1. Organising homebased workers and strengthening their networks

The stronger the organisations at the base, the more powerful will be the lobbying and alliance building at different levels. HomeNet South Asia, through its national and subregional networks, encourages the organising of homebased workers’ associations, groups and unions, through which they will voice their demands and concerns and increase their bargaining power. The strength of organising will enable them to bargain for better wages and more secure work arrangements. Moreover, it will give them a greater ability to negotiate to access credit, improved technologies, training programmes and other resources, which can improve the quality and delivery of their products and thereby contribute to their families’ livelihood.

2. National policies for homebased workers

As women predominate in the informal economy (and constitute the vast majority of homebased workers), the development of appropriate policies regarding the informal economy is critical for the economic and social empowerment of women workers. Therefore, many key institutions and organisations have been working on behalf of homebased workers. One outcome of this effort has been the adoption by the International Labour Organization (ILO) of ILO Convention 177 on homeworkers (subcontracted homebased workers, also known as ‘outworkers’) in 1996. The ILO and homebased workers’ organisations are now working to translate the Convention into reality. The Convention stipulates that all countries having homeworkers should ratify and implement the convention to improve the condition of these subcontracted workers. In addition, there is a need to develop national policies on homebased workers (both ‘subcontracted’ and ‘self-employed’) which promote protection against discrimination, proper remuneration, occupational safety and health, social security protection, and access to skills and other types of training, with the goal of increasing the incomes and security of these very vulnerable informal workers and their families.

3. Developing programmes on Social Protection for homebased workers

Most workers in the informal economy, particular in developing countries, have never had access to social protection even though it has been available to formal economy workers, civil servants, and others for many decades. On average, developed countries spend 10-15 per cent of their GDP on social protection, whereas in low-income countries only 1-5 per cent of the GDP is spent in this way.

Conventional social security schemes are designed for formal workers, and cannot be readily applied to homebased workers as social security presupposes that income from work will normally provide sufficient income for workers and their families to live, and that most people will have regular work. However, in the case of homebased workers, these assumptions do not hold as their incomes are usually low and may be irregular, seasonal, or in other ways insufficient to pay into social security and other schemes in a way that assures their ongoing coverage. Moreover, insurance companies tend to think of informal workers as unable or unwilling to participate in their programmes; therefore, informal workers rarely have access to life insurance, health insurance, or other forms of public or private insurance schemes. Social protection programmes are thus needed that are more flexible than conventional approaches to social security, insurance, health, maternity, and other needs faced by workers and their families.

4. Reaching markets

Many multinational companies have shown their concern in promoting fair labour practice by hiring human rights compliance officers, and establishing monitoring firms to frame and follow ‘Codes of Conduct’. However, the ‘Codes of Conduct’ of these companies have not yet addressed the issues of homebased workers. It is learnt that many companies are now eager for concrete information, guidelines for codes, mechanisms of monitoring, and other promising strategies.

HomeNet South Asia, together with WIEGO and other partners, over time is carrying out activities to raise awareness about fair trade practices; formulate a guiding ‘code of conduct’ for companies that employ homebased workers including core labour standards; develop a methodology for calculating piece-rates; develop guiding principles for monitoring homebased worker-related programmes and policies; and create a virtual resource centre on homebased workers which will include information regarding their size, economic and social contribution, innovative strategies, and other approaches to upgrading their technical and management skills in order to secure more sustainable incomes.

5. Some achievements (HNSA)

Since the Kathmandu Declaration, great strides have been made in the formation and the development of organizations of home based workers and their networks. HomeNet South Asia has emerged as a representative body of the organizations working with and for the home based workers in the five countries of the region and was formally launched on 20th January 2007. It has provided a platform for women home based workers in the region to link to each other and provide solidarity across barriers. HomeNet South Asia has been acknowledged by SAARC as the representational body of home based workers in the region, and will work toward the formation of policies, implementation and monitoring of programs concerning all aspect of home based workers lives and work.

To this end, workshops and sensitization seminars with local level and national level policy makers and implementers have taken place. Various tools like organizing meetings, presentations, workers rally, sensitization workshops, posters, newsletters, websites, have been used to achieve this.

Other accomplishments in recent years include a regional Crafts Mela, which was held in Lahore, Pakistan in 2005. A total of nearly 45 organizations set up stalls, bringing to the fore products made by over 4000 home based workers. All these events have been great learning experiences.

In addition, HomeNet South Asia (HNSA) has forged several partnerships with international and regional agencies in its advocacy efforts – with WIEGO to highlight the needs of urban informal sector workers, with GLI for the ILO Convention and with ETI for fair trade policies. HNSA has also developed a wide range of multimedia knowledge products – pamphlets, reports, newsletter, posters, TV spots, and press conferences – to strengthen its advocacy efforts. Due to the efforts of HNSA, the concerns of own account home-based workers were included in the Resolution on Informal Economy, ILO, 2002.

HNSA has been actively participating in the regional dialogue for devising social security for home based workers in the Asia region. Some of the outcomes of this Asian Social Protection Dialogue are being translated into advocacy knowledge products. Even when HomeNet South Asia and its country partners make an impact in local, regional and national arena, as they are doing today, efforts to consolidate and focus sharply to garner specific policy achievements are also underway. Advocacy efforts have already ensured recognition and visibility of home based workers, they need to be sustained and further strengthened so as to translate into specific policies for home based workers. A strong, innovative and unparallel information base on home based workers in the region has been created, it needs to be sharpened into a powerful advocacy tool which takes the issues of home based work beyond the national boundaries and highlights similar messages from all countries – of numbers, statistics, earnings, and vulnerabilities of the home based workers.