Nepal

India

Nepal

Pakistan

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Bhutan

India

Nepal

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Nepal

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Bangladesh

Bhutan

India

Maldives

Nepal

Pakistan

Sri Lanka

Nepal

India

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India

Nepal

Nepal

Nepal

Bangladesh

India

Nepal

Pakistan

Bhutan

India

Nepal

Nepal

Bangladesh

Bhutan

India

Maldives

Nepal

Pakistan

Sri Lanka

Nepal

Nepal

Nepal

Nepal

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Bangladesh

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Pakistan

Research and Insights

HNSA is implementing the European Union’s co-funded “Hidden Homeworkers” project across India, Nepal and Pakistan. Within this project, wage cards were developed and distributed by HNSA grassroots project partners to assist home-based workers in habitually recording the nature of their work, the number of orders they receive, piece rate wage, details of work provider/contractors, etc. This report captures the details of the wage card study, which was conducted across all four regions of South Asia.

It’s a Sunday morning during monsoons in Lalitpur, a settlement on the outskirts of Kathmandu City and Krishna Debi is preparing Chattamari, fondly called ‘Nepali Pizza’ for some customers who sought refuge in her cafe as it began raining.

The imposing hills of Taplejung, a district in Eastern Nepal, are carpeted with large cardamom plantations. One of Nepal’s leading large cardamom producing districts, Taplejung contributes the world’s largest output of the valuable spice.

The Eastern Himalayas straddle three South Asian nations, Nepal, India, and Bhutan, which also happen to be the main producers of large cardamom, a specialty spice that enjoys wide appeal across South Asia and the Middle East.

A Home-Based Worker Leader Dedicates Her Energies To Building Awareness On The Issue Of Violence Among Women Workers And Their Families. “Just a few months ago, one of the home-based workers in my community was touched inappropriately by a contractor. When she protested, he shoved her and abused her,” recounts Geeta Thimozina Dahal – a home-based worker leader in Panvati, Nepal. Dahal says that instances of violence are all too common in her community. But she hopes to change that.

A Home-Based Worker Leader From Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley Is Ensuring Voice To Victims Of Violence. Bhagbati Gautam has been a home-based worker for more than a decade, working and living in Bhaktapur – a historic district in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley. For the past two year, Gautam – who is affiliated with SAATHI, Nepal’s foremost organisation working on the issue of violence against women - has also taken up the role of counsellor in her community.

For the far-removed eye, the landscape of North-Eastern Nepal can represent a veritable paradise. It is made up of towering mountains and hills whose peaks are often haloed with swirls of mist and carpeted in lush green. But life here is anything but utopian. The rocky terrain has been home to indigenous tribes and communities for centuries. And generation after generation, these communities have toiled to transform the difficult, unpredictable landscape into one that is hospitable and life-supporting.

The COVID-19 outbreak has impacted global garment supply chains causing brands and retailers to close shops and cancel orders from sourcing factories. This has resulted in mass layoffs and has had a devastating effect on the livelihoods of homeworkers – who form the lowest tiers of supply chains.

The spread of COVID-19 across South Asia has resulted in the large-scale shutdown of business operations. While almost all industries have been adversely affected, the garment industry is one of the worst-hit. This has left export houses and domestic manufacturers without work orders and with no guarantee of future work. However, with the onset of the disease, the demand for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for frontline workers has seen an increase. And many garment manufacturers have looked to capitalise on this opportunity.

South Asia’s 50 million home-based workers, a majority of whom are women, are significant contributors. Their earnings ensure the welfare of their families, communities and national economies. Within this 50 million, homeworkers – a category of home-based workers who earn piece-rates – are an integral but unrecognised link in global and domestic garment supply chains. Homeworkers, across the region, have little legal protection and the codes of conduct, upheld by companies, do not cover them. They are excluded from social security programmes and are vulnerable to exploitation.

Like most Saturdays in Nepal, April 25, 2015, was also off to a quiet start. Mostly people stayed home, the streets were quiet, and a majority of shops remained shut. It was a regular Saturday till the clock struck 11.56. At that moment a powerful earthquake ripped through Nepal and changed lives forever.

Keywords:

Global supply chains are a key source of economic opportunity in today’s globalized economy. But the quality of and returns from those opportunities depends on how workers and enterprises are inserted into the supply chain. Within the manufacturing global supply chains, one of the ways in which the informal workers have inserted areas industrial out workers for formal suppliers or lead firms, many of whom work from their own homes, called homeworkers.

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Saathi conducted three day training on Public speaking(3rd-5th August 2016, at Kathmandu). As decided, SAATHI, hired, Ms. Kripa Basnyat (executive director at INGO named, HAMMRO CHAHANA) was hired for imparting training to the 28 HBW leaders(6 existing and 22 new leaders) on Public speaking. The methodologies that were used for the session were primarily group activity, lecture, power point presentation and brainstorming.

Keywords:

The 'key issues' studies of urban poor homebased workers in South Asian countries (Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan) and Southeast Asian countries (Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines) profiled below; were conducted as part of the Inclusive Cities project, with a focus on addressing urban poverty and the problems (Key Issues) of the urban Homebased workers in the developing world. Homebased workers - the focus of the HomeNets work with urban poor informal workers are among the most vulnerable of all informal workers

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Resources

The Kathmandu Declaration for the rights of South Asian home-based workers was adapted by representatives of South Asian Governments, UN agencies, NGOs and Trade Unions ;in a Conference organized by UNIFEM and WIEGO in October 2000 and supported by International Development Research Centre.