PM to open South Asian Policy conference on home based workers

New Delhi, Jan 5 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would inaugurate the South Asian Policy Conference here on home-based workers on January 18 which would focus on developing policy on improving the status of home-based women workers in five South Asian nations.

The three-day conference on 'Women Work and Poverty: Policy Conference on Home Based Workers of South Asia' is being jointly organised by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and Ahmedabad-based Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA).

The key objective of the Conference is to advocate for making available benefits of growth to home based workers in the five countries in South Asia in order to lift them out of poverty. The workshop will specifically deliberate on issues of policy for the home based workers; fair trade; social security and building voice and organizations.

The conference is expected to be attended by over 120 key delegates, including senior representations from Ministries, Home-Based Workers' organizations, policy making bodies, academic institutions, NGOs and allied UN bodies.

It would be attended by participants from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Ministers and Secretaries from relevant ministries in the South Asian region have been invited to make presentations on Trade, Social Security and Labour Protection.

There are over 100 million home-based workers (HBWs) in the world, out of which, half the number are in South Asia alone. Around 80 per cent of these home-based workers are women, most of who are amongst the poorest, the most exploited and vulnerable segment of workers today.

The bulk of women home-based workers producers live and work in "on-the-margin" survival conditions and do a variety of jobs for industry and trade, ranging from sewing garments, assembling electronic components to simple jobs of sorting, packaging and labeling goods.

As a workforce, home-based workers are largely invisible. With the growing globalization and decentralisation of production, home based work has emerged as the final link in a global chain of subcontractors encompassing a wide range of industries and services.

UNI