Women account for growing share in informal economy

NATHIAGALI: Around 73 percent of Pakistan’s workforce is employed in the informal economy and women, who are mostly engaged in low-paid jobs, have a growing share in the sector, a rights activist said. 

“The home-based and the domestic workers are the most underprivileged groups of the informal sector who continue to suffer in the absence of policies,” said Munawar Sultana, who heads the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) project ‘Gender Equality for Decent Employment’. 

Sultana, addressing a two-day moot on “Women in the Informal Economy: Recognising the Invisible Hands”, said the project has engaged a proactive and committed group of parliamentarians, who can voice the issues and suggest actions in the parliament, support developing relevant legislations and lobby with the relevant authorities for the endorsement and approval of legislation and oversee the process of implementation.

The ILO organised the moot on May 27 and 28. 

Shahrayar Afridi, a member of National Assembly from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said lawmakers must strive to secure the rights of informal sector’s workers as they are instrumental in getting the public issues resolved.  

“They shall set aside their mutual differences, overcome party differences and launch collective struggle to achieve this end,” said Afridi. 

A diverse group of parliamentarians, belonging to both treasury and opposition members, attended the event.

The main objective of the activity was to sensitise and engage public representatives in the legislature in a way that they become custodians of the rights of the informal workforce.

Another lawmaker Dr Shazia Sobia said that she had seen the miseries of female agriculture workers who had to work hard in the fields, even during their pregnancies, and treated them. “I’ve provided medical care to children who had suffered from diseases due to excessive exposure to pesticides and other toxic materials,” Sobia said. “Special efforts shall be made to save these people from such hazards.” 

A parliamentarian Malik Uzair Awan said trainings for domestic workers have been launched under the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme in the selected districts. 

Awan said minimum wage issue has been discussed several times, “but there is very little debate around the need to limit maximum working hours.”    

The parliamentarians said they have a better understanding of the issues faced by women in the informal economy after attending the discussion. They vowed that they would raise these issues in the houses and get them recognised in the parliament in the form of questions, bills, adjournment motions and post-budget speeches. 

There was also a consensus among the participants that similar consultations would be organised in the provinces. Labour is a provincial subject and the real push would come from there, they said.