LAHORE, Jan 31: The Punjab government has set up a working group to formulate recommendations for legislation on home-based workers.

A meeting of the working group would soon be held, Chief Minister's Adviser Begum Zakia Shahnawaz said at a one-day provincial conference organised by HomeNet Pakistan in coordination with Sialkot Bedari at a hotel here on Tuesday.

Begum Shahnawaz said the recommendations would be presented to the Punjab Assembly for legislation, aimed at ameliorating the lot of home-based workers. She stressed the need to educate women in rural areas and appreciated the role of civil society organisation in this regard.

Earlier, HomeNet Pakistan Executive Director Ume Laila spoke about the role of the civil society in highlighting the problems being faced by home-based women workers and their contribution to the national economy. The HomeNet Pakistan has put up a policy draft in the light of ILO Convention C177 to recognise home-based workers as workers and to give them proper social protection. In collaboration with other organisations, the HomeNet Pakistan has been raising the voice about the issues confronting the home-based workers.

Bedari Sialkot president Hina Noreen said a group of social workers started work in 1991 in Roras village and set up a literacy and training centre for women. So far, some 5,000 women and 1,100 men have been educated and 10,000 women have been identified for technical training in various sectors.

Women rights activist Mehnaz Rafi, Pakistan Labour Federation General Secretary Sardar Rehmatullah, Punjab Social Security Director-General Sahibzada Afzal Ahmad, Irfan Mufti and Javed Pasha also spoke at the conference attended by home-based workers from Sialkot, Faisalabad, Kasur and Okara.

By Our Staff Reporter