South Asian governments should guarantee social security to home-based and other informal sector workers, said president of Homenet South Asia Renanaben Jhabvala. “India has started to provide medical, maternity and unemployment benefits to informal sector workers,” she said, adding that other countries should follow it.

 

Trade union leader Ramesh Badal from General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (Gefont) supported. “The government should build counterpart fund in Social Security Fund Act focusing informal sector,” he said, presenting a paper on possible security measures taken for the benefit of informal sector workers in the interaction.

 

“We can add informal sector workers in social security network in near future,” said joint secretary of Ministry of Labour and Transport Management Purna Chandra Bhattarai. Currently, the ministry is formulating law to regularise the Social Security Fund for formal sector workers that established three years ago.

 

Director of the fund Mahesh Baral said that his team is developing the fund secretariat as manager of the different welfare fund. “Social Security Fund is exploring benefits to informal sector workers. But it is not possible to operate in a couple of year,” he said, adding that social security to informal sector workers could be possible in next three/four years.

 

Meanwhile, home-based workers today raised their demand of identity and social security organising a rally in Kathmandu on the occasion of South Asian Home-based Workers Day.

About 1,100 home-based workers from South Asian countries – Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – participated in the rally, said assistant programme manager of Homenet Nepal Shristy Dhakal. About 2.2 million Nepalis are informal sector workers and 80 per cent of them are women, according to Homenet Nepal.