informal sector including home-based women workers.
The large scale informal sector in Pakistan, of which majority are women, work tirelessly to benefit themselves, the economy andsociety, on a whole.
