LAHORE: Home-based workers (HBWs) staged a protest demonstration outside the Lahore Press Club on Thursday, demanding approval of the long-awaited work policy for them ahead of the Labour Day (May 1).

Chanting slogans and holding placards and banners, they criticised the Punjab government for its delaying tactics in regulating their work. They said the government apparently didn’t want the workers to flourish.

“We are living under hardships but no policy or law supports us. There are no housing schemes for us, not even a single mechanism for ascertaining wages and no complaint mechanism that can solve our problems,” a joint statement issued by HBWs reads.

It urges Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to announce the pending HBWs policy on the Labour Day.

This was the third demonstration staged by the HBWs in a month. This time, dozens of HBWs from Kasur also joined the demonstration.

“Millions of HBWs are awaiting the approval of legislation which will give them right of workers,” said Fazaleet from Kasur. “We would fight for our rights and march from Kasur to Lahore if the related policy is not approved,” she warned.

The HBWs said they had been waiting for many years but the government was not paying heed to their demands.

“We and our children have right to live in better conditions like others,” said a worker from Lahore.

“We are not getting minimum wages, regular work, etc. The politicians are doing nothing. We demand justice by having status of workers and quota in health and housing schemes,” she said.

Irfan Mufti, deputy director of the South Asia Partnership–Pakistan, said though the Punjab government had made many claims for being pro-poor and pro-women, vowing to regulate the informal sector but nothing concrete was done.

“The labour policy of Punjab, finalised and approved in 2015, calls for the protection of HBWs,” he said, adding such workers being a major portion of the informal sector needed exclusive legislative cover.

Azra Shaad of the Women Workers Helpline said the Punjab Women Empowerment Package 2012 included the HBW policy but the Punjab government had failed to fulfill its commitment for protecting millions of HBWs.

Umme Laila Azhar also spoke.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2016