Home-based workers demand social security benefits

Around 3,000 home-based workers today staged a protest at Jantar Mantar here demanding that they should be registered as 'workers' with the labour welfare department to enable them to receive social security benefits.
The protest and the public hearing organised by Janwadi Mahila Samiti of Delhi State Committee also demanded inclusion of home-based workers in the new pension scheme started by Delhi government for unorganised sector workers.
Around 300 home-based workers shared their experiences with a panel of experts which included ex-MP and senior AIDWA leader Brinda Karat, associate professor Satyaki Roy from the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development and Meena Radhakrishna and Abhay Kumar from the Institute for Human Development.

The workers also called for the formation of a home-based workers' welfare board under the central Unorganised Sector Workers' Social Security Act, 2008.
Sehba Farooqui, general secretary of the Delhi Janwadi Mahila Samiti, said that the organisation had written to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit regarding the demands.
"First, the government should sign the international convention on home-based workers. Second, Delhi government should register them as workers. Third, it is very important that these workers be provided an identity card so that they could access social services," Karat said.