National policy on home-based workers discussed

[Naveed Yaseen]

The National Policy on Home-Based Workers is aimed at bringing laws and regulations concerning home-based workers in conformity with constitutional provisions and principles developed by international human rights and ILO conventions. This was stated by Adviser to Chief Minister, Sharmila Faruqui.

She was delivering the key-note address at a workshop about home-based workers, policy implementation, advocacy and action plans. The event was organised by Aurat Foundation in collaboration with Home Net Pakistan.

“The government recognises the problems of 8.52 million home-based workers in the country. More than 85 per cent of these workers are women.

That these home-based workers contribute a large amount to the country’s economic growth can be gauged from the fact that 80 per cent of the world’s match-grade footballs earn nearly $50 million in foreign exchange from this industry alone,” Faruqui observed.

The adviser discussed the main objectives of the national policy and said that it would help in recognising and accepting home-based workers as ‘workers’ in their own right through legislative and administrative actions and would focus on the needs, concerns and demands of women home-based workers through an institutional approach of gender mainstreaming at all levels.

These home-based workers, particularly women, would also be provided learning opportunities for capacity building besides training on improved production exposure visits within and outside Pakistan to share experiences with active women home-based workers, she added.

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