Faisalabad: August 13, 2012. (PCP) Government should review and adopt the already submitted National and Provincial Policy for Home Based Workers and immediately pass legislation protecting their rights, and ensure the inclusion of Home Based Workers into national census to have complete data of Home Based Workers in the Country. This was demanded by the participants of a consultation around "Connecting Voices for the Social & Legal Cover for Home Based Workers" which was convened by the Association of Women for Awareness & Motivation (AWAM) in collaboration with Women Worker's Union (WWU) at a local hotel in Faisalabad, aiming to unite the different stakeholders including Trade Unions, Federations, Associations, Women Home Based Workers and Sub-Contractors for strategic planning to resolve the problems and hurdles of Home Based Workers. The forum also urged the state to ratify the ILO Convention 177 securing the rights of Home Based Workers. This consultation was attended by 37 participants from Faisalabad and Lahore including Labour Leaders, Senior Leadership of Trade Unions, Social & Human Rights Activists, Manager Labour Department, Employment Old Age Benefits Institute (EOBI), Home Based Workers and Sub-Contractors. Nazia Sardar (Director AWAM), Naseem Anthony (Executive Secretary AWAM), Hanif Ramay (Muthida Labour Federation Punjab), Mumtaz Hussain (Social Activist) Aslam Wafa (Janbaz Labour Federation), Arif Ayaz (Workers Party Pakistan), Sajid Iqbal Safdar (Pakistan Trade Union Federation), Akhter Aziz (Manager Labour Department), Bilal Arshed (EOBI) and Asif Mehmood (BISP) were among the speakers who shared their views for the provision of social and legal cover to Home Based Workers. Nazia Sardar said, "73 percent population of the Pakistan is engaged in informal sector including 90 percent home based workers who are not legally covered by any definition of labour in Pakistan. This unseen labour force, majority of them are women, face economic, and social discrimination and exploitation." She further said, "Over three hundred thousand workers are the total members of 7382 registered trade unions in which women are only 4487 which make their proportion only 1.49 percent." "The participation of women in trade unions should be enhanced to remove the inequality and injustice. The government should announce a comprehensive policy immediately and formulate action plan to ensure the provision of facilities under social security, EOBI and workers welfare fund/board," she demanded. Mumtaz Hussain said, "Informal sector in which major portion consists of women are already facing social pressure, discriminatory laws and customary practices, and are compelled to live on the margins." "The ratio of poverty and unemployment cause increase of women in informal sectors, and resultantly they are not included in the mainstream of development and politics," he added. "Provisional autonomy has provided an opportunity to provinces for formulating new laws and policies as per the need and environment of provinces, so the Punjab Government should review the already submitted policy and formulate new law to recognize the Home Based Workers as a labour who are contributing 30% in national economy," he further added. Hanif Ramay said, "It is imperative to cover the workers of home based industry into labour definition to provide them social and legal protection." "The organizations concerned with labour rights should strengthen, and make their communication effective to demand a strong mechanism ensuring proper implementation on the laws and policies related to workers," he emphasized. Arif Ayaz said, "The State Institutions concerned with Labour are strong, effective and empowered but not playing their due role which is increasing social injustice and exploitation. Therefore all law enforcement agencies and other state institutions must perform their duties." Naseem Anthony said, "Women home based workers are deprived of all kind of facilities, and forced to work on very low wages without any job security and unlimited working hours, therefore they must be accepted as producers and artisans. It is imperative to putting them under some trade or labour policy in the country, increase their productivity by imparting skills, access to credit schemes and market." "In order to provide social and legal cover, the State should ratify ILO C-177 and formulate the policies and laws as per the articles of said convention," he demanded. Aslam Wafa said, "It is good omen that Punjab Government is considering the policy regarding home based workers, but civil society should also put their energy towards adding section H to cover home-based workers in the labour definition in Pakistan Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Order) 1968."