HBWWF calls for implementing Sindh Home-Based Workers Act

Like many other important laws, the Sindh Home-Based Workers Act 2018 is yet to be implemented even a year ago after its passage.

Leaders of the Home-based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF) on Thursday lamented the non-implementation of the law as they addressed a news conference at the Karachi Press Club on the completion of the first 10 years of their struggle.

The HBWWF, a body working for the rights of the home-based workers, also announced a gathering

of women workers at the Arts Council on the coming Monday.

Zehra Khan, a founder leader of the HBWWF, said Sindh was the first province in South Asia that passed a law to ensure rights of the home-based workers in 2018. “Now the Rules of Business of this Act are in the final phase and once they are made, the home-based workers of Sindh would get their due rights as other workers of the formal sector duly recognised by the labour laws,” she added.

Home-based workers are the lowest paid workers, she remarked. “As per an estimate, there are more than 12 million home-based workers in Pakistan and their number is rising with a rate of 5 per cent a year,” she said, adding that their crucial role in the national economy is yet to be accepted and they are still deprived of their rights and social security privileges under the labour laws.

Commemorating the first 10 years of the HBWWF, Zehra said that the organisation will continue its struggle for the rights of the home-based workers who are still amongst the poorest of the poor.

She announced that the HBWWF will organise a big gathering of women home-based workers at the Arts Council on Monday afternoon, in which women home-based workers from the country’s different districts would participate and present cultural programmes to highlight their issues. A documentary would also be shown at the event.

An award named after Comrade Shanta, the first female activist belonging to the Communist Party in Sindh`s history who organised working-class women and struggled for their rights, would be presented to home-based women workers for their heroic struggle, Zehra announced.

Leaders and workers of different workers’ federations and human rights organisations would also attend the event, at the end of which the future line of action for the struggle would be announced, she said.

Speakers also demanded of the Sindh government to announce the rules of the business of the Act and take necessary steps for the registration of the home-based workers with social security and EOBI.

Other speakers included Saira Feroz, Shakeela Khan, Jameela Abdul Latif, Shabnam Azam and Zahida Mukhtar.