Informal economy: ‘Include home based workers in social security net’

Many workers live in areas lacking basic amenities.

LAHORE:

Local Government Additional Secretary Moazzam Ali Janjua emphasised the need for establishing a legal framework for workers on Friday to ensure that that the social security net would cover them. 

He was speaking at a meeting convened by HomeNet Pakistan (HNP) to review the organisation’s Inclusive Urban Planning Project. Janjua praised HNP for trying to secure their rights. He said its efforts had yielded some results. He said it should now focus on developing a legal framework for them.

Janjua said the government would reserve space for them at Sunday Bazaars where they could display their wares. Janjua said they would be allowed to exhibit their produce once a week initially. He said urban policy formation should anticipate and cater to their needs.

Javaid Pasha, the HNP senior programme manager talked about the 2014 Asian Cities Declaration of Home-Based Workers. He said the declaration had emphasised the need to develop linkages between them and markets. Pasha said the declaration had urged governments to provide them with affordable housing. He said it had called governments to facilitate the establishment of night bazaars for them like those in Sri Lanka and Thailand. Pasha said the declaration had stressed the need for surveys to determine their number and economic contribution. He said it had asked for vocational training courses, health benefits and easy credit for them.

HNP programme manager Tehzeeb Baqar said being part of the informal economy home-based workers constituted one of the most vulnerable segments of society. She said many of them lived in areas lacking basic amenities.  Baqar said these issues were inextricably linked with their livelihoods as they tended to work from home. She said better service delivery would have a positive impact on their prospects by enabling them to overcome the challenges confronting them. Baqar said these included lack of market access. Participants of the meeting also reviewed proposals for forming an alliance between home-based workers and workers’ unions. Several government officials, trade unionists, non-governmental organisation representatives and home-based workers were present on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2014.