KARACHI: As the world marked June 20 as the 20th anniversary of the acceptance of homebased workers by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as part of workforce, local home-based workers reiterated the demand on Monday that they be legally recognised by the state and given an identity.

Speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, general secretary of Home Based Workers Association Zehra Khan said that it was high time the government recognised the home-based workers and ratified the Home Work Convention 1996 (No177) as part of law.

This, she said, would at least give a formal recognition to the workers whose stories went unnoticed, who were underpaid or often went unpaid and exploited by middlemen due to the absence of a law ensuring their rights. At the same time, she said, the wages of home-based workers should also be raised.

This year in March, a petition was filed in the senate by the association, which followed three meetings, with the last one held on June 14. `The Sindh government has formed a five-member committee to review the law and implement home-based workers policy. But so far, the notification about the law is being awaited andnothing has materialised,` she said.

According to the activists, Senator Javed Abbasi from the law and justice committee of the senate was by far the only person who had shown serious interest in legislation for home-based workers and recognising them as part of daily wage workforce.

Others, they said, `do not come prepared to meetings and so a lot of time is wasted in clarifications and reaching an agreement.

Women constitute a large part of home based economy and supply chain in the market by contributing to carpet weaving, packing, stitching and embroidery, among others. At the same time, they also pay for the production cost in making these things.

`Such people are often exploited by middlemen or remain underpaid because of the absence of a defined law,` Ms Zehra said.

Provincial head of the National Trade Union Federation, Gul Rehman, said that after all these years, Home Work Convention 177 had been recognised only by 10 countries.

He said that according to an estimate 50 million home based workers were in South Asia out of which above a million were in Pakistan. Though resolutions had been passed by allfour provinces `but it`s been three years now and there is no discussion going on the resolutions in any assembly,` he added.