Appropriate policies needed to support women workers’
ISLAMABAD-Women whether working temporarily or full-time face difficulties due to low, partial or irregular payment, harassment at workplace, lack of proper training and inadequate working space.
Women workers may either be skilled, semi-skilled and even unskilled, belong to dissimilar strata of the society, besides their home responsibilities also struggle to support their families.
A resident of Malpur Shaheen who stitches clothes and does hand embroidery due to the low income of her husband, inspite of hard work fails to get sufficient money. Majority of women who belong to poor families sell food items with their male earners at markets.
Shabana who runs a boutique at I/9 sector, while talking to TheNation, said “my husband is a taxi driver but after his accident he could not work for long hours and I can hardly manage the expenses.
“I collected some money on my own and started a boutique which is now helping me pay off my dues”.
High inflation, low family income, lack of financial source, death or illness of the male earning member of family, irregular job or unemployment of male family members which often makes them lazy and financially dependant on women are the root causes precipitating the entry of women into outside works.
“There is no data available that gives complete detail about women workers. We don’t have any law which supports them and ensures their fix or sufficient salaries, medical or resolves other such problems”. Said Advocate and Consultant on gender issues Syeda Hashmi while talking to TheNation.
She said that establishment of a body at national, provincial and district levels would work to monitor the working conditions, create awareness, develop programmes for the enhancement of the skills of women workers and resolve all issues faced by women workers is a need of the time.
The Government must formulate appropriate polices and programmes to support all kind of women workers and must ratify the ILO Convention on Home Workers (No.177) which is the only convention which focuses on the domestic issues of woman she added.
Source: The Nation
Date:9/21/2007
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