IN Pakistan, we have two categories of individuals working within households — domestic workers and home-based workers. There is a difference in the work each does. Domestic workers, commonly refer­red to as ‘maasi’ are employed for regular household chores like cooking, cleaning and laundry. They can work either part-time or full-time, usually on the basis of informal verbal contracts. They may also be engaged to care for children, the elderly or the sick.

The number of domestic workers ranges from around 4.5 million to 8.5m. The ILO reports 8.5m, while another source estimates 4.5m. However, these figures cannot be authenticated as it is difficult to collect statistics for individuals working in homes, as they are widely scattered. There is also a strong likelihood that these numbers overlap with those of home-based workers.

The latter category is more formal and closer to the jobs performed by their counterparts in industrial and commercial est­ablishments. They perform a wide variety of tasks, primarily in manufacturing, ie, garments, carpets, footwear, jewellery, etc, and services including virtual assistance, customer service data entry, writing, etc. The work is often categorised as traditional, manual labour, intensive work, or modern skill-based professional activity.

Official estimates place the number of home-based workers in Pakistan at around 4.4m to 4.8m, while unofficial sources suggest the total could be as high as 20m. Out of the 20m, 12m are women, which comes to 60pc. Their output may not be less than that of men but they are still paid less than them.

Karachi’s women have played a notable role in forming the HBWWF.

A report in this paper says that “Globally, women make up about two-thirds of the health workforce but earn, on average, 20pc less than men and remain underrepresented in leadership positions”.

Karachi’s women have played a remarkable role in forming the Home-Based Women Workers Federation in December 2009. The HBWWF has been advocating for the rights of women with more vigour and enthusiasm than its male-dominated counterparts. It was officially registered with a membership of about 1,000 but now has over 4,500 members in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab. There is also a broader union called the Federation of Sindh Home-Based Workers, which is a federation of various unions in Sindh.

HBWWF had persuaded the Sindh government to legislate the Sindh Home-Based Workers Act, 2018. This law relates to the protection of rights of persons who work in the informal or unorganised sector carrying out remunerative work within their homes or surroundings. The act stipulates that the wages of home-based workers will not be less than the minimum wages under the Sindh Minimum Wages Act, 2015. They are also eligible for “all those social, medical and maternity benefits, compensations and marriages and death grants” available under the labour laws.

Thereafter, the Punjab Domestic Workers Act, 2019, was enacted followed by the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Domestic Workers Act, 2022. They provide for issuance of appointment letters to domestic workers, regulation of daily working hours, grant of sick leaves and festival holidays, maternity leave for female workers and minimum wages as per the law. Termination of employment is subject to a month’s prior notice in writing either by the domestic worker or employer and a month’s wages is to be paid in lieu of notice.

A dispute resolution committee will be formed to resolve disagreements between employers and workers. No one under 15 years will be allowed to work in households in any capacity.

These provisions, derived from various labour laws, have never been fully co­­mplied with by ent­repreneurs of industrial and comme­­r­-

cial establishments. How can we expect millions of households in Pakistan, with limited inco­mes and no knowledge of laws, to ad­­h­ere to them? In fact, these provisions sho­­uld be included in the act for home-based workers, whose nature of work and discipline are closer to that of factory workers. Consequently, neither the Punjab nor the ICT law has been implemented, nor have the respective governments tried to enforce them.

Recently, Saudi Arabia issued guidelines for the conduct of domestic workers and their employers. As domestic workers there belong to different nationalities, it is important for the government to regulate their conduct through these guidelines. Unlike Pakistan, where most laws go unhe­eded, the Saudi government will ensure their compliance in letter and in spirit from the beginning.

The Punjab government and ICT are advised to abrogate their respective acts and issue realistic guidelines to be followed by employers and domestic workers. It will also be convenient for the labour department to check compliance.

The writer is a consultant in human resources at the Aga Khan University Hospital.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2025